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Running Head: TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED ACTIVE LEARNING

Learning Impact and Retention for Technology-Enabled Active Learning

Khaoi Mady
California State University of Long Beach

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Looking at Technology in Education
Technology plays an important role in education for todays
students. Technology is not a substitute for an inspiring teacher;
however, it can be used to enhance the teaching and learning
experience. There are many instances of instructional technology in
classrooms. Some examples include student computers, laptops, LCD
display projectors, and gooseneck microphones (Walker, Brooks, &
Baepler, 2011). With more and more schools and educators putting a
focus on initiatives to teach students using technology, it is important
to understand what impact these instructional tools have on teaching
and learning. In the present paper, technology-enabled active
learnings impact on learning information and retention will be
investigated from findings of nine literature reviews.
Introduction to TEAL
Technology-enabled active learning, often referred to as TEAL, is
a teaching format that merges lectures, simulations, and hands-on
desktop experiments to create a rich collaborative learning experience.
It was pioneered by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, in the
late 1990s to help increase success and completion rates for courses
in physics (http://web.mit.edu). The idea was to change the passive
nature of teaching physics to a more hands on active approach by
combining current instructional technology with collaborative student

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learning. Today, technology-enabled active learning is being adopted
by numerous schools worldwide and is being used to teach a wide
variety of subjects in many different disciplines. How effective is
technology-enabled active learning and what is the learning impact of
this method? It is hypothesized that technology-enabled active
learning increases the successful completion rates in educational
learning for students.
The Constructivist Technology Classroom
Technology-Enabled Active Learning is a pedagogical innovation
established in a technology-enhanced multimedia studio, emphasizing
constructivist-oriented teaching and learning. Many educators and
researchers have advocated social constructivist practices in
education. Social constructivist theory contends that knowledge is
socially situated and is constructed through reflection on ones own
thoughts and experiences, as well as others ideas (Shieh, 2012). The
use of technology has fundamentally changed the pedagogical
practices of the classroom. Students taught in technology-rich
environments where collaborative activity-based instructional
approaches were encouraged, outperformed those who studied with
the traditional teaching method (Breslow, 2010). The research found
that students satisfaction, confidence, and retention rates were
noticeably higher. Learning gains achieved by students taught with

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greater use of interactive-engagement methods were also twice as
high as those achieved by the traditionally taught students (Shieh,
2012). It was also noted that greater high-tech tools does not ensure
superior student learning, only that technology based interactive
learning offered noticeably higher marks as opposed to traditional
ways of instruction. Greater high-tech promotes more interactiveengagement of subject material. Several studies have specifically
examined the impact of TEAL on university students studying
introductory physics. Students exposed to TEAL achieved higher
learning gains and significantly higher retention of course concepts
(Dori, Hult, Breslow, & Belcher, 2007).
Successful Applications of TEAL
The technology-enabled active learning method has been used in
business courses to engage students in higher order thinking and
problem solving. TEAL offers a variety of techniques to enhance the
varied learning styles of students in business education. The use of
technology and active learning was proven to help students retain
business ethics models on a more familiar real life scale. The research
showed that video media, simulations, media resources and
demonstrations helped increased understanding and retention of
business ethics models for the students (Read & Weber, 2008). The
research found that the technology in the classroom combined with

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active learning was inherently interesting to the current generation of
students. The TEAL tools encouraged students to integrate ethical
considerations in business and allowed students to explore alternatives
and select the best practice absent real consequences (Read &
Weber, 2008).
TEAL was also incorporated to studies in electromagnetism
concepts courses. It was found that a highly collaborative, technologyrich, activity-based learning environment led to the better performance
of experimental students as opposed to the performance of students of
the traditional teaching methods. In some cases, the increase in
learning and retention was by a wide margin (Dori & Belcher, 2005).
The environment of this technology-enabled active learning
encouraged small teams of students and their use of computer-based
dynamic visualization and computer-based laboratory experiments as
the primary aids for providing insight into the complicated dynamics
exhibited by electromagnetic phenomena. For this application, the
TEAL project goal was to decrease the students failure rate in the
electromagnetism course while strengthening their conceptual and
analytical understanding. The objective was achieved. The failure
rates in the two experimental groups were less than 5% in the small
and large scale groups, compared with 13% in the traditional teaching
control group (Dori & Belcher, 2005). The learning impact was

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significant and the retention of information was also significantly
higher.
Conclusion of Literature Review
A variety of assessment techniques used by TEAL have shown
the effectiveness of interactive engagement across a range of student
backgrounds. The findings revealed that the benefits gained from
exposure to the innovative instructions using technology-enabled
active learning was impactful and significant. The teaching methods
used in the TEAL classrooms produced about twice the average
normalized learning gains for low, intermediate, and high-scoring
students when compared to traditional instruction.
It should be noted that the findings reported in the literature
review are based on the data collected in one TEAL environment at a
time. Some researchers have said student effect, such as their math
and physics preparation and ensuing attitudes and beliefs, rather than
instructional strategies, may greatly influence students learning
outcomes of the studied courses (Shieh, 2012). The TEAL teachers in
the researches appear to be exceptionally enthusiastic and dedicated
teachers. A more generalized conclusion can be made if studies
involve a wider range of students, teachers, and schools. Future
researches should consider designing additional experimental
conditions to include no technology-enabled active learning, and no

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technology learning. Nonetheless, the findings reported in the
literature review, provides useful insights to those who are interested
in adopting constructivist-oriented pedagogy established in a
technology-enabled learning environment.

References
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concrete results--case study on the impact of TEL on learning.
European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, (1)

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Athman, J., & Bates, T. (1998). Technology and environmental
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Breslow, L. (2010). Wrestling with pedagogical change: The TEAL
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Dori, Y. J., & Belcher, J. (2005). How does technology-enabled active
learning affect undergraduate students' understanding of
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Dori, Y. J., Hult, E., Breslow, L., & Belcher, J. W. (2007). How much have
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