Effectiveness of educational technology in early mathematics education: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Abstract Despite the general agreement regarding the importance of stimulating young children’s early mathematical skills, mathematical learning opportunities in preschool are limited. Educational technology (ET) may be an effective tool to address this problem. Taking into account the weaknesses of previous reviews, we conducted a systematic and comprehensive review of the research literature on the effectiveness of ET in early mathematics education, critically analyzing the findings of studies adhering to a media comparison approach (comparing an ET condition to a non-ET condition or another ET condition) versus studies following a value-added approach (comparing at least two ET conditions which only differ with respect to one feature in the ET or in its implementation). Reviewing 54 studies, we systematically analyzed (1) the effectiveness of ET, (2) the features of the ET and ET implementation associated with ET effectiveness, and (3) child characteristics associated with ET effectiveness. Our analyses indicated that media comparison studies comparing an ET to a non-ET condition provide evidence for the effectiveness of ET for enhancing young children’s mathematical competencies. Second, value-added studies pointed to ET implementation features associated with ET effectiveness, namely teacher support during ET use and an individual grouping structure. Finally, both media comparison and value-added studies revealed that ET effectiveness is associated with children’s performance in the ET and with their prior knowledge. To further advance the field, value-added studies on features of the ET and its implementation are required, as well as studies focusing on important child characteristics that are associated with ET effectiveness.