Traditional, Cooperative, Constructivist, and Computer-Assisted Mathematics Teaching: A Meta-Analytic Comparison Regarding Student Success

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to perform a meta-analysis to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of traditional, cooperative, constructivist, and computer-assisted teaching, and also to compare the effectiveness of these four approaches over the last twenty years. So, the present research adopted meta-analysis technique. In order to identify relevant empirical studies on the effect of cooperative, constructivist, and computer-assisted teaching on student success, a systematic literature view was carried out over three-month’s time, using several databases. Based on this extensive review, the studies (N = 34) evaluating the effect of cooperative, constructivist, and computer-assisted teaching on student success in mathematics were included in the research. In the research, the procedure effectiveness technique was adopted for the analyses of the data obtained from the empirical studies involved in the meta-analysis. The results of the research indicated that cooperative, constructivist, and computer-assisted mathematics teaching were more effective in the improvement of academic success of students, rather than the traditional one, indicating that all these three approaches of teaching were effective than the traditional one to improve the student success in mathematics course. Thus, it may be suggested that student-centered teaching should be used in mathematics, rather than the traditional one.