Videos, Games Help Preschool Literacy, Study Says
By SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 12/1/2009
Do videos and interactive games help kids better prepare for kindergarten? According to a new study, low-income children in preschool classrooms improved their literacy skills when their teachers incorporated videos and online technology into the curriculum.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting commissioned research firms Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) and SRI International to examine 398 low-income children in 80 New York and San Francisco preschool classes who were taught with a special curriculum that included active video viewing and hands-on play with letters, sounds, and books. All teachers were given coaching and support to help them carry out the curriculum.
Researchers looked at whether videos and games impacted young children’s literacy skills and found that kids with the most to learn made the most gains. In fact, they learned an average of 7.5 more letters than children in a comparison group who participated in the brief, intensive curriculum.
Most children in the study came from economically disadvantaged communities where they were far less prepared for school than their more affluent peers. The research, conducted from January through June 2009, found that early literacy skills increased significantly compared to children who did not participate in the curriculum.
"Many studies have shown that computer technologies can improve learning for students in kindergarten through grade 12, but using digital media in preschool has been controversial," says the study’s lead researcher Shelley Pasnik, director of EDC's Center for Children and Technology. “To make these kinds of gains after preschoolers and their teachers use technology, we think is especially significant.”
Preschool teachers were randomly assigned to use either a technology-supported literacy curriculum or a technology-supported science curriculum for 10 weeks. Kids in classrooms with the science curriculum served as the study’s comparison group. Those who participated in the literacy curriculum outscored children in the science curriculum on all five of the study’s measures: the ability to name letters, know the sounds associated with those letters, recognize letters in their own names, and understand basic concepts about stories and printed words.
“We know public media can improve literacy skills when kids watch at home; what we didn't know is that content from multiple shows could be effectively integrated into a curriculum and implemented by teachers," says William Penuel, director of evaluation research for SRI's Center for Technology and Learning. “If media can be harnessed to close this literacy gap, as this study has shown, it's a powerful new tool for preschool teachers.”
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting commissioned the study to evaluate video and interactive games from the programs Super Why!, Between the Lions and Sesame Street, produced for PBS KIDS as part of the Ready to Learn initiative, which creates educational programming, Web content, and outreach activities. The evaluation was funded by the U.S. Department of Education and CPB, in partnership with PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service.
To access the full study, sample content from the curriculum, and a video interview with a teacher who participated in the study, visit http://cct.edc.org/rtl.
