Research on ICT in K-12 schools – a review of experimental and survey-based studies in Computers & Education 2011 to 2015

Finally, and after 7 months of hard work our review about research on ICT in K-12 schools have been published. It is I have conducted with my mentor Miguel Nussbaum, my colleagues Isabel Hilliger and Carlos Alario-Hoyos and a group of incredible senior researchers Rachel Heller, Peter Twinning and C.-C. Tsai.

We conducted a systematic review of 511 papers published in the Computers and Education Journal. The paper publishes some data about the main tendencies of the field of Technology Enhanced Learning and the lessons learned to address the future of the field. Here you have the main lessons learned:

1. There is a preponderance of quantitative research within Computers & Education.
2. More research is needed from different regions for a better understanding of the global use of technology at school level.
3. More research is needed in the areas of humanities, natural sciences and formal sciences, especially in mathematics.
4. There are very few pre-school studies regarding educational technology in order to explore ICT’s effects in early childhood.
5. Studies that ignore what teachers do (how ICT is embedded in practice) are unlikely to be of much value.
6. A small proportion of studies involve study participants in their design (and/or the design of solutions)
7. Where researchers are working within an objectivist approach they should increase the sample sizes and the period over which data are collected.
8. Local or public institutions provide most of the funding for the research published in the papers selected in this review.

Pérez-Sanagustín, M., Nussbaum, M., Hilliger, I., Alario-Hoyos, C., Heller, R. S., Twining, P., Tsai, C.-C., Research on ICT in K-12 schools – a review of experimental and survey-based studies in Computers & Education 2011 to 2015, Computers & Education, 2016, 10.1016/j.compedu.2016.09.006.