This paper presents a meta-analysis that investigates the impact that the educational use of digital technologies has on less advantaged students’ achievement. We use a comprehensive definition for this group of students that includes all students in less developed countries as well as more disadvantaged students in more developed countries. 740 estimates from 72 studies employing experimental and quasi-experimental research designs are collected. Overall, educational technology initiatives are found to have a small, positive, statistically significant effect that remains even after correcting for publication bias. Additionally, our results indicate that computer-assisted learning and behavioural interventions are more effective in raising the achievement of less advantaged students than simple access to technology. Interestingly, the effect of these two interventions appears to be of a similar
magnitude. Finally, the use of digital technologies is associated with slightly greater achievements in math and science than humanities.
DI PIETRO Giorgio;
CASTAÑO MUÑOZ Jonatan;
2025-06-26
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
JRC139135
1873-782X (online),
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131524002112?via%3Dihub,
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131524002112,
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC139135,
10.1016/j.compedu.2024.105197 (online),
| Name | Country | City | Type |
|---|
This document is only visible at the Commission level.
You are not authorized to publish or distribute it outside the European Commission.
This is a public document. You can share this publication.
Datasets
| ID | Title | Public URL |
|---|
Dataset collections
| ID | Acronym | Title | Public URL |
|---|
Scripts / source codes
| Description | Public URL |
|---|
Additional supporting files
| File name | Description | File type |
|---|