Eric.ed.gov – Increasing Student Engagement in Math: The Use of Khan Academy in Chilean Classrooms

Khan Academy, an online platform offering educational videos and exercises in different content areas, has awakened intense interest among foundations, multilateral organizations, policy makers, and educators about how this tool can help meet the educational challenges facing countries around the world. With support from Intel, Education Development Center (EDC) researchers sought to understand how this technology fits into the complex realities of schools in a developing country. In August of 2013, researchers traveled to Santiago, Chile to conduct research in five schools where teachers are using Khan Academy. We found that the way Khan Academy functions as a digital learning environment changes the ways and the degree to which students engage with and are engaged by the math content; it also changes the way teachers and students interact with each other. Even though the use of Khan Academy may plant the seeds of deeper pedagogical changes such as mastery learning or differentiated instruction, teachers did not need to change their entire teaching model to start using it. Khan Academy’s straightforward approach of providing an endless bank of practice exercises makes it an inviting and universally adaptable tool across different types of teachers, classrooms, and countries.