I’ve been saying for a while now that the problem with much of the educational research produce is that it’s qualitative rather than quantitative. Not that investigating the so-called soft indicators is a bad thing as they do relate to achievement in its broadest sense, but being able to show by careful measurement and statistical analysis that an intervention has a positive effect on attainment  for pupils of all abilities is, for me anyway, the more valuable of the two types. It was the rationale behind my own independent research on GLOW and was always intended to be the focus for the shorter journal paper planned for later this year based on the attainment data gathered.

It was so pleasing therefore to see that this was also the focus of the Derek Robertson/David Miller research on the use of the Nintendo DS and maths software as well. Congratulations to Derek for his well-deserved award at HHL08 this week..

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This fantastic piece of quantitative research is the culmination of many months of hard work and hopefully will go some way towards silencing the naysayers and staffroom cynics who dismiss technology and games based learning in particular as gimmicks and fads. Derek has worked hard for a long time in helping teachers all over Scotland to realise the benefits of this type of classroom practice, and in doing so has done as much as anyone, if not more, to build bridges in schools enabling many folk to cross the digital divide that so often exists between teachers and their pupils.

A couple of things jumped out of this research for me when it was presented recently at SLF08 (and these are similarities with my own findings). Firstly, the effect size associated with Derek’s data is statistically significant. This means that the statistics show that the likelihood of the attainment gains being due to the intervention are very high, in fact  almost unimpeachable. Secondly, that the attainment gains are more significant in the lower and middle ability ‘academic’ groups of children. Of course, this is just what Dylan Wiliam and Paul Black found with AIfL and it’s no surprise really when you consider the formative and peer assessment elements of both games-based learning (as researched by Derek)and the way in which we have used GLOW at Cathkin High to raise attainment. This is particularly significant when one considers the very real challenge involved in engaging these two particular ability groups with education and maintaining their motivation to learn.

There is a large and increasingly convincing body of research building up now which demonstrates the benefits of innovative uses of technology in teaching and learning. This can only bode well as we move more and more towards this cross-curricular and transferable skills-type of learning, ACfE, so vital for economic success in the 21st century, the information age. This is in no small part due to innovative and visionary educators with a passion for improving the classroom experience of Scottish kids. Educators just like Derek Robertson.

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