ABSTRACT

It is estimated that 250 million children worldwide do not possess the basic numer - acy and literacy skills required to live a healthy and productive life and contribute towards economic growth (UNESCO-GMR, 2013-2014). Many of these children live in low-income, developing countries that require urgent educational reform to address significant disparities in access, quality and equity. Children with learning

difficulties, children living in remote locations and girls are particularly vulnerable. Malawi and Uganda are countries that face some of the largest educational challenges globally. Overcrowded classes, limited resources and poorly trained and demoralised teachers, mean that primary education is at crisis point. As a con - sequence, children make little progress with learning basic skills, often repeat years or withdraw from education early before completing primary school, and become disillusioned with the education system. Even in developed countries, such as the United Kingdom (UK), many children

struggle to learn basic mathematical skills. In the latest Programme for Internal Student Assessment (PISA) of 15-year-olds’ maths ability, the UK ranked 26 out of 34 participating countries (OECD, 2012). Further statistics shows that in the UK, by the end of primary school, one in six children do not achieve the government age-expected target levels for numeracy (NIAO, 2013). A ‘stubborn-tail of under - achievement’ is evident among disproportionate groups of underachieving pupils in the UK (Tymms and Merrell, 2007), particularly those of low socio-economic status (SES) who have been shown to have significantly lower maths ability compared with their peers (Anders et al., 2012; Department for Education [DfE], 2010). It is of no surprise therefore that raising standards in maths education in the UK is a matter of national importance. To address underachievement in mathematics potential solutions need to engage

children from a young age. Early learning experiences are a significant predictor of attainment at the end of primary school (Sylva et al., 2010) and children who develop well throughout the early years exceed UK-expected levels in numeracy and literacy at the end of the first two years of primary education (DfE, 2010). Conversely, children who progress slowly and exhibit low attainment levels in the early years are six times more likely than children who progress at a typical rate to be in the lowest fifth of achievers at the end of the first two years of primary schooling (Department for Children, Schools and Families [DCSF], 2008). It is vital, therefore, that all children develop a strong early foundation in mathematics, particularly those vulnerable to underachievement. Mobile technologies, such as hand-held tablets, could provide an innovative

solution for the learning of basic skills, such as numeracy and literacy, in primary schools across the globe. Hand-held devices, such as Apple iPads, have three novel features that are intrinsic to their potential to offer positive benefits in early education: (i) light-weight mobility; (ii) elimination of dexterity-reliant additional devices (e.g. keyboard and mouse); and (iii) capacity to store multiple childfriendly educational apps (Kucirkova, 2014). Tablet technology with educational apps has the potential to make a positive impact on early primary education through its capacity to deliver child-centred, curriculum-based instruction of a consistent quality to all children, regardless of their ability, location, socioeconomic status and gender. Apps that include multiple representations of information, such as pictures, video and animation, varying levels of task difficulty, clear goals and rules, learner control, task feedback and repetition, serve to create an individualised learning environment that places the child in active control of

their learning (Falloon, 2013, 2014 Falloon and Khoo, 2014, 2015; Kucirkova et al., 2014). Educational apps can easily be adapted to different languages and contexts,

enabling children in different countries to access the same quality of education. This also allows cross-cultural comparisons to be conducted that assess the effectiveness of tablet interventions in supporting the learning of basic skills in primary school children living in different countries. If learning gains are similar in magnitude (effect size) across countries with radically different educational systems, such as Malawi and the UK, when using the same technology and instructional programme, this will provide evidence for the ubiquity of the effectiveness of the technology in supporting early years education. In this chapter, we report the first cross-cultural comparison of the use of tablet

technology with a series of interactive educational apps to support the learning of early mathematical skills in primary school children living in Malawi and the UK.