The use of iPad for supporting instructional practices in vocational education and training centers: searching for effects on students achievements

Despite the lack of studies that shows the effectiveness and sustainability of Educational Technologies, the emphasis on them has been encouraging a lot of Italian policymakers to adopt mobile devices (e.g. tablets) in instructional practices of education and training (Avvisati, Hennessy, Kozma, & Vicent-Lancrin, 2013; Pellerey, 2015). In the last years, in Italy, a lot of pilot projects on the use of technologies for supporting of instructional practices have been implemented in general school and Vocational Education and Training (VET) system. The present exploratory study aims to compare the learning outcomes of a group of VET students which used iPad in the classroom with a group of students of the same VET centers which did not use it. 400 VET students from five VET centers were involved. The researchers gathered data about the final exam of the third year students. Specifically, the grades of the common general subjects (i.e. italian, mathematics, and english) were collected. Gathered data were analysed with a quantitative approach. Results show that the correlation between the use of iPad and the students outcomes is different depending on the general subject taken into account. While there is no correlation with what concern italian and mathematics grades, the one with english subject seems to be better. The findings represent the exploratory phase of a wider research project. Thus, new data collection and analysis will be carried on in order to better understand which factors affect students’ achievements when they are involved in instructional practices supported by technologies.