DiSco-Fee: Using Digital Scaffolding Tools for Mathematical Empowerment: Feedback-Driven Learning in a Technology-Enhanced Learning Environment to Support Educationally Disadvantaged Students

Investigators @RILL: Katharina M. Bach, Sarah Bichler, Sarah Hofer

Collaborators: Frank Reinhold (PH Freiburg)

Duration: July 2023 until August 2025

Funding: Jacobs Research Fellowship

Main Goals: We investigate the effects of different types of feedback in combination with other instructional scaffolds such as adaptive task difficulty and dynamic visualizations have on educationally disadvantaged students. More precisely, we explore how students from non-academic track school might benefit from receiving either motivational or process-oriented feedback while engaging with a technology-enhanced learning unit in math. In doing so, we aim to find out which characteristics and prerequisites might interact well with which kind of feedback. Furthermore, we hope to gain insights about the subjective learning experience by examining how the students perceive the feedback and to what extent this is beneficial to their performance. The study is a follow-up study of DiSco:ALICE (Hofer & Reinhold, in preparation).

Key Methods: Data for the mixed-methods study will be collected at non-academic track schools in different parts of Germany using a technology-enhanced learning unit about fractions that is implemented in the platform iSparkle. Students will work through the unit on tablets and will receive information about fractions and number lines. Depending on their condition, they receive different types of feedback during the exercise phases (process-oriented or motivational feedback, correctional feedback control condition). Their math performance will be assessed in a pre- and post-test. Moreover, we will collect data on a selection of students’ cognitive and non-cognitive variables. Using that data, we will apply individual-centered methods to discover which type of feedback is particularly helpful for which types of students. Qualitative data (e.g. from detector-driven-classroom-interviews) will be used to contextualize the results.

Practical Relevance: The research project intends to provide insights into the interaction of students’ characteristics and different types of feedback based on which an individualization of such instructional support in technology-enhanced learning environments can take place. The focus is on educationally disadvantaged students, who often struggle in school for various reasons, because we believe that these students could particularly benefit from instructional support. Thus, the results of the study aim to contribute towards more educational equity.

Publications and Talks

Bach, K. M., Bichler, S., Reinhold, F., & Hofer, S. I. (2023, September). Who benefits from what? Supporting educationally disadvantaged students with instructional scaffolds in math class. PAEPS 2023 (DGPs). Kiel, Germany.