The Impact of an Interactive, Personalized Computer-Based Teacher Professional Development Program on Student Performance: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Yasemin Copur-Gencturk; Jingxian Li; Allan S. Cohen; Chandra Hawley Orrill (2024). Grantee Submission. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED647395
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examining1,727Students, grades6-7
Single Study Review
Review Details
Reviewed: November 2024
- Single Study Review (findings for Asynchronous online professional development for middle school mathematics – Copur-Gencturk et al. (2024))
- Randomized Controlled Trial
- Meets WWC standards with reservations because at least one supplemental finding is rated meets WWC standards without reservations but the study does not have main findings.
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Show Supplemental Findings | |||||||||
|
Researcher-developed measure of ratios and proportional relationships for 6th and 7th graders |
Asynchronous online professional development for middle school mathematics – Copur-Gencturk et al. (2024) vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
Full sample;
|
0.56 |
0.52 |
Yes |
|
||
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
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Other or unknown: 100% -
Rural, Suburban, Town, Urban
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Midwest, Northeast, South, West
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Race Other or unknown 100% -
Ethnicity Other or unknown 100% -
Eligible for Free and Reduced Price Lunch Other or unknown 100%
Study Details
Setting
The intervention occurred in middle schools across the United States (38 percent in the West, 30 percent in the South, 17 percent in the Midwest, and 15 percent in the Northeast).
Study sample
This study included teachers and students. There were 70 sixth- and seventh-grade mathematics teachers in the study (38 randomized to the intervention condition and 32 to the comparison condition). After 17 teachers dropped out of the study (9 intervention, 8 comparison), there were 53 teachers in the analytic sample. The teachers in the analytic sample were mostly female (89%) and white (76%) with master's degrees (79%). There were 1,944 students who took the pretest, and 220 were in the randomized sample but did not take the pretest, resulting in a total randomized sample size of 2,164 students (N =1,180 intervention, 984 comparison). The student analytic sample size was 1,727 (965 intervention, 762 comparison). Student sample characteristics were not reported.
Intervention Group
The intervention is an interactive, asynchronous computer-based online professional development (OPD) program for middle school mathematics teachers. The program is designed to improve teachers’ instruction quality of ratios and proportional relationships, which would then improve student understanding. Teachers interact with a virtual facilitator to enhance their content knowledge (i.e., understanding of the mathematics content they are teaching) and pedagogical content knowledge (i.e., knowledge of mathematical teaching and students’ mathematical thinking) of proportional reasoning. Real-time feedback is provided through the system to the teacher. The program consists of a content knowledge module that includes five submodules and a total of 35 activities, and a pedagogical content knowledge module with three submodules and 18 activities that correspond to three stages of teaching: planning, implementing, and assessing and reflecting on a lesson. The program took teachers an average of 11 hours to complete, which they did during the summer prior to the next school year.
Comparison Group
The comparison condition was business as usual. Comparison group teachers did not receive any professional support.
Support for implementation
The research team was available during the summer that teachers completed the program to resolve any technical issues they may have encountered.
An indicator of the effect of the intervention, the improvement index can be interpreted as the expected change in percentile rank for an average comparison group student if that student had received the intervention.
For more, please see the WWC Glossary entry for improvement index.
An outcome is the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are attained as a result of an activity. An outcome measures is an instrument, device, or method that provides data on the outcome.
A finding that is included in the effectiveness rating. Excluded findings may include subgroups and subscales.
The sample on which the analysis was conducted.
The group to which the intervention group is compared, which may include a different intervention, business as usual, or no services.
The timing of the post-intervention outcome measure.
The number of students included in the analysis.
The mean score of students in the intervention group.
The mean score of students in the comparison group.
The WWC considers a finding to be statistically significant if the likelihood that the finding is due to chance alone, rather than a real difference, is less than five percent.
The WWC reviews studies for WWC products, Department of Education grant competitions, and IES performance measures.
The name and version of the document used to guide the review of the study.
The version of the WWC design standards used to guide the review of the study.
The result of the WWC assessment of the study. The rating is based on the strength of evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention. Studies are given a rating of Meets WWC Design Standards without Reservations, Meets WWC Design Standards with Reservations, or >Does Not Meet WWC Design Standards.
A related publication that was reviewed alongside the main study of interest.
Study findings for this report.
Based on the direction, magnitude, statistical significance, and sample size of the findings within a domain, the WWC assigns effectiveness ratings as one of the following: Tier 1 (strong evidence), Tier 2 (moderate evidence), Tier 3 (promising evidence), uncertain effects, and negative effects. For more detail, please see the WWC Handbook.
The WWC may review studies for multiple purposes, including different reports and re-reviews using updated standards. Each WWC review of this study is listed in the dropdown. Details on any review may be accessed by making a selection from the drop down list.
Tier 1 Strong indicates strong evidence of effectiveness,
Tier 2 Moderate indicates moderate evidence of effectiveness, and
Tier 3 Promising indicates promising evidence of effectiveness,
as defined in the
non-regulatory guidance for ESSA
and the regulations for ED discretionary grants (EDGAR Part 77).