Abstract
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.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 48-73 |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| Journal | JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL COMPUTING RESEARCH |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 18 May 2017 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2018 |
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: For this research, A. G. Bus received a grant from ‘‘Art of Reading’’ (Kunst van Lezen), a project funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) and a grant from the ‘‘Dutch Reading Association’’ (Stichting Lezen).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Dutch Reading Association | |
| Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap |
Keywords
- attention problems
- differential susceptibility
- digital pedagogical agent
- digital reading
- guided reading
- in-school free reading
- randomized control trial
- reading motivation
- susceptibility genotypes
- vocabulary learning
