Bibliometric characteristics of the international literature on teaching methods: a cross-disciplinary taxonomy

Abstract

Introduction. Teaching methodology is a key element in student learning. Despite this importance, both taxonomies and recent literature reviews on this construct are scarce. Method. To solve this problem, a systematic review of the literature of the last two years has been carried out, with the following objectives: to describe recent literary production and to establish a taxonomy of teaching methods based on the main areas that appear in the bibliographic sources found. This systematic review was composed of 53 articles located in the Dialnet, Scopus, Eric and Web of Science databases. The key words used were: teaching method, teaching strategy, teaching style, teaching model, teaching practices, teaching technique and teaching approach. Results. The main findings have allowed determining, on the one hand, a growing trend in literary production and, on the other hand, a greater number of sources associated with Higher Education. Empirical and theoretical study typologies as well as articles from Asian and European countries of between 6 and 10 methods have also been determined to be the most prevalent. Literary production is mainly directed towards 5 different areas –STEAM, multi-subject, L2 teaching, Social Sciences and Civic and Moral Education, and Physical Education–, which have been used to establish the taxonomy composed of 37 methods associated depending on the number of bibliographic sources related to each area. Discussion. The increase in literary production, along with the large number of sources available in Higher Education, are explained in the literature by the entry of universitary education into the European Higher Education Area. Likewise, the established taxonomy allows clarifying a confusing construct for teachers and solves the limitation associated with the absence of a uniform nomenclature.