Effect of Immediate Feedback on Math Achievement at the High School Level

We examine the use of computer-based learning in the classroom and the effect of immediate feedback on student performance. Since it is well known in educational research that it is possible to observe a “Matthew Effect” in which the rich get richer, we wanted to see if feedback was useful for low prior knowledge students, as defined by students whose pretest score was at or below the median. In this counterbalanced randomized controlled trial, 243 tenth and eleventh grade mathematics students were exposed to one of two conditions, as we measured their learning from: 1) immediate feedback (where the computer told them correctness and they could also ask for hints) or 2) practice only (where they received feedback only after taking a posttest). Results suggest that immediate feedback from computer-based learning tasks benefit both high and low prior knowledge students, with low prior knowledge students exhibiting greater gains. The implications of these findings support further investigation into the use of computer-based learning tasks that provide immediate feedback.