Digital personalised learning to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes: a randomised controlled trial in Kenyan pre-primary classrooms

Research on digital personalised learning (DPL) alongside classroom teaching is limited in low- and middle-income countries. This study investigates, for the first time, a DPL programme aligned with national curricula and teaching practices. A randomised trial evaluated the impact of ‘classroom-integrated’ DPL on pre-primary literacy and numeracy in Kenya, involving 1955 learners aged 4 to 6 across 291 government schools. Learners engaged with DPL via a smartphone. DPL personalised the sequence of digital learning units based on learners’ device usage and teachers’ progression through digitised structured pedagogy lesson plans, while teachers could use their judgement to align DPL with teaching. Numeracy and literacy were assessed over 13 months. The findings show an effect of 0.534 SD from baseline to endline, with similar numeracy (0.450 SD) and literacy (0.449 SD) impacts. The intervention was effective for boys and girls and across class sizes, and there was no clear differential impact for low- or high-achieving learners. However, a reduction in the extent of effectiveness after midline suggests potential exhaustion of appropriate DPL content, indicating a need to consider the suitability of content and the optimum duration for implementation. This research significantly enhances the critical understanding of DPL when integrated with a standardised curriculum and classroom practice.