Digital Guidance for Susceptible Readers: Effects on Fifth Graders’ Reading Motivation and Incidental Vocabulary Learning

In this digital era, a fundamental challenge is to design digital reading materials in such a way that they improve children’s reading skills. Since reading books is challenging for many fifth graders—particularly for those genetically susceptible to attention problems—the researchers hypothesized t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of educational computing research 2018-03, Vol.56 (1), p.48-73
Main Authors: Nielen, Thijs M. J., Smith, Glenn G., Sikkema-de Jong, Maria T., Drobisz, Jack, van Horne, Bill, Bus, Adriana G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Electronic Publishing
Elementary School Students
Foreign Countries
Genetics
Grade 5
Incidental Learning
Instructional Effectiveness
Intelligent Tutoring Systems
Intervention
Pretests Posttests
Randomized Controlled Trials
Reading Instruction
Reading Materials
Reading Motivation
Vocabulary
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Summary:In this digital era, a fundamental challenge is to design digital reading materials in such a way that they improve children’s reading skills. Since reading books is challenging for many fifth graders—particularly for those genetically susceptible to attention problems—the researchers hypothesized that guidance from a digital Pedagogical Agent (PA) could improve students’ reading motivation and incidental vocabulary learning. Using a sample of 147 fifth-grade students, the researchers carried out a randomized control trial with three groups of students reading: (a) hardcopy (print) books, (b) digital books, and (c) digital books with a PA. For students with a genetic predisposition to attention problems, carriers of the DRD4 seven-repeat allele, the PA supported their incidental vocabulary learning. For noncarriers, there were no effects of the digital reading materials or the PA.
ISSN:0735-6331
1541-4140
DOI:10.1177/0735633117708283