Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Background As educational digital technologies are increasingly being used in schools, past research left unanswered the question of these technologies' impact on the socioeconomic achievement gap even when equal access is guaranteed. Objectives The objectives of the present study are to examine whether and how the socioeconomic achievement gap can be reduced through the use of computer‐assisted instruction (CAI). Methods We addressed this issue experimentally by comparing CAI to conventional teacher‐led classroom instruction with more than 800 middle and high school students from disadvantaged and highly privileged socioeconomic backgrounds in a range of topics. Results and Conclusions Both disadvantaged and highly privileged students taught with CAI outperformed those taught with conventional instruction, thus maintaining the socioeconomic achievement gap constant. However, we also found that disadvantaged students receiving CAI performed as well as highly privileged students receiving conventional teacher‐led instruction. Takeaways The positive effects associated with CAI may therefore help compensate the difficulties of students with a disadvantaged background, a still neglected possibility.
DOI: 10.1111/jcal.12616
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Clermont Auvergne, Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive, Laboratoire d'Informatique, de Modélisation et d'Optimisation des Systèmes, Laboratoire Activité Connaissance Transmission Education, Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, Physique et Physiologie Intégratives de l'Arbre en Environnement Fluctuant
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3208154495