Abstract:
Since touchscreen tablet devices were introduced in 2010, educational maths applications (apps) have become an emerging trend for supporting children’s mathematical learning and development. To gain a critical overview of this research field to date, this seminar presents a systematic review and content analysis of maths apps for young children. First, the systematic review synthesised studies examining the impact of maths apps used at home or at school with children in the first three years of compulsory school to support mathematical achievement, and other outcomes, including cognitive development, enjoyment, and motivation. Overall, the 50 included studies predominately reported greater learning outcomes for children using the evaluated maths apps compared to a range of control conditions. However, it remained unclear what the active ingredients (i.e., mechanisms), or combination of ingredients, of successful maths apps were and how they linked to current theories of mathematical development and learning science. To address this gap, a content analysis of the mathematical content and app design features was conducted with the apps identified in the systematic review. This content analysis drew on existing frameworks on the educational value of apps and adopted a combined top-down (deductive) and bottom-up (inductive) approach. Furthermore, for studies identified in the systematic review that sufficiently reported data to calculate effect sizes on children’s leaning outcomes with maths apps that the research team were able to access, a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) was conducted. This analysis found that children’s learning outcomes with maths apps were maximised when the apps provided a scaffolded and personalised learning journey (programmatic levelling) and explained why their answer was right or wrong (explanatory feedback), as well as giving praise, such as “Great job!” (motivational feedback). Implications for future research based on the quality of existing studies, and gaps in the current literature, as well as and policy and practice decisions will also be discussed.
Speaker bio:
Dr Laura Outhwaite is Senior Research Fellow at IOE- UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. Based in the Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, her research expertise lies in psychology applied to education, particularly mathematical development, early years, and educational technology.
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