This has been a banner year for the iPad in U.S. education – with tots to teens and university students using Apple’s magical device to learn.
How effective iPads are as a teaching tool is open to debate.
A small study, carried out by Michelle Riconscente, an assistant professor of education at the University of Southern California, offers some promising results, even with the necessary caveat that it was funded by the Motion Math app with a grant from the Noyce Foundation.
Riconscente studied 122 fifth graders in two Southern California schools to see whether their skills improved using the app. She was specifically looking at skills with fractions, described as “essential for future success in mathematics.”
Their skills were measured on a paper test vs. playing the game with similar questions on the iPad app. Interestingly, there were 34 items on the paper test; the iPad version of the test had 26 of the items, due to the “inability of the computerized interface to render certain question types.”
Her findings?
Kids who used the app for 20 minutes for five days improved on a fractions test by an average of 15 percent compared to the control group. Using Motion Math also improved the kids attitudes about fractions by 10 percent – no small improvement if you remember how tedious they can be. The kids who used the app said they would gladly play it again or recommend it to their friends.
You can download the full report of the study in PDF here, or the summary published on GameDesk.
Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco freelance writer who heads up Cult of Mac Magazine, our weekly publication available on iTunes. You can find her on Twitter and Google+. If you’re doing something new, cool and Apple-related, email her.
4 responses to “Study Claims iPad App Boosts Student Math Skills”
something like this was posted before. Its not the ipad, its the fact that the students who have 500 bucks laying around for an ipad are probably richer than most in their school.
Now connecting rich students with high marks I believe, not ipads and high marks.
You didn’t read the article did you? This has nothing to do with rich students and their own iPads. They were obviously provided with iPads for the test and it was a scientifically done study.
She tested 122 students (fifth graders), some acted as a control group (I’d guess half), the rest got to use this app for 20 minutes for five days.
The conducted a test before the “experiment” and one after, compared to the control group the students who had used the iPads had improved their result with 15 percent…
lol good point. I really didnt
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