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Version 1.1 – Updated August 2021

Student-centered teaching

Overview

  • Influence: Student-centered teaching
  • Domain: Student Learning Strategies
  • Sub-Domain: Student-focused interventions
  • Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Likely to have positive impact
  • Influence Definition: Refers to learning experiences intended to address the distinct learning needs, interests, aspirations, or cultural backgrounds of individual students and groups of students. It focuses on the needs of students, involves modifications and adaptations, and often is premised on the notion that learners construct their own understanding of the world, and thus must be active participants in learning.

Evidence

  • Number of meta-analyses: 5
  • Number of studies: 655
  • Number of students: 90,074
  • Number of effects: 794
  • Effect size: 0.35

Meta-Analyses

Meta-Analyses
Journal Title Author First Author's Country Article Name Year Published Variable Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Effect Size
Unpublished Thesis Preston USA Student-centered versus teacher-centered mathematics instruction: A meta-analysis 2007 Student centered vs. teacher centered approach 19 0 19 0.54
Poster: presented at the meeting of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Montreal, QC. Thomas, Sparkes, Alexander, Jackson, Silva, Walker, Mandel, Abrami & Bernard Canada Blurring boundaries between teacher and learner: The case for a constructivist approach to teaching with technology in post-secondary classrooms 2014 Student centered in ICT 40 4,952 55 0.16
Poster: presented at the 2013 meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA. Bernard, Borokhovski, Tamim & Abrami Canada Teacher-centered and Student-centered pedagogy: A meta-analysis of classroom practices and processes 2013 Learner vs teacher centered environments 290 39,377 348 0.37
Anatomical Sciences Education Wilson, Brown, Misch, Miller, Klein, Taylor, Goodwin, Boyle, Hoppe, & Lazarus USA Breaking with tradition: A scoping meta-analysis analyzing the effects of student-centered learning and computer-aided instruction on student performance in anatomy. 2019 Student centered & CAI in anatomy 7 2,570 7 0.24
Twenty-first century adaptive teaching and individualized learning operationalized as specific blends of student-centered instructional events: A systematic review and meta-analysis Bernard, Borokhovski, Schmid, Waddington, & Pickup Canada Campbell Collaboration 2019 Student centered vs. teacher centered approach 299 43,175 365 0.44
TOTAL/AVERAGE 655 90,074 794 0.35

Confidence

The Confidence is the average of these four measures, each divided into five approximately equal groups and assigned a value from 1 to 5 based on the following criteria:

  • Number of Meta-analyses
    • 1 = 1
    • 2 = 2–3
    • 3 = 4–6
    • 4 = 7–9
    • 5 = 10+
  • Number of Studies
    • 1 = 1–10
    • 2 = 11–50
    • 3 = 51–200
    • 4 = 201–400
    • 5 = 400+
  • Number of Students
    • 1 = 1–2,500
    • 2 = 2,501–10,000
    • 3 = 10,000–20,000
    • 4 = 20,000–100,000
    • 5 = 100,001+
  • Number of Effects
    • 1 = 1–100
    • 2 = 101–300
    • 3 = 301–600
    • 4 = 601–1,200
    • 5 = 1,200+
Confidences
Number of Meta-Analyses Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Overall Confidence
Confidence Factor 3 5 4 4 4
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