Computer-assisted instruction implementation

The CAI versions used for each subject and topic (“mass and volume” in Physics-Chemistry, “climate” in Earth and Life Sciences, and “material structure” in Technology) came from recent versions of a tool (Tactileo©) developed by Maskott©. These more sophisticated and dynamic versions were the product of a collaborative project in which programmers integrated the material content provided by teachers while parametrizing the CAI in accordance with teachers’ and researchers’ recommendations. For this study, we adopted the idea that technologies created or adapted by research teams and including teachers are more efficient for learning than those either taken from the commercial market or that simply use the technology as a delivery system [66]. For each topic, secondary education teachers, school inspectors, programmers and designers collaboratively transcribed the knowledge content of specific topics taken from the official French national educational programme into the system. The selection of the knowledge content was decided on and supervised by state school inspectors representative of the three disciplines involved. The knowledge content was adapted to the CAI architecture by means of a variety of pedagogical training methods that are typically reported in the CAI literature [13, 14, 17], including problem solving exercises and tutoring modes embedded in narrative scenarios (see S1 and S2 Appendices in S1 File). The content was displayed through a variety of materials (texts, videos, audios). The teachers’ role was to introduce the topic and then to let their students learn on their own by interacting with the CAI and only intervene in the case of problems or questions from students. Students were instructed to avoid collaboration with other students in order to maximize the time spent at their computer. However, if students spontaneously interacted with their classmates, the teachers did not stop them from doing so as long as the exchange was brief. The teachers therefore encouraged their students to interact primarily with the computer. Each student assigned to the CAI condition was equipped with a digital tablet and interacted with the CAI in their usual classrooms in the presence of their usual subject teacher.