ABSTRACT

While education technology has been widely used in classrooms, and considerable investments have been made to support its use in the UK, the evidence base for many such rapidly changing technologies is weak, and their efficacy is unclear. The aim of this paper is to systematically review and synthesise empirical research on the use of technology in formative assessment, to identify approaches that are effective in improving pupils’ learning outcomes. The review involved a search of 11 major databases, and included 55 eligible studies. The results suggest promising evidence that digitally delivered formative assessment could facilitate the learning of maths and reading for young children, but there is no good evidence that it is effective for other subjects, or for older children, or that it is any more effective than formative assessment without technology. The review found no good evidence that learner response systems work in enhancing children’s academic attainment, and there is no evidence supporting the effectiveness of such technologies that embed gaming features. Much research in this area is of poor quality. More rigorous studies using causal designs are thus urgently needed. Meantime, there should be no rush to use technology on the basis of improving attainment.

摘要

尽管教育技术已广泛应用于课堂，并且已进行大量投资以支持其在英国的使用，但许多此类快速变化的技术的证据基础薄弱，其功效尚不清楚。本文的目的是系统地回顾和综合关于在形成性评估中使用技术的实证研究，以确定有效提高学生学习成果的方法。审查涉及对 11 个主要数据库的搜索，包括 55 项符合条件的研究。结果表明，数字化形成性评估可以促进幼儿学习数学和阅读的有希望的证据，但没有充分的证据表明它对其他科目或年龄较大的儿童有效，或者说它比没有技术的形成性评估更有效。审查发现没有很好的证据表明学习者反应系统可以提高儿童的学业成绩，也没有证据支持这种嵌入游戏功能的技术的有效性。这方面的许多研究质量都很差。因此，迫切需要使用因果设计进行更严格的研究。同时，在提高素养的基础上，不要急于使用技术。