Implementing a Serious Vocabulary Game for Primary School Underachievers

Petra Fisser, Joke Voogt & Mila Bom

University of Twente, Curriculum Design & Educational Innovation

IFIP Working Conference

3 July 2012

09/07/2012 Title: to modify choose 'View' then

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1

This presentation…

Something about

primary school underachievers

vocabulary education

serious game “Word Score”

findings from our project

Questions for you!

Experiences with serious games?

Experiences with under achievers & vocabulary education?

Experiences with under achievers & games?

Our Context

5 schools in the region of Twente, the Netherlands

relatively high population of pupils who are underachieving in

reading and mathematics

participating in the project Educational Time Extension (ETE)

Dutch national project of the Ministry of Education

stimulates primary schools to fight underachievement by

focusing on pupils from upper primary schools that are

underperforming

extending regular teaching time for reading and mathematics

through summer schools, weekend schools or extending a regular

school day

Our Context

Pupils who are selected to participate in ETE:

pupils with a low sore on literacy and mathematics tests

but also underachievers which might be in fact so-called "high

potentials“

N Respondents

46 Pupils ETE: experimental group

36 Pupils No ETE: Regular class time: experimental group

60 Pupils No ETE: control group

2 Teachers Only present during ETE

6 Teachers Present during teaching time and ETE

2 Teachers Present during regular class time

Word Score & FC Twente

Development of Word Score (Taaltreffers) initiated by the

Foundation “FC Twente, Scoring in the Community”

FC Twente is one of the Dutch professional soccer clubs, has its

home in the city of Enschede and has been the national soccer

champion

Scoring in the Community: a belief that FC Twente should be

engaged in society, especially in the direct surroundings of the

stadium to enhance solidarity between all “neighbors”

Word Score

Response to vocabulary deficiencies in some of the areas

around the stadium where people with a lower socio-economic

status live

FC Twente & University of Twente

The foundation invited the University of Twente to determine the

educational value of the game and to study the implementation

issues that are related to using the game in practice

Mila

Word Score

Word Score

Online serious game with supporting educational materials

Intended to increase the vocabulary of pupils in primary schools in

grades 4-6 (age 9/10-12) in a playful way

The students encounter about 400 words, all related to soccer

Journalism

Health & safety

Administration

…

For the entire game with the 400 words and the accompanying

lessons teachers and students need about 15 hours

Word Score, the game

“Can you help

Twente to win the

championship?”

>> Play

Word Score

Word Score, the game

Word Score, the game

Word Score, the game

“Crowd” means A) Many people together

B) Separating home and out supporters

C) Notification that tickets are sold out

Video or picture

related to the word Words that you already have

Words that have to be found

Word Score, the game

Word Score, the game

Very famous

FC Twente player!! (talking about a meeting that

will take place in room 459)

Didactical design of the lesson activities and the game

Word Score and the additional materials are designed with an

educational model for learning new vocabulary (Verhallen &

Verhallen, 1994)

activating previous knowledge (in class)

giving meaning to new words (in class)

consolidating the new words (in game)

testing if the new words have become part of the daily

vocabulary (in game)

The game itself is build by a professional company (IJsfontein)

Our study

pre-test (vocabulary test and the attitude questionnaire)

experimental group played Word Score for four weeks

post-test (vocabulary test and the attitude questionnaire)

teachers were interviewed

a t-test of the different conditions was calculated

scores of the experimental and control group were compared

the increase in vocabulary per pupil was determined

Results of the study

Group N Average of good

answers on the

test

Standard

Deviation

t df Significance

(1-sided)

Cohen's d

pre post pre post

Experimental

group (game)

82 26.77 29.13 6.639 7.757 -2.098 162 0.019 * 0.3

ETE 46 29.35 32.52 6.509 6.470 -2.346 90 0.011 * 0.5

Regular

class time

36 23.47 24.81 5.256 7.147 -0.902 70 0.185

Control group 60 30.12 31.53 6.298 6.419 -1.220 118 0.113

* Significant difference

Conclusion

Word Score increases the vocabulary of the pupils in the ETE

condition

The teachers who participated in ETE were very positive about

Word Score: learning vocabulary through a serious game has a

high potential (they are also eager to participate in the next

version of Word Score)

The pupils were also enthusiastic about Word Score. They were

challenged and motivated by the game

Questions

Are serious games such as Word Score an addition to supporting

under-achievers or high potentials?

Could serious games be a catalyst for children that might not be

motivated to learn in more traditional ways?

What kind of support do teachers need to implement a serious

game such as Word Score?

Other questions? Comments? Feedback?

Further information

Petra Fisser, p.h.g.fisser@utwente.nl

Joke Voogt, j.m.voogt@utwente.nl

Mila Bom, m.v.bom@student.utwente.nl

for the Dutch people: www.taaltreffers.nl