Nobel laureate and economist Michael Kremer has said that policymakers could "seriously consider" the use of personalised adaptive learning (PAL) in schools, since evidence from Andhra Pradesh shows gains in learning outcomes. His remarks came following the release of an evaluation by the Development Innovation Lab, University of Chicago, of which he is the director, of the PAL model in Andhra Pradesh government schools. The study revealed that PAL doubled student learning, with the steepest gains among those at the bottom of the class. “If I were a policymaker in India, I would want to go forward with this (PAL),” Nobel Laureate Michael Kremer told The Indian Express on the use of personalised adaptive learning in schools. He underlined that the programme’s success would depend on teachers’ involvement as well as real-time checks on whether students are truly engaged. PAL software — in use on tablets in 1,224 Andhra Pradesh government schools — tailors learning material and assessments depending on the learning level of the student using it. It is meant to help students catch up to age-appropriate learning levels in cases where they may have fallen behind. The researchers found that use of the software doubled the rate of learning among students. “One general finding in education is (that) it's best to meet the student where they are," Kremer told the newspaper, adding: "I think the brilliant thing about personalised adaptive learning is it automatically adjusts to meet the student where the student is. So some students might need help with subtraction. Other students might be ready for division. If the student doesn't know subtraction, it's hard to do division. So then what the software will do (is).(it) will try to help them with subtraction," he said. “But if the student is already so advanced that, imagine in class, they're learning multiplication. But this one particular student is ready for division, then it's not bad if they get more… they get harder, more challenging problems… Our results suggest, in practice, this (PAL) helped students wherever they were because it went to meet them," Kremer said. While the Andhra programme was offered to students in Classes 6 to 9, Kremer said that it was worth considering PAL in younger grades. On whether it might make sense for the software to be used just as a tool to help students catch up, or in the wider sense of applying it across students and classes, Kremer said: “Our study in Andhra Pradesh found that the students at the bottom gained the most. But.in Rajasthan (another study conducted in schools there), they found pretty even benefits all the way through the distribution. Policymakers should look at the full spectrum of evidence when they make decisions. It's up to the individual policymaker." “.I don't know whether I would say, well, let's do another randomised controlled trial, or I just want to go forward full speed ahead. I would certainly monitor usage carefully." He said the success of PAL would hinge on teachers as much as technology. “One thing we found was that teacher involvement was very helpful,” he said, adding that the software could, in principle, be developed to alert teachers if a student appeared disengaged — for example, by repeatedly pressing the same button. “So, with technology, (we) can search for clues about whether the student is engaging properly, and then send messages to the teacher. And encourage the teacher to ask the student. So that's another example of an idea that I think would, in principle, be nice to check. But of course, developing the software, sending the message, that's a lot of work." The findings showed that more usage of the software resulted in more learning, and students in smaller schools (with smaller number of students) had better access to the devices. "In the small schools, every student could use a tablet. There were 30 tablets in every school. In the big schools, they had to take turns… And we see that more usage is associated with more learning. So, you know, when the state has an opportunity to provide additional equipment… that depends on budgets and other things, but when they're able to do that, I think that would promote learning," he said. Kremer said the Andhra schools’ findings added to a growing body of evidence on PAL in India, with three separate evaluations now showing positive results. “Every state policymaker has to consider their own situation, but I think because there are now three studies all finding positive effects, I would suggest they seriously consider it,” he said. “And if they do that, they should measure usage. If they see that usage is low, then they know they have a problem to fix.”
