Given the information age, an important educational objective is cultivating innovators who can propose unique ideas. Learner-centred education is a way to achieve this objective; however, what is the current effectiveness of learner-centred education? A meta-analysis was conducted to analyse 72 effect sizes from 42 quantitative studies to determine the effect of learner-centred education on students’ academic achievement across a 10-year period (2010–2020). The overall effect size was 0.5446 (95% CI [0.3754, 0.7138]), which was medium, positive, and significant (P < 0.001). Thus, learner-centred education can significantly improve students’ academic achievement. There were significant differences (all P < 0.05) in the influence of learner-centred education on academic achievement among six independent variables (subject, region, education phase, learning environment, teaching strategies, and autonomous learning form). Future research should focus on the positive impact of learner-centred education and choosing teaching strategies and learning forms to the discipline to promote it.

Non-academic achievement refers to the positive learning quality, personality, and social adaptability students develop during the learning process, which is essential for growth and social development. Can popular student-centered education assume the responsibility of cultivating learners with excellent learning qualities and extraordinary social competencies, as expected by educators globally? Using a meta-analysis, we reviewed and summarized 65 effect sizes from 31 quantitative research papers on the impact of student-centered education on students’ non-academic achievements, published from January 2010 to April 2021. The results showed that student-centered education had a positive impact on students’ non-academic achievements. The impact was greatest at the secondary and higher education levels and over a 3-month experimental period; however, no significant differences were found in curricula, teaching models, teaching strategies, or learning forms. Our results confirm that student-centered education should be widely adopted and accepted in the long term, at secondary and higher education levels.

In linguistics, Chinese oral communication is important for maintaining and enhancing the utilization and innovation of Chinese language in China. However, traditional Chinese language teaching focuses more on writing and reading than on oral skills. Based on China’s historical milestone, Chinese oral communication is taught according to its characteristics. This century-old historical progression of Chinese oral communication teachings can be divided into five stages: the foundational period dedicated to unifying both spoken and written language, the awakening period focusing on the emergence of the spoken language education, the exploratory period focusing on unidirectional pragmatics, the transitional period inclining towards multi-interactive pragmatics, and the transformational period expanding the context of pragmatics. Therefore, it proposes new requirements Chinese oral communication education should practice in order to cultivate positive communicators with “expressive power” in this new era.

In the context of distance learning, student engagement has increasingly become a key concern for school administrators and educators. This study examines the impact of leadership management on the high-quality development of rural schools in Lishui, Zhejiang Province, focusing on four aspects: the responsibilities and decision-making of school leaders, organizational design, talent development, and curriculum planning. A quantitative approach was adopted, involving a questionnaire survey of 130 teachers and 262 students from rural schools in Lishui. The findings reveal that, in terms of high-quality development, both the level of school leadership management and student engagement are relatively low, with gender differences observed in student participation. This suggests that the leadership and management practices influencing the high-quality development of rural schools in Lishui are closely related to student engagement. The study recommends that efforts be made to enhance school leadership skills through targeted activities, to further improve student participation and foster high-quality school development.