Project Overview
This study investigates how a classroom-integrated digital personalised learning (DPL) tool can most effectively support early-grade numeracy and literacy outcomes in Kenya.
Alongside design-based research and A/B/n testing, the research included a randomised controlled trial (RCT) between October 2022 and October 2023 in Murang’a County, the research involved 291 schools and 1,995 pre-primary learners. Learning outcomes were assessed across three timepoints using Save the Children’s International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) tool.
The findings indicate that EIDU’s classroom-integrated DPL tool had a statistically significant effect on overall learning (0.534 SD, p < 0.001). The results suggest that close alignment of the tool with curriculum content and classroom practice contributed to its effectiveness. Teachers were generally positive about its use, particularly its integration into regular classroom activities. This study contributes to the limited evidence base on classroom-integrated DPL in low- and middle-income contexts. It highlights the potential for curriculum-aligned DPL to enhance early learning experiences and demonstrates the feasibility of integrating digital approaches into national education systems at scale.
Key Findings
This study shows that DPL which is integrated into classrooms and aligned with a national curriculum can have a significant positive effect on pre-primary learning outcomes in Kenya.
Parallel research investigates different software designs and pedagogical approaches to determine what can be most effective for learners and teachers, as well as the extent of transferable impact of DPL into early-grade primary education.
Sample size of learners 1,995
Schools in study 291
Effect on learning 0.534 SD
Bridging the Gap
The Challenge
There is limited research on the effectiveness of using digital personalised learning (DPL) tools in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) classrooms to improve early grade literacy and numeracy.
Why It Matters
To date, the majority of research on DPL has focused on high-income contexts, and the majority of existing DPL studies focus on “supplementary” DPL (i.e., used outside of regular classroom instruction), which means there is a gap in understanding for how DPL operates within the realities of low- and lower-middle-income contexts. Along with other studies from EdTech Hub’s Research Portfolio, this study aims to address that gap.
How this Work is Aiming to Address It
This study is addressing the gap by rigorously evaluating pedagogical and software approaches for integrating DPL into pre-primary schools in Kenya. It focuses on the use of an EIDU-developed DPL tool on low-cost Android devices, aligning digital learning with classroom instruction and using adaptive assessment to generate continuous insights into learning.
Objective
To investigate how a classroom-integrated, DPL tool can most effectively support early-grade numeracy and literacy outcomes in Kenya.
The Research Question
How can a classroom-based, digital personalised learning tool most effectively support early-grade numeracy and literacy outcomes in Kenya?
Study Design and Methodology
This study involves four interlinked research strands. Each strand is led by core members of the research group and has been executed in collaboration with field experts.
Pedagogical strand
While digital personalised learning tools can offer many benefits, there is limited evidence from LMICs about their integration into classroom practice. Factors such as the alignment of DPL content with the curriculum and the role of the teacher are central to this process. This strand therefore involves working closely with teachers through design-based and collaborative mixed-methods research, to explore the pedagogical implications of using the EIDU DPL tool in Kenyan classrooms.
Equality strand
Integrating DPL into classroom practice may – as in the case of the EIDU model – involve a DPL tool being shared between learners during the school day. It is therefore important to consider how to encourage equitable device utilisation. This strand uses sandbox innovation approaches to develop strategies which optimise equal access to learning of the EIDU DPL tool in pre-primary classrooms.
Learning outcomes strand
There is limited evidence about the impact of classroom-integrated DPL tools on learning outcomes in LMICs. This strand involves assessing the impact of the EIDU DPL tool, on numeracy and literacy outcomes in pre-primary and lower primary classrooms, via two randomised controlled trials and multi-year benchmarking.
Adaptivity and data feedback strand
The software design of DPL tools offers a myriad of ways to adapt learning content to be relevant to learners’ needs and to provide continuous assessment data to teachers. This strand therefore explores the potential of optimising the software affordances of the EIDU tool and integrating digital assessment tools into the teaching and learning process to enhance learning outcomes.
Timeline of Activities
Early 2022
Launch event
Launch event for ASR and HLR studies
September 2022
Conference presentation
Presented at the British Association of International and Comparative Education (BAICE) conference — Edinburgh, UK
The Importance of the Results
This study shows the effectiveness of classroom-integrated DPL. This is important because scaling the learning outcomes of DPL requires that they are integrated into national curriculum-focused interventions.
While many other DPL applications are supplementary to national curricula and formal education, these findings show the feasibility and positive impact of classroom-integrated DPL for foundational learning – an approach with demonstrates high potential for scalability due to the alignment with national curriculum and pre-existing structures.
Implications for Policy and Practice
The implications of this study for policy are in the alignment of DPL with national curricula — education regulations can encourage compliance with this in approving the use of educational apps, but curricular bodies (such as KICD in Kenya) can also facilitate this through streamlining approval of curriculum-aligned applications, and making curricular resources more digitally accessible.
Evidence Briefs
EdTech Hub has been co designing and testing software interventions to explore how digital personalised learning tools can better support early grade learning and teaching in Kenya. Read our four evidence briefs which share findings from four ABn software tests carried out with EIDU, a provider of digital personalised learning technology in Kenya.
Study Team
Louis Major, Principal Investigator
Rebecca Daltry, Research Manager
Annette Zhao, Research Associate
Jessica Hinks, Research Associate
Chen Sun, Research Associate
Key Partners
We gratefully acknowledge that all images on this page are owned by and credited to EIDU.
