High Touch High Tech for Mathematics and Computational Thinking – Evidence from a National Study in Uruguay

• In Event: Enabling teachers to harness digital personalized learning to accelerate learning outcomes

Proposal

High Touch High Tech (HTHT) learning aims to enhance learner success by personalizing support based on the data generated by adaptive learning technology and adopting more learner-centered active teaching and learning methods. Teachers harness the adaptive educational technology (High-Tech) for students to practice their learning and gain knowledge and skills, teachers provide personalized follow up depending on the data analyzed through the adaptive learning system. Then, teachers facilitate engaging and active lessons where students apply, analyze, and actively synthesize this knowledge through problem-solving approaches for example. The approach redefines the role of teachers, enabling them to provide personalized support and facilitate higher-order skill-building activities for students. Adaptive technology assesses each learner’s learning progress, allowing teachers to tailor their support to meet individual needs.

From 2021 to 2024, three organizations partnered to enhance teaching practices in mathematics and computational thinking (CT) in Uruguay. The HTHT intervention provided teachers with in-person and online teacher training workshops. a set of instructional resources, including HTHT lesson plans, teacher guides for project-based learning and continuous support.

The 5th-grade Math program was implemented in 108 schools, involving 114 teachers and 2,002 students. Students used Matific, a game-based digital learning platform for math, as a high-tech learning tool to track and engage with learning content virtually, inside and outside the classroom. The 7th-grade CT program was implemented in 141 schools, involving 91 teachers and 3,927 students. In class, teachers used RoboGarden, a game-based, interactive platform developing programming and problem-solving skills. In both cases, teachers used data from the platforms to track student progress and tailor lessons to students’ needs.


To evaluate the intervention, the project used clustered randomized controlled trials to measure the impact of the HTHT intervention by comparing student performance between control groups and treatment groups.

The evaluation shows that for HTHT mathematics, the HTHT intervention integrating components of “High Touch” and “High Tech” improved student performance; digital personalized learning or teacher professional development alone does not independently lead to better student performance. A combined strategy utilizing digital personalized learning tools and active learning strategies demonstrated improvements in the teaching and learning process. In addition, HTHT increased the individualized use of EdTech-mediated learning by 47%. Students in HTHT Intervention groups had significantly greater completion rates for Matific episodes. Those with higher use of Matific improved student math achievement by 0.33 standard deviation (SD) units. HTHT significantly improved teacher perceptions of new pedagogical approaches combining EdTech and project-based learning.


For HTHT Computation Thinking, students in the intervention group had modest but significant improvement in their CT performance, with a standardized score increase of 0.10 SD (p<0.001). HTHT with higher completion of Robogarden episodes (the EdTech platform) improved student CT performance by 0.23 SD (p<0.001). There were consistent treatment effects regardless of school location, school type, and school SES quintiles. Interestingly, boys who participated in the HTHT intervention showed more significant improvement in CT performance (0.15 SD) than girls.

Authors

• Diego Migues, Ceibal

• Janice H Kim, University of Glasgow