Active methodologies and their effect on basic education students: a systematic review of the evidence (2019–2026), with an emphasis on Ecuador
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55204/trc.v6i2.e768Keywords:
active methodologies, basic education, academic achievement, motivation, project-based learningAbstract
Active methodologies place students at the center of learning and have been proposed as a response to the learning crisis affecting Basic Education. Objective: to analyze the effect of project-based learning (PBL), the flipped classroom, gamification, and cooperative learning on the academic achievement, motivation, and skills of Basic Education students, with emphasis on Ecuador. Method: a mixed-methods systematic review guided by PRISMA 2020 covering 2019-2026; the final corpus comprised 17 sources, including meta-analyses, primary studies, and large-scale assessments. Results: all methodologies showed positive effects compared with traditional teaching: PBL on achievement (SMD = 0.65; 0.53 in primary school), cooperative learning in mathematics (g = 0.71; 0.79 in primary), gamification on cognitive outcomes (g = 0.49), and the flipped classroom (g ≈ 0.50). Effects were larger in 9-18-week interventions and groups of 4-5 students. Ecuadorian evidence is scarce and mixed. Conclusions: active methodologies consistently improve learning when implemented with structured design, teacher training, and systematic assessment.Downloads
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