دانلود رایگان مقاله بهبود سوادآموزی و ریاضیات توسط همکاری فناوری اطلاعات و ارتباطات پیشرفته

Abstract

Literacy and mathematics are necessary skills that for different reasons unfortunately not everybody acquires sufficiently. In OECD countries there is also a gender gap; boys lag behind girls in literacy but often outperform girls in mathematics (OECD., 2012). ICT (Information and communication technologies) may contribute useful tools to address both these problems but in order to effectively create better educational conditions there is yet a need to develop effective methods that combine ICT with key factors for learning. This research contributes to this by measuring effects of the “Write to Learn” (WTL) method. WTL lets children from 1st grade use several ICT tools to write texts and subsequently discuss and refine them together with classmates and teachers using digital real-time formative feedback and assessment. The central learning factor addressed, in mathematics as well as in literacy, is the written communication allowing the learners to interact with peers and teachers. WTL draws on methods from socio-cultural theory, including continuous social interaction and written real-time formative feedback among peers, using shared electronic forums for collaboration, thereby providing social meaning and increased learning of literacy and mathematics, among both boys and girls. The study uses quantitative methods and two control groups, one using traditional method (no ICT) and one using technology individually (without integrated social interaction and formative feedback), to compare results from 502 students in grade 3 national tests in mathematics and literacy. WTL yields by far best results; higher average score both in literacy and mathematics, smaller gender gap, and significantly better results for the under-achievers. The ITU method performs worst, which shows that ICT use must be well integrated into the pedagogy to be useful.

8. Conclusion

This paper has reported a study of the effectiveness of an innovative pedagogical method including ICT in combination with social interaction, WTL (Write To Learn), as measured by student results on national standard tests in literacy and mathematics (n ¼ 502). There were two control groups, one using traditional method (no ICT) and one using ICT individually (no ICT-supported social interaction). The study finds that. WTL leads to higher student achievement in literacy as well and in mathematics than both other methods e the difference (combined) is 19 percentage points compared to the traditional method and 28 compared to the ITU method.WTL leads to better performance among low performers than both other methodse the results of the lowest performers are 80% better in WTL than in the worst performing method. WTL leads to a lower gender gap in performance than both other methods e in mathematics boys improved their performance up to the level of girls, in literacy the girls did only 3% better. Overall boys performed almost 30 percentage points better using WTL compared to both other methods. The contribution to research is to quantitatively compare a model that integrates ICT and theory-based pedagogy into the education of literacy and mathematics with two other commonly used methods concerning its effectiveness in producing better student results in the national standard tests in literacy and mathematics in school year 3. The study showed that use of ICT based on a socio-cultural perspective and including effective arenas for collaborative learning, feedback and formative assessments are key factors for learning. The contribution to practice is empirical evidence that the method is effective in both literacy and mathematics, and that ICT use without integration in social learning activities is not effective but may in fact prove detrimental.