Influence of Teaching Approaches on Students’ Performance in Mathematics: A meta-analysis of Quasi-Experimental Studies in Africa

Abstract

There has been poor performance in national and international mathematics assessments among African students compared to the rest of the planet. Such consistent underperformance is attributed to factors like teaching approaches. The present study reviewed and meta-analysed African research of the last 20 years on the influence of mathematics teaching approaches on students’ performance with the intent to identify effective approaches that can improve performance in mathematics. The results of a random-effects meta-analysis showed that mathematics teaching approaches have an overall large significant effect ( 1.39) on students’ performance. Specifically, the teaching approach that used concrete manipulatives showed a larger significant effect size ( 2.736) than any other type of teaching approach. Moreover, using meta regression analysis, the study revealed that assessing students’ mathematics performance using open-question tests had a large effect size than using multiple-choice tests. Hence, it is recommended that mathematics teachers in African educational institutions and teacher education institutions rethink mathematics teaching approaches along with the assessment format.