Educación
88
088. - 103. Roberto Mesén-Hidalgo
Universidad de Costa Rica - Sede de Occidente
Revista Pensamiento Actual - Vol 23 - No. 40 2023
ISSN Impreso: 1409-0112 ISSN Electrónico 2215-3586
Período Junio-Noviembre 2023
DOI 10.15517/PA.V23I40.55189
Empowering Underachieving Learners through ICT-Supported Praxis: A Self-Reective
Experience of Professional Development
Empoderando al alumnado con bajo rendimiento mediante la praxis apoyada en las TIC: Una experiencia
de autorreexión sobre el desarrollo profesional
Roberto Mesén-Hidalgo1
Universidad de Costa Rica, Limón, Costa Rica
roberto.mesen@ucr.ac.cr
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9318-7569
Fecha de recibido: 8-3-2022
Fecha de aceptación: 30-3-2023
Resumen
Este artículo informa sobre la sistematización de una experiencia que se centró en una intervención para ayudar a
tres estudiantes con bajo rendimiento en un curso de composición en ings en una universidad pública de Costa Rica.
Se implementaron ejercicios adicionales después de la retroalimentación mediante el uso de tecnologías de la infor-
mación y la comunicación (TIC) para brindar a los alumnos la oportunidad de utilizar la retroalimentación recibida
anteriormente. La experiencia consistió en documentar lo sucedido. El estudio también elabora una explicación de
los hallazgos logrados como resultado de la intervención. El objetivo fue interpretar la experiencia de manera crítica

modelo de sistematización. Los resultados sugieren que 1) el uso de la retroalimentación en actividades adicionales
contribuyó a la preparación y el progreso académico del estudiantado y 2) que la adquisición de nuevos conocimien-
tos en habilidades digitales juega un papel importante en el uso correcto e integración de tecnologías digitales como
herramientas TIC y aplicaciones (por ejemplo, Zoom y Kahoot!) para el proceso de desarrollo profesional docente
y mejora de la praxis pedagógica. En conclusión, la implementación de una herramienta de TIC y una aplicación de

logró la competencia digital en el uso de Zoom y Kahoot !. Este nuevo conocimiento obtenido durante la intervención

Palabras clave: Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC), tecnologías digitales, habilidades digitales,
herramientas tecnológicas y aplicaciones, praxis peda
1 Magíster en Lingüística Aplicada. Docente e Investigador en la Universidad de Costa Rica, Sede del Caribe, Limón, Costa
Rica.
89
Educación
Abstract
This article reports on the systematization of an experience that focused on an intervention to help three undera-
chieving learners in a course of English composition at a public university in Costa Rica. Extra exercises after delayed
feedback were implemented by using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to provide learners with
opportunities to use the feedback previously received. The experience consisted of documenting what happened. The


used qualitative analysis techniques and a systematization model. The results suggest that 1) delayed feedback use
in extra activities contributed to learners’ preparation and academic progress and 2) that the acquisition of new
knowledge in digital skills plays a vital role in the correct use and integration of digital technologies such as ICT tools
and applications (e.g., Zoom and Kahoot!) for the process of teacher’s professional development and pedagogical pra-
xis improvement. In conclusion, the implementation of an ICT tool and learning application allowed underachieving
learners to progress academically. Besides, the instructor achieved digital competence in using Zoom and Kahoot!.

Keywords: information and communication technologies (ICT), digital Technologies, digital skills, technological

I. Introduction
Underachieving language learners pose a challenge
that requires English instructors to help them
progress to learn a foreign language. Even though
underachievement may be a challenge, it is the
language instructors who, through their judgment
of the learners’ skills, identify students who do
not perform according to what is expected in a
subject or course (Akinkuolie & Sanni, 2016).
Underachieving learners require the learning needs
to be mediated by developing action plans that may
help them succeed academically. For helping these
learners, the language instructor should provide
opportunities that go beyond feedback. Actions
might be in response to help learners to improve

In line with this, the language instructor should

learners to develop well in academic scenarios and
trajectories of language (López & Foster, 2021).
These actions for learners’ improvement might
be direct interventions. However, the experiences
developed for the underachieving students should

(Akinkuolie & Sanni, 2016). In this regard, the
intervention developed should be a remedial
strategy that promotes an environment where
the learners feel safe and understand that their
mistakes are natural.
In this aim to provide learners with an intervention

should embody the opportunities created to help

is reached when the process is focused and
centered on praxis (Burke, 2020). In this sense,
the language instructors should be able to put into
practice their skills in planning and managing the
instruction process. These abilities are salient in
pedagogical praxis to provide a safe climate in the
class. In response to these instructors’ aptitudes,
the intervention may be developed based on the
instructors’ judgment and learners’ record of
progress and correspondence to the learners’ auto-
diagnosis of their needs.
In correspondence to the former and the latter, action
research (AR) elements should be implemented


element selected to found the intervention relies on
a communal activity (Samaras et al., 2012), in which
90 Revista Pensamiento Actual - Vol 23 - No. 40 2023 - Universidad de Costa Rica - Sede de Occidente
learners and instructors participate to share their
thoughts about the needs to not only express their
viewpoints but also obtain understanding based
on others’ perceptions and negotiate proposals of
intervention to overcome the learners’ needs.
In this view, an intervention was agreed to help three
underachieving learners in a group of eight students.
They were students at Universidad de Costa Rica
(UCR). The three underachieving students took the
course LM-1245, English Composition II, which is
a core course of the bachelor’s program in English
from the aforementioned university. LM-1245 is a
one-semester course prepared for learners who
have already taken LM-1235 English composition
I. The course is intended to help learners to develop
writing skills effectively to initiate the process of
essay writing. The course also aims participants
to apply principles of composition, for example,
the study of elements such as synonyms, related
words, and phrases. These elements of writing
represent the learners’ need for improvement and

the intervention.
Since the intervention has a purpose of promoting
improvements in the areas of professional praxis and
students learning, the results are directly discussed
from the view of systematizing the experience of
three students and their language instructor who
went through a dialogical methodology to answer
the following research questions (RQs): 1) how does
delayed feedback use in extra activities contribute to
learners’ preparation and academic progress? 2) To
what extent does the acquisition of new knowledge
in digital skills play a vital role in the correct use
and integration of different technological tools and
applications (Zoom and Kahoot!) for the teachers
professional development and pedagogical praxis
improvement? Besides, indirectly the results are
also discussed in how this new knowledge obtained
during the intervention embraces opportunities for

and practices.
The intervention presented as a remedial strategy
      
Research turns out to be essential for professional
development because this type of research achieves
practical knowledge in teaching and learning
improvement by involving analysis and change in
all sides of the participants (Klima, 2020). In this
concern, the language instructor and three learners
worked together to identify their needs and design
a proposal for improvement. They also agreed on
the means used to implement the remedial strategy.
      
underachieving learners has become a relevant
strategy in teaching and learning today. Akinkuolie
and Sanni (2016) have stressed the importance of
identifying underachieving learners and designing
remedial strategies for intervention. In the current
context, the instructor does not necessarily propose
these interventions, but they should be achieved
by implementing dialogical techniques that include
all participants. In this view, the AR elements
become salient for studies because the instructors
implement their actions for improvement, and

problems and constraints they faced in the process,
and their suggestions for improvement” (Cheng,
2010, p. 122). In line with this, the interventions

learning; the remedial strategy is implemented once
delayed feedback has been provided. Kim and Arbel

where insights are administered once a task has


that they are not evaluated to corroborate whether
they show or not intake of the feedback received.
The remedial strategies should not necessarily
respond to a lecture class or similar. They can be
devised by using Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs). Soler et al. (2017) have aimed
at the importance of using blended-learning models
that may work in building knowledge and identifying
the positive impact of computers, learning platforms,
and mobiles in the teaching-learning processes.
91
Educación
In this view, the remedial strategy resorted to
technological tools and applications (Zoom and
Kahoot!) to set the opportunities for learners to
overcome their needs.
II. Theoretical foundation
This section focuses on the theoretical background.
It develops the theories and concepts that offer a
foundation for the study. It provides insights for
the understanding of the development of remedial
strategies to approach underachieving learners
and help them improve and progress in the target
language. Besides, it also addresses the discussion
of concepts for referencing underachieving learners,
differentiated learners’ instruction, delayed
feedback, digital technologies, and ICT tools. This

research’s approach for the study.
2.1. Underachieving learners
Language instructors teach courses that include
different learners who show different skills and
learning capabilities in the learning context.
Some students may respond well to the course’s
objectives, but others may struggle to achieve those
goals. In this view, a less skillful learner in learning
a language may be considered an underachieving

abilities far behind those of the average student

does not allow the student to comprehend the
teachers educational contents and instructions.
Consequently, learners’ language and academic
success might be affected. Even though identifying
when underachieving occurs is hard (Akinkuolie
& Sanni, 2016), instructors should use their
training experience to assess and identify students
abilities. This instructors professional skill to
identify underachieving learners may contribute
to determining appropriate strategies for helping
learners progress and improve in language learning.
2.2. Differentiated Learners
Instruction
Now, with the aim to help underachieving learners,
the type of instruction implemented plays a vital
role. In learning environments, students respond
to instruction differently in correspondence to each
individual’s needs. In this context, underachieving

and accomplish the learning outcomes. One way to
improve it is to implement individualized attention
to those students who request extra help. For doing

the topic by implementing extra activities to ensure
learners achieve the learning outcomes. Shawer

thus occur unless teachers employ multifarious
learning modalities to adjust instruction to an array
of learning styles and needs” (p. 298). In this view,
providing learners with an extra class and learning
activities in response to their needs becomes essential
for the students academic and language progress.
2.3. Delayed Feedback
Another element to help underachieving learners
relies on how feedback is approached. Corrective
feedback addresses the comments given on the
correct students’ comprehension or second language
production (Li & Vuono, 2019). Corrective feedback
can be implemented by resorting to immediate
feedback or delayed feedback. For the purpose of
this study, delayed feedback set the basis to start
a proposal to help three underachieving learners
in a language course. In the context of teaching
and learning, delayed feedback was chosen over
immediate feedback because it is supported in a
study carried out by Metcalfe et al. (2009) in which
they found that delayed feedback is superior to

understanding that delayed feedback has superior

because there is an opportunity for learners’ mistakes
to vanish, and this may permit the internalization of
the correct answer or language pattern studied.
92 Revista Pensamiento Actual - Vol 23 - No. 40 2023 - Universidad de Costa Rica - Sede de Occidente
2.4. Digital Technologies
In the path to help underachieving learners, language
instructors may show skills to approach mediation,
especially to implement strategies that include delayed
feedback. At this point, language instructors should
identify the mediation strategys purpose carefully. For
example, there are periods in learning when students
have to work independently, which means that learners
require additional practice. For these additional
practices, language instructors should prepare extra
language activities that help learners to review,
ensure, and improve in some language topics after
they receive delayed feedback. In line with this, digital
technologies have become essential because their use
promotes autonomous learning, which also allows
language growth (Lee, 2016). Besides, the term digital
technologies has been addressed in different studies
(Gutiérrez & Serrano, 2016; Kali, et al., 2019; Moreno-
Murcia et al., 2015; Tondeur et al., 2018), in which the
authors have used different synonyms such as digital
literacy, literacy in ICT, and digital competencies. These
synonyms used to address digital technologies vary
depending on authors, organizations, or institutions
that analyze them. Nonetheless, the studies have shown

Digital competencies are linked to a series of skills,
knowledge, and capabilities (Muñoz-Osuna et al.,
2016; Padilla-Zea et al., 2015; Sandí-Delgado, 2020).
These digital knowledge and competencies are
required to choose the appropriate digital tools
for educational purposes that are implemented in
correspondence to responsibility and creativity.
These competencies and skills are relevant
because they allow instructors to identify suitable
technologies to help underachieving learners.
The concept of digital competencies used for the
purpose of this study is the one proposed by (Sandi
et al., 2018) who argued that digital competencies
refer to:
a set of knowledge related to the use and
mastery of digital technologies and other
related areas of knowledge, which through
different attitudes and values allows
people to know how to behave before an
event to promote personal and professional
improvement. In turn, it involves the ability
to acquire new knowledge and the skill to
know how to do and solve in the best way
the activities related to the educational
environment in which it operates. (p. 25)
The training of teachers in digital technologies is
considered an essential factor to be considered
to favor the use and application of different
technological tools in teaching, research, social
action, and at the management level. In line with
this, teachers should be technologically and
pedagogically competent to be able to use and
integrate the different ICT tools to improve their
pedagogical praxis (Prendes et al., 2018).
2.5. ICT Tools
After having discussed the importance of counting
on instructors who are technologically and
pedagogically competent, the process of choosing
tools to help underachieving learners may be easier.
In line with the instructors’ digital competencies,

changes in all areas of knowledge, namely, how to
balance, analyze, process, and store information.


training processes, mainly with innovative teaching
methodologies (Cruz-Alvarado et al., 2017). In
understanding this, language instructors may show
skills to choose the tools and methods to mediate
and help learners progress.
In higher education, innovative educational activities
have been mainly thought to be developed by using
different digital technologies (Cuberos de Quintero
& Vivas, 2017). For example, in English classes as
a Second Language (ESL), the ICTs have played an
important role as measurers in the teaching-learning
process, in which they have allowed a correct
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integration between technological and didactic
design. Besides, ICTs have been used as means to
favor feedback between teachers and students
and promote the acquisition and training of new
digital skills and own self-regulation competencies
(Cruz-Alvarado et al., 2019). In this view, instructors
should go beyond and explore these ICT tools’ scopes
to help learners improve in learning.
2.6. Zoom
When instructors aim at underachieving learners to
participate in differentiated instruction and extra
activities requested to improve their learning, time
and space become a limitation due to schedules and
other commitments. Zoom is an ICT tool that helps
instructors approach learners’ needs and reduce the
previous limitations mentioned for implementing
extra activities. Zoom is an online media application
that is helpful for video conferences because it is
available in different gadgets ranging from iPhones,
Android phones, PCs, and tablets (Cuaca et al.,
2017). Different features should be considered
when choosing an ICT tool for a webinar or an
online conference, especially when learning is the
purpose. Features such as sharing display, small
group rooms, video chat, emoji sharing, and text chat
become essential to favor learning environments.
Considering these features, Cuaca Dharma et al.
(2017) conducted a study to identify the advantages
and disadvantages between Zoom and Skype. Their

be used for e-learning” (p. 273). The latter validates
Zoom as a tool, so teachers can use it to help learners
improve.
2.7. Kahoot!
In respect to delayed feedback, choosing a useful
tool to help underachieving learners becomes
relevant. There are different and free applications
that can be used for the formative assessment of
learners’ knowledge that can help them improve
and progress. However, before choosing any of
the existing options, evaluating these applications’
feedback capability is essential. The application
must use game elements, such as scores, badges,
rankings, and rewards that lead students to engage
with learning and motivate their behavior to achieve
the class objectives. Kahoot! is an application with
the last traits mentioned available for quizzes,

(Orhan & Gürsoy, 2019). These are some of the values
that Kahoot! has when providing learners with
feedback that may be useful to motivate learners
and engage their learning. This purpose has been

which they found that Kahoot! improves learning by
boosting motivation, enjoyment, and concentration.
2.8. Remedial Strategy and Pedagogical
Value
The instructors’ digital competencies and
appropriate digital tools may converge in developing
a remedial strategy with pedagogical value to help
underachieving learners.
Instructors’ critical thinking and decision-making

solving, creativity, alongside the ability to access,
evaluate, and use information. All teachers need
critical thinking skills to make informed decisions
about student needs and use creative ways to address
classroom dynamics” (Shawer, 2017, p. 300). These
skills are necessary to tackle issues and achieve
remedial instruction that favors learners’ progress.

impact that students can have in learning and
language when they can participate and negotiate
in response to a need that requires remedial help
by contributing to construct the remedial strategy.
A remedial strategy may be constructed based
on the instructors skills and learners’ proposal
integration. In designing remedial strategies,
Akinkuolie and Sanni (2016) have addressed

supportive and have a sense of belonging” (p. 88).
Also, determining an appropriate pedagogical
94 Revista Pensamiento Actual - Vol 23 - No. 40 2023 - Universidad de Costa Rica - Sede de Occidente
value of the remedial strategy becomes salient.
Elaborating pedagogical environments that respond
to various learners’ backgrounds to contribute to

case, underachieving learners’ challenges should
be approached through instructors’ and learners’
negotiation in the best cases.
In this perception, the remedial strategy has
a pedagogical or educational value where the
  
and come up with actual opinions about the right
or wrong path to follow for improvement (Husu
& Tirri, 2007). A remedial strategy that comes
out of this negotiation also shows a pedagogical
value of motivation because it has been shown

expectancy (both current and future expectations
of success) and value (the extent to which they value
the task or activity as interesting/enjoyable, useful,
and important)” (Hu & McGeown, 2020, p. 2). The
former and the latter address the opportunity to
develop pedagogical values where students can be
engaged with learning due to their participation to
identify the issues and suggest the tasks that can be
used in the intervention.
2.9. Pedagogical Praxis and Self-
Reflection
Without underestimating the positive impact that
traditional learning and teaching theories may
have to construct remedial strategies, a focus on

Praxeological pedagogy can suit a remedial strategy
to help underachieving learners to improve. In
the aim to develop a remedial intervention with a
focus on participatory action, pedagogical praxis
presents better elements because it concentrates

(Procter, 2012, p. 982). It means that approaching
a remedial strategy through pedagogical praxis
becomes thinking more outside the rubric. That
is because once rubrics orient pedagogy, there is
a danger of interpreting … education as a form of
banking (Jacobs, 2008). The banking approach
was rejected by Freire (1970) who stated that it

the depositories, and the teacher is the depositor
(p. 72). In correspondence to the former and the
latter, a remedial strategy should focus on a learning
philosophy that allows participants to work in a
process where interactive learning is promoted.
Assessment is obtained through the participants’

increasingly evolved, permitting innovative and
interactive learning options that have required
pedagogical innovation to encourage learner
interactivity (Burke, 2020). This technological
evolution has helped instructors to revert the
transmission approaches.
2.10. Professional Improvement
Instructors should also count on adaptation as a
skill for their professional improvement and growth.
Learners may present different educational needs
that require an instructor to think beyond a single
teaching method or approach. Instructors are
required to respond to that variety of educational
needs. An adaptive mindset for professional
improvement on adaptive teaching becomes urgent
(Schipper et al., 2017). Through adaptive teaching,
instructors can only identify their learnersneeds,
negotiate with them how to approach the challenges,
and design remedial strategies that could help
learners and allow the instructor to improve
professionally.
III. Methodology
This section elaborates on the research approach

Besides, it also describes the research’s techniques
for the information collection and process of
analysis.
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Educación
3.1. Research Approach
The study followed a qualitative approach to gather

research as one in which the researcher collects
detailed data from participants and then turns this
data into themes or categories. These categories or
themes are settled into broad patterns, theories,
or generalizations. Then, they are compared with
existing literature or personal experiences on the
subject.
In addition, a method of systematization of
experiences is used and is referred to not only
data or information that is collected and ordered
but also to obtain learning critics of the experiences
(Jara, 2020). In this systematization of experiences,
different elements are connected. Consequently,
there is a drive to deducing it critically, obtaining


times proposed by Jara (2020), which is used in this
study.
Table 1
Jara’s Systematization Model
Times Steps to consider
A. The starting point: a1. Having participated in the experience.
a2. Keeping the experiences’ records.
B. The initial questions: 
b2. What experience (s) do we want to systematize? (Delimiting the object to be
systematized)
b3. What central aspects of these experiences are we interested in systematizing?
(Specifying a systematization axis)
b.4 What sources of information are we going to use?
b.5 What procedures are we going to follow?
C. Recovery of the process
experienced:
c1. Rebuilding history
c2. Ordering and classifying information

did what happen, in fact, happened?
d1. Analyzing and synthesizing.
d2. Making a critical interpretation of the process
E. The achievement points: e1. Formulating conclusions
e2. Communicating learnings

for the process of the studys systematization. The



establishes a chronological order of the experience,
organizes the information into categories, and
analyses critically. The analysis followed three
stages:


study in which three underachieving
learners of an English course participated
in identifying a need, the design of remedial
strategy of two extra activities, and a

for their learning success.

The second stage compared the initial

situation to identify changes in action by
implementing the remedial strategy. It is
essential to mention that this stage also
aimed at identifying what elements allowed
the changes and what elements did not.
96 Revista Pensamiento Actual - Vol 23 - No. 40 2023 - Universidad de Costa Rica - Sede de Occidente

The third stage interpreted the perceptions
of the participants and instructor involved
in the experience. These actors’ perceptions
were included in the analysis to identify
convergences and divergences related to the
same aspects.
The model proposed for the systematization relied
on an observational study in which critical analysis
was implemented to interpret the experience. It
is salient to consider that the remedial strategys
experience was limited to a Zoom differentiated
class and a Kahoot! quiz.
3.2. Participants
The study subjects were three students who
took the course LM-1245, English Composition II
at Universidad de Costa Rica. The students were

limitations in a content unit called creativity and
innovation. The unit aimed at learners to understand
the use of synonyms, related words, and phrases.
The three students took this course as part of their
career program in the English major. The course was
a requisite for learners to continue with another
advanced course. The participants were one female
and two males whose ages ranged between 18 and
19 years old. Even though the course is designed
for learners whose level is intermediate, the three
students showed a lower level. This learners’ lower

same classmates’ rhythm.
3.3. The Techniques for the
Information Collection and Process of
Analysis
The information was collected by implementing
techniques that were different depending on the
sources where they were used. In this view, the
collection of information required three times or

based on the instructors observation and his

In the second part, the learners perception was
obtained by interviewing them using three open-
ended questions. The answers were categorized

in the third part of the process, the technique
consisted of two sets of questions. A set of three
open-ended questions was used to obtain the
learners’ perception about their participation in
differentiated teaching, delayed fe