Summary of TPACK-related journal 9

Title                            : Increasing Student Engagement in Math: The Use of Khan Academy in Chilean Classrooms

Author                        : Daniel Light and Elizabeth Pierson

Year                            : 2014

Publisher                    : Education Development Center: Center for Children and Technology

Source                        : www.eric.com

This paper discusses about the role of Khan academy in engaging the students’ involvement in the class. This research is conducted at five schools in Chile. Khan Academy is an online learning platform started by a former hedge fund manager, Salman Khan, with the stated mission of “changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone, anywhere”. The site offers over 5,000 online instructional videos in an array of subject areas, an extensive repository of math exercises, and real-time data and analysis features.

Data are taken from observation, inetrview and documentation. The researhers focus just on Math because most of the Khan Academy learning materials are for Math. After some sequences of research, the writers find that: (1) Students were more engaged in math. Some research has found that gamification can increase student engagement (See Plass et al., 2013). The elements of gamification on the site appeared to motivate many Chilean students to do more math exercises. Most of the students we spoke with described Khan Academy as fun and made references to the game-like elements. However, the points and badges appeared to motivate in different ways. Some students clearly wanted to earn as many points as possible, while other students just wanted to earn points to gain access to a new avatar. There were also students who saw the points as proof they were mastering each skill. (2) Students are mastering more math skills. As students did more math problems and were more engaged in learning math content, it is not surprising that their skill level would also increase. Teachers, students, and the SIP leadership all felt that the students who were using Khan Academy were learning more mathematic content. Most of the students we spoke with liked math class. Some student said that this was a change for them