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Understanding educational maths apps for young children

27 February 2020, 12:30 pm–2:00 pm

Girl using educational apps in early years and primary school

An emerging trend aiming to benefit young children’s mathematical learning experiences is the use of educational maths applications (apps) delivered on touch-screen tablet devices (e.g. iPads) in school and at home.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Organiser

Katherine Rychliski

Location

Room C3.13
UCL Institute of Education
20 Bedford Way
London
WC1H 0AL

Statistics show over 70% of children have access to tablet devices with parents of pre-school aged children more likely to download educational apps and 41% of teachers report using maths apps as supplementary teaching tools in early primary school years.

Alongside this growing popularity and prevalence of maths apps, there is also increasing concern surrounding children’s screen time and its impact on their learning and development. There are also few systematic and evidence-based recommendations specific to maths apps, which makes deciding if and which apps provide a quality learning experience a significant challenge to teachers, parents and policy makers.

In addressing some of these challenges, this talk will present some of the recent evidence examining the impacts of different maths apps with young children in different educational contexts, some of the potential mechanisms driving observed benefits (e.g. parental self-efficacy), and directions for future research in this area.

Links

About the Speaker

Dr Laura Outhwaite

Research Associate at UCL Institute of Education

Laura is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO). She also contributes to the UKRI GCRF Action Against Stunting Hub and UCL EDUCATE.

More about Dr Laura Outhwaite