Computer-Assisted Learning Program
RCTJournal Article
Standardized primary school curricula often move at a pace suited only for top-performing students, leaving weaker students unable to benefit from uniform teacher-led classroom instruction.
Picture this
Offering shared weekly computer sessions with educational math games that dynamically calibrate difficulty to each child's performance functions like an adaptive weight-lifting machine that automatically adjusts resistance to match the user's current physical strength.
What the evidence says
Computer-assisted math learning increased mathematics test scores by 0.35 to 0.39 standard deviations in year 1 and 0.47 standard deviations in year 2 across all student achievement tiers.
- Who was studied
- N = 5,732 Grade 4 students in Year 2 and N = 5,523 Grade 4 students in Year 3 in municipal primary schools in Vadodara, India.
- How
- Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) evaluating two hours per week of shared math software usage against standard instruction.
What to do
Install educational mathematics software that adapts difficulty based on student performance and schedule two hours of weekly student computer access.
From the source
"A computer-assisted learning program focusing on math increased math scores by 0.47 standard deviation."
Remedying Education: Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments in India