ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue#24 | June 11, 2012 | ISSN 0975-3036
This paper has been authored and submitted for publication by Farideh Sharifian Pour & Dr. Fatemeh Alipanahi, Islamic Azad University Science and Research, Zanjan Branch,Iran.
Introduction
This study investigated whether kindergarten students who used the educational software achieved better than peers who did not use the software. Participants were 48 kindergarten students from two classes of an urban school in north of Tehran .Holistic scoring was applied. Results showed a significant improvement in students reading.
In recent years, computers have become an increasingly popular learning and playing toll, specially With young children . To understand whether and in what aspects the use of computer-related technology Benefits young children researchers have been conducting.
A number of studies have been conducted to investigate the effect of computer software use on cognitive development of young children .In a study by Clements and Gallo (1984),the effects of learning computer programming on children’s cognitive style, meta cognitive ability ,and cognitive development were assessed. The results indicated that the computer programming group scored significantly higher on measures of divergent Thinking and meta cognitive development.
Moreover, the same issue was also studied by Haugland (1992). To investigate whether children’s growth in Key developmental areas has a link to the kind of software they use, Haugland examined the effect of developmental Software and non developmental software on children’s intelligence, self-esteem and creativity. The collected evidence Revealed that children exposed to developmental software had significant gains in intelligence, structural knowledge Nonverbal skills, and long term memory.
The research literature seems to show that computer-related technology use plays a positive role in young children’s social, psychological, cognitive and academic development.
Method
Participants
The participants in the study were 48 students (24 in class A, 24 in class B ) . They were from two Kindergarten (Amadeghi) classes of an urban school in north region of Tehran . The students were six Years old. Most of them were from higher socio economic families.
Materials
The materials used for treatment included a commercially software, which was originally intended
To teach students to sing, to support children’s reading development.
Procedure
The procedure for current study was performed in nine weeks. The potential of software, which was originally intended to teach children to sing, to support student’s reading development. The software offers students the opportunity to practice reading song lyrics over the course of nine-week study. The lyrics were also shown visually in a way which was intended to represent the relative pitch and timing that they should be sung to.
The software was used three times a week (30 minutes per session)with a group of 24 students who were underachieving. These students were compared to closely matched control group from the same school.
Results
The results showed that use of this commercially software, significantly improved the students reading development ,and follow up assessments showed there was improvement in their grades in six month.
Discussion
The results also showed that the experimental group made significantly more gain than control Group in reading. It seems that using educational software can improve students reading skills. However, caution should be exercised as to how to interpret this finding.
References
Karemaker, A., Pichford, N.J. ,&O’Malley, C.(2008).Using whole-word multimedia software to Support literacy acquisition :a comparison with traditional books
Educational and child psychology, 25, 97-118 Students see ESL as a step to success
Clements, D.H.,& Gallo, D.F.(1984). Effects of computer programming on young children’s Cognition
Journal of Educational psychology,76(6),1051-1058
Fitch, J.L.,& Sims,J.L.(1992). A microcopmputer learning center in Heart start: A pilot study
Journal of Computing in childhood Education 285-292.
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