The Effectiveness of the PBL Teaching Model on the Achievement and Critical Thinking Skills Development of Chinese Undergraduate Students: A Systematic Review

Problem-based learning teaching models is a student-centered teaching model. This paper searched China’s largest database, China Knowledge Network, using the Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines method to search and screen prospective studies on the teaching effectiveness of the PBL teaching model published from 2013 to 2023, and based on the pre-set inclusion/exclusion criteria, a total of 30 papers were selected. The results show that the PBL teaching model effectively improves Chinese undergraduate students’ achievement and critical thinking, and therefore, PBL can be implemented in Chinese undergraduate education. However, the use of the PBL teaching model is narrow due to its late start in China, and a more rigorous methodology and mixed-methods design of the studies are needed to improve the transferability of the results.