The Effects of Student Response Systems on Student Achievement and Engagement

The effects of the use of technology in the classroom have been debated amongst both researchers and educators. Is there a way to use technology as a tool to improve student engagement and retention of mathematics content? This paper reports on a mixed methods research project that attempted to answer these questions by investigating the use of student response systems in Algebra 1 classrooms. The response systems allowed students in a treatment group to receive immediate feedback when they were learning to apply the Pythagorean Theorem. The analysis includes both qualitative data from field notes and interviews and quantitative analysis of multiple measures from three assessments. The analysis showed that the use of student response systems had a positive impact on student engagement. An analysis of variance indicated some differences in short-term academic success and long-term retention in relation to students’ understandings of the content, but the differences were not significant.