A Review of Intervention Studies On Technology-assisted Instruction From 2005-2010

By reviewing papers published in five important SSCI journals from 2005 to 2010, this study aimed to provide insights into intervention studies on technology-assisted instruction. It was found that still relatively little research on educational technology which addresses the effects of specific instructional interventions on student learning was conducted during this period. Moreover, most reviewed studies were conducted in higher education, rather than in high school, elementary school, or adult education contexts. The two subject domains, science and engineering (including computer studies), were most frequently involved in these studies, the majority of which addressed achievement as research (learning outcome) foci, while relatively fewer studies investigated students’ learning process or affective outcomes. Regarding technology adoption, this study revealed that, in both the 2005-2007 and 2008-2010 periods, technologies for specific instructional purposes(e.g., a specially designed system for online collaborative writing) were more frequently adopted than those for general purposes (such as PowerPoint). This study also reveals that technology-mediated interpersonal interactions are commonly utilized in these intervention studies, with the focus mainly on student-student interactions.