Feasibility of adaptive teaching with technology: Which implementation conditions matter?

Abstract

Adaptive teaching is regarded to address students' heterogeneity in schools and to individually support their learning. Technology may help to teach adaptively. However, it is still unclear whether realizing adaptive teaching with technology is a feasible teaching practice in real-world classrooms. More importantly, it is an open question which boundary conditions constrain the feasibility of adaptive teaching with technology. We realized a four-year co-design-project in which researchers and teachers co-constructively developed adaptive teaching units (duration: 3–4 weeks) by deliberately integrating technology across secondary education. To assess the feasibility of technology-enhanced adaptive teaching, we followed a sequential-explanatory mixed-methods approach during the co-design-process. We combined a quantitative study (N = 183), investigating students' learning gains and potential moderators, and a qualitative study by means of semi-structured teacher interviews (N = 3) on implementation conditions of the adaptive teaching units. We observed that the teaching units were particularly beneficial for students with low prior knowledge and when they were highly adaptive to students’ needs. Fine-grained qualitative findings indicated that formative assessments and consolidation phases were crucial for the feasibility of technology-enhanced adaptive teaching, as well as a parsimonious use of technologies. These findings indicate that the feasibility of adaptive teaching with technology depends on boundary conditions, highlighting the need for further support to unfold the potential of adaptive teaching.