Submitted to: Preschool TeacherAngel Macay Daysping Early Learning Center
Submitted by: Esther Park Graduate Student Boise State University
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Summary
This project covers the evaluation of preschool English instruction using Android educational
games; this curriculum was implemented in 2015. This project took place at Dayspring Early
Learning Preschool, which is located in Saskatchewan, Canada. Children do not own their own
Android smart phones, but the preschool provides one smartphone to each teacher to be used
during instruction. The preschool teacher Angel Macay and Esther Park discussed several
objectives for the program. The objectives of adopting educational smartphone games are to
enhance children’s interest in alphabet learning, obtain prolonged attention span, foster a faster
acquisition and using more visual aids.
The purpose of this report is to determine whether or not the children in Dayspring Preschool are
achieving the stated objectives for adopting smartphone games in their alphabet instruction. In
this report each objective has been discussed and describes which objective has been reached.
Several procedures were involved in this project. First, a lead evaluator met with Angel Macay,
the preschool teacher, to discuss the desired objectives for implementing educational smartphone
games in the alphabet instruction. Afterward, a lead evaluator created a survey for the children
and the teacher. Since the children were only three years old and could not read for themselves, a
lead evaluator read the survey questions out loud to each child. Then each child answered the
question verbally and the evaluator recorded the answer. After all the necessary data was
collected, a report was created that analyzed and summarized all the findings.
The evaluation showed that integrating smartphone games achieved some of its objectives.
According to the survey, children were interested in learning the alphabet using games. The
games helped the children to retrieve the information after each play. They all responded that
they enjoyed the games. The teacher responded that children learn faster by using the
smartphone games. However, the child who had a smartphone was distracted by the movements
of the other children who did not have a smartphone. Using a smartphone did not prolong the
attention span of the child. The teacher hoped playing the educational games on the smartphone
would provide enough interest visually to increase the children’s attention spans. In spite of the
availability of the smartphone games, the children still wanted to use coloring books and hands
on activities. This important information will help teachers create an approach, which will work
better for the children.
Description of the Program Evaluated
The program evaluated was Dayspring Early Learning Preschool located in Saskatchewan,
Canada. There are four classrooms and each class consists of 10 preschool children. The school
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introduced smartphones to the class in 2015. They have been using the smartphones to teach
children different subjects. A teacher uses the smartphone to implement learning with alphabet
games. Children were introduced to various Android smartphone games, and they played at least
once a week. This provided technology integrated English instruction for the preschool children.
One smartphone is available in each class and the teacher allows the children to take turns. While
one child was accessing the smartphone, the other children were given different books to read.
The children were eager to play the game when it is their turn. In turns, the commotion created
by the impatient children caused a distraction for the child whose turn it was to use the
smartphone.
The teacher does not bring any hands-on activities for the children other than books. Children are
given different books to read. The teacher decides which educational game to use for each week.
However, she does not choose other materials for the children who will be waiting for their turns.
The decision of choosing materials does not take place during the teacher’s lesson plan meeting.
Only the educational games are discussed during the teacher meeting.
Program Objectives
The teacher of Dayspring Early Learning Preschool classroom set several objectives for the
smartphone games integrated English instruction. She wishes to gain following objectives:
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Gain children’s interest.
Prolong children’s attention span.
Faster alphabet acquisition.
Foster more visual aids
Program Components
At the beginning of every month, teachers have a meeting to develop lesson plans. They share
ideas about using smartphones for lesson plans. This includes the apps and other media that they
use on the smartphone. Teachers primarily use the smartphones to teach alphabet because this is
the one of the more difficult topics to teach. The teachers let the children use the smartphones
twice a week allowing, 30 minutes per child to play during each session. Not all the children play
games on the same day because time is limited. Some children will play on a different day. The
smartphone use can be accompanied with the teacher when needed. As long as the teacher does
not go over the maximum allowed weekly usage for the children, the teacher has a freedom to
use the smartphone at anytime.
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Evaluation Method
Two surveys with simple yes or no responses were created to collect the data. One survey was
for the preschool classroom children and the other for the teacher in charge of that classroom the.
Since the preschool children could not read, the lead evaluator read survey questionnaire out
loud to each child and the responses were recorded on the computer. These responses were
brought to the lead evaluator. The teacher then took the teacher’s survey, which was on the lead
evaluator’s computer, on the same day that the children’s survey was administered.
Participants
The participants are from Dayspring Early Learning Preschool in Saskatchewan, Canada. In
surveys ten preschool children and one teacher participated. There were eight children who were
First Nations in Canada and other two children were Caucasians. They were all three years old.
There was only one teacher who took the survey and the teacher was First Nation. The sampling
was not necessary because the survey was not on children’s computers.
The director of the preschool was not directly involved in the evaluation but she was part of the
program from the beginning. She gave the relevant information about the school and the
teacher’s meeting.
Procedures
The lead evaluator observed 50 minutes of the English session. The teacher, Angel, led the
session as usual. There was no interaction between the lead evaluator and the students during the
observation. After the class was over, the students and teacher were asked to stay another hour to
participate in the surveys. Children who finished answering the survey were able to have free
time to play while others were still participating.
All ten children and one teacher responded to the surveys. The surveys were created using
Google Docs. The children and teacher took the surveys on the lead evaluator’s computer. The
surveys for the teachers and children can be found in Appendix A along with the results. The
director of the preschool gave verbal information about the school meeting and other relevant
information.
Data Sources
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To evaluate the alphabet learning using android games, several data sources were used. Two
surveys were the main data sources, and the lead evaluator created the surveys via Google Docs
online survey tool. The Surveys consisted of questions with simple yes and no answers. This
makes it easier for children to response to the questionnaires. Information about the teacher’s
lesson plan meeting was another data source provided by the director of the school.
Results
The Dayspring Early Learning Preschool teacher Angel Macay identified four objectives for
alphabet acquisition using android smartphone games. This section will discuss the results and
the information found during the evaluation.
Objective 1: Enhance children’s interest in alphabet learning.
Figure 1 Children's Respondents
In the survey ten children responded that they enjoy learning the alphabet using games. They all
showed interest in learning the alphabet using different games. Also ten children responded that
it is difficult to learn the alphabet.
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The
Children were asked if the games were interesting that the teacher introduced ; 80% responded
yes and remaining 20% responded no.
Figure 2 Children's Respondents
When asked if the children were excited to play new games, all children responded yes.
Children responded that they want to play the game longer. They wish that the teacher would let
them play the games longer.
Objective 2: Obtain prolonged attention span.
Figure 3 Teacher's Respondent
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The teacher was asked if she felt whether of not it was easy to get children’s attention with
games. The teacher responded yes.
Figure 4 Children's Respondents
When asked if the children were not able to hear or look at their friends while playing the game,
40% out of 100 responded yes. The other 60% did not hear the other children while playing the
game.
Objective 3: Foster a faster acquisition
Figure
5
Children's respondents
Children were asked if they could remember the letters that they saw after playing the game.
90% responded that they could remember. The remaining 10% could not remember the letters.
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Figure 6 Teacher's Respondent
The teacher was asked if she feels that children memorize the alphabet faster than without using
the smartphone games. She responded yes. She feels that children memorize the alphabet faster
when the games are used.
Objective 4: Using more visual aids.
Figure 7 Children's Respondents
When asked if children want to use coloring books and hands-on activities, 60% responded yes;
40% enjoyed games over other visual aids such as coloring books, hands-on activities; 60%
wanted other activities for visual aids.
Discussion
The purpose of this evaluation was to determine whether or not Dayspring Early Learning
Preschool has achieved its objectives of adopting smartphone games into the alphabet
instruction. This evaluation reveals that using the educational smartphone games has achieved
some of its objectives. The achieved objectives are enhancing children’s interest, obtaining
prolonged attention spans and fostering faster acquisition. However, the curriculum still needs
more revision to achieve other objectives and create more benefits for the children academically.
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Objective 1: Enhance children’s interest in alphabet learning.
According to the results of the evaluation, this objective was highly successful. All ten preschool
children responded that they enjoy learning the alphabet games. All the children responded on
the survey that they like games. These responses support the objectives of bringing the
smartphone games to the alphabet instruction will enhance children’s interest.
When the children were asked if the teacher brought new interesting games, 80% responded yes.
The remaining 20% responded no; these 20% children did not have an interest in new games.
The teacher may need to find out each child’s interest area in games and find various games
based on each child’s interest.
One hundred percent of the children responded that they were excited to play new games. This
explains how the children’s interest could be increased if the teacher introduced right games for
them. Discussions with other teachers at the school would be a good way to determine which
games would work for the children. Another option would be to go online and read the review of
the games as to whether or not other preschool aged children liked the games.
Objective 2: Obtain prolonged attention span.
Although 60% did not look at or hear other children while playing the games, 40% the children
were distracted. This means that there were some distractions for some children. There is room
for improvement in this area. Only one child gets to play a game at a time, as there is only one
smartphone available. This situation causes some children to become distracted because they do
not have access to the smartphone, yet eager to play the game. The teacher provides various
books for the children to read while waiting on their turns, but this method isn’t enough to hold
the children’s attention.
There are a of couple possible solutions that can be implemented to achieve this objectives First,
the preschool needs to provide more smartphones for the children. At the moment, one
smartphone is available in one classroom, so nine children need to wait for their turns. If the
teacher were given five smartphones, five children would wait for their turns and make less noise.
It would be an ideal solution if the school could provide one smartphone to each child, but this
could cause financial difficulty. Second, the teacher needs to bring more hands-on activities. On
the survey, children were asked if they wanted coloring books and other hands-on activities and
60% said yes. This means some children love those activities better than games. If the teacher
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can bring various hands-on activities, children’s attention span can be prolonged. Lastly, during
the monthly lesson plan meeting for the children, different educational games are discussed.
However, children’s attention span is short and this makes it difficult for children to wait their
turns. The meeting should include different activities that the teacher can use for the children’s
wait time. If this discussion is included in the teacher’s lesson plan meeting, it can help the
teachers to make waiting time even more fun and interesting for the children. The result is
prolonged attention span.
Objective 3: Foster a faster acquisition.
Ninety percent of the children responded they were able to remember the letters that they saw on
the game after the game was over. This shows playing educational games plays a role in helping
children to remember the letters. A key to faster acquisition is being able to memorize the
contents faster. When the alphabet is taught with paper and pencil in a traditional method, a
majority of the children have difficulty retrieving the information. This requires extra time to
practice and recall the information. It does not mean that learning with games will not require
extra effort and time. However, when the game is used to help children, they can retrieve and
retain the information faster. This could possibly increase the time of acquisition.
Children were asked if they think it was difficult to learn the alphabet and 100% responded yes.
However, when asked if it was fun to learn the alphabet using games, 100% responded yes. This
indicates that children enjoy learning the alphabet only when the games are accompanied. When
the teacher brings fun and entertaining materials to an instruction, it elevates students’ interest
that can stimulate acquisition. At Day Spring Early Learning Preschool, smartphone games were
used during the instruction and this fostered children’s acquisition faster.
Objective 4: Using more visual aids
Although all children like to play games, 60% of the children still wanted to use coloring books
or other hands-on activities over games. This means that children like games but when it is
compared with other visual and tactile materials, some will choose an alternate tool over a game.
The teacher needs to plan to introduce more hands-on activities for the children. When the lead
evaluator asked the teacher what types of activities she introduced when children were waiting
for their turns, she said mostly just lets them read different books. This scene was also observed
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during the evaluation and the lead evaluator realized that visual materials were not provided
during the instruction.
The suggestions would be to bring more visual aides for the children. Children love visual
materials and it is important to stimulate children’s senses. Children are easily attracted by the
things that they see. The teacher needs visual resource materials. The staff meeting should
include introducing different visual aides. The director can do more research on the Internet to
find out different resources.
There are many educational videos and YouTube clips, which can be used for alphabet learning.
It is suggested that the teacher borrow the schools’ laptop to play those videos while children
wait for their turns. This is one of simple visual aides a teacher can use.
Coloring is also another idea as children responded that they like coloring books. There are many
different alphabet related coloring pictures that can be printed out. The teacher could print out
different pictures and let children color them.
Writing the alphabet on a piece of paper is a simple traditional method. However, this workout
can keep children busy for only a short time.
The teacher needs to be more specific about the activity that the children are instructed to
perform. If the activity plan is vague, children will be wandering around during the session. This
can decrease children’s attention span. If the teacher sets a specific timeline for each activity, this
will encourage the children to focus on those activities.
There are many sites on Google for Hands-on activities for alphabet learning. These websites
contain many different ideas about hands-on activities that the teacher could use (see Appendix
C). The teachers could access different resources from any local library. Children also know
what they like and dislike. The teacher can simply ask children what activities they like to do
during the session. This will narrow down what types of activities the teacher needs to find.
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Appendixes
Appendix A – Children’s Survey
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Appendix B - Teacher Survey
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Appendix C- Example of Hands- on Activities for Alphabet Learning.
LIST OF ALPHABET ACTIVITIES
HTTP://WWW.LEARNING4KIDS.NET/LIST-OF-ALPHABET-ACTIVITIES/
ALPHABET ACTIVITIES AND PLAY IDEAS
http://www.learning4kids.net/category/alphabet/ to view most recent alphabet activities.
Alphabet Activities – 5 Letter Aa Activities: Lots of fun and creative ideas to learn about the
letter Aa. Play with paint, make apple with paper plates, free pintables and so much more.
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Alphabet Bingo in a Bottle: Alphabet Bingo is a simple, fun and engaging hands-on literacy
game children can play to help them learn and recognize letters. Learning the letter sound first
and then the letter name are important for reading and writing development.
Alphabet Paint Roller: Make your own Alphabet Paint Roller by sticking foam letters onto a
large cardboard roll. Children can then place the Alphabet Paint Roller onto a tray of paint, roll
and print the letters onto to white paper to transfer the letter shapes.
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Homemade Alphabet Sponge Letters: So much fun for the bath…….and learning your
alphabet too! A great tactile and hands-on activity for kids to play with while taking a bath.
When wet, the sponges stick or suction slightly to the sides of the bath and tiles, making it a
great canvas for creating endless ideas.
Alphabet Match: Alphabet match is a fun hands-on activity for kids to help recognize and learn
their alphabet letters. It is also a great opportunity to introduce upper case and lower case letters
and match them in a fun puzzle like activity.
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Learning Letter Sound Aa: Here is a simple, fun and engaging hands-on activity to promote
the learning of the letter Aa.
Stand Up Alphabet: The Stand Up Alphabet is one of my favourite activities here on
learning4kids! Once you have made your own set, you can use them for a range of literacy
activities.
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Alphabet Play Dough: We had so much fun playing with our Alphabet Play Dough! It is a fun
activity to help kids learn their alphabet letters and build up their fine motor skills at the same
time. This activity involves using play dough to create letters in the alphabet, using the FREE
Printable Alphabet Play Dough Mats as a guide.
A Rainbow Salt Tray: A great and fun activity to practice writing alphabet letters. Why would
you need crayons, textas, pencils and paper to draw when you can have more fun with a
Rainbow Salt Tray?
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Sensory Alphabet Hunt: Making learning your alphabet fun by searching for alphabet letters in
a sensory tub with strawberry scented and pink colored rice. This sensory play activity is a great
game to motivate kids to learn their alphabet.
Alphabet Hide & Seek: My kids get very excited when we play this game. The challenge and
anticipation of searching for something brings so much fun to learning your alphabet
letters! The Hide and Seek Letter Hunt involves hiding the letter pairs around the house and
your child goes around finding them. Free printable.
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“R’ is for Rain & Making Rain Craft: Making our rain craft was so much fun and a great way
to encourage language development. The idea started with Miss 2, who absolutely loves to sing
a rain song at the moment.
Alphabet Archaeologist: Taking on the role of an archaeologist looking for artifacts and bones
in the sand or in this case searching for alphabet letters. It is a great activity to promote the
learning of letter names and the sounds that they make.
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Sand Paper Alphabet: What a wonderful way to explore the alphabet! Using the sense of
touch to feel over the sandy shape of the letters.
Name Collage: This activity was originally used to create a collage of my daughter’s
name. The same could be done for all the letters of the alphabet by gluing pompoms or other
craft materials over the top of alphabet letters.