A meta-analysis to gauge the impact of pedagogies employed in mixed-ability high school biology classrooms

Abstract

This article systematically reviews the pedagogies employed in mixed-ability high school biology classrooms to spotlight the most effective educational model, in terms of learning gains. A meta-analysis was performed on 32 eligible studies sorted via the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology. The effect sizes (impacts) were calculated in terms of students’ affective, behavioral, and cognitive gains. The results confirmed that the overall effectiveness of non-traditional models was highly significant when compared to traditional lecture models (p < 0.001). Furthermore, this impact is even more profound when problem-based, inquiry-based, and argumentation-based approaches are adopted, contributing to students’ cognitive, affective, and behavioral gains. Further findings also propound the necessity for future studies evaluating affective gains during project-based, problem-based, and argumentation-based models and behavioral gains during blended models. This study would benefit researchers, policymakers, and academicians to innovate and implement novel pedagogical strategies, considering the students’ learning gains in mixed-ability biology classrooms.