Influence of Tablet-Based Learning Activities on Pupils' Engagement and Participation in Primary Schools: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Governments in sub-Saharan Africa are placing tablets in primary schools at growing scale, yet the question of what particular tablet activities do for pupils' engagement and participation has received less attention than questions about test scores. Tanzania offers a clear case: large public investment in devices has run ahead of evidence on how pupils respond to them in class. The review examined three relationships: (a) the effect of multimedia content (pictures, video and audio) on pupils' understanding of concepts; (b) the effect of educational games, counting activities and songs on pupils' interest and classroom participation; and (c) the effect of enlarged materials and audio resources on the participation of pupils with seeing and hearing difficulties. The review followed PRISMA 2020. Searches of web-indexed scholarly and grey literature, supplemented by citation tracking, identified 239 records. After screening against pre-set criteria, 19 studies were included: 14 primary studies and five systematic reviews or meta-analyses. Study quality was appraised with the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool, and findings were combined through a structured narrative synthesis. Evidence for the first objective was the strongest. Randomised trials in Malawi and England, and a two-year trial in Malawi, reported learning gains from interactive, multimedia-rich apps, and pooled estimates from reviews were small to moderate. Evidence for the second objective was consistent in direction but relied more on observation and teacher report; game-like activities raised interest and attendance, and equalised participation between girls and boys. Evidence for the third objective was thin and indirect; no included study tested enlarged text or audio features alone for pupils with visual or hearing impairment. Tablet activities are most likely to raise engagement when content is interactive, in a familiar language, and built into structured routines. Claims about inclusive participation run ahead of the evidence, and Tanzanian research designed to test that relationship is needed.