Bridging the research-to-practice gap in education: A software-mediated approach for improving classroom instruction

This study reports findings from a matched-comparison, repeated-measure for intact groups design of the mediating effect of a suite of software on the quality of classroom instruction provided to students by teachers. The quality of instruction provided by teachers in the treatment and control groups was documented via observations that were conducted by an independent research team at pre, mid and postintervals of a 225-day study period. Analysis of the data that was generated revealed no statistically significant differences at pretest between the quality of instruction provided by teachers in the treatment and control groups. Over three occasions, no statistically significant differences were found for the control group. Statistically significant differences were found for the overall treatment group at mid and postintervals. Moreover, overall differences between the control and treatment groups were statistically significant at mid and posttreatment including a posttreatment effect size of 1.54. Analysis indicates the treatment had a mediating effect on the quality of classroom instruction and the effect scaled to single and multiple school levels. These results suggest that the field of education's long-standing challenges with improving instructional quality could be resolved by information and communications technology effectively mediating research and practice.