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August 20, 2008, 11:45 AM ET
Why Computer-Aided Teaching Works Best in Large Classes
Large classrooms with frequent absences: Those are the environments where students seem most likely to benefit from computer-assisted instruction, according to a working paper released last week by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The paper reports on an experiment in three urban school districts in the United States. In the study, 152 pre-algebra and algebra classes were randomly assigned to use either traditional “chalk-and-talk” instruction or a commonly used computer package known as I Can Learn.
The students in the computer-aided classes had significantly better (0.17 of a standard deviation) scores on end-of-semester tests than did the students in traditional classes. Those positive effects were strongest in classes with high levels of absenteeism, in classes where students had relatively heterogeneous levels of math skills, and in large classes. (Among classes with 15 or fewer students, computer-assisted and traditional instruction proved equally effective.)
Insofar as computer-assisted instruction is valuable, the scholars suggest, it is because it allows more individually tailored instruction in large, diverse classrooms where teachers find it hard to target each student with the appropriate level of work.
The authors caution against drawing too many conclusions from this single experiment, but they also propose that computer-assisted instruction might be more feasible for many districts than trimming their classes to 15 or fewer students. “In urban and rural districts that have difficulty hiring highly qualified mathematics teachers,” they write, computer-assisted instruction “may be much easier to implement than a reduction in class size.”
The paper – whose authors are Lisa Barrow, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Lisa B. Markman, associate director of Princeton University’s Education Research Section; and Cecilia E. Rouse, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton – is available for $5 from the bureau. An earlier version is available at no charge from the Social Science Research Network. —David Glenn
Categories: Teaching
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