The purpose of the present research is to examine the effects of instructional media (paper or/and electronic books) on young childrens divergent thinking and reading abilities when time limitation is imposed on usage of the media. Six groups were arr...
The purpose of the present research is to examine the effects of instructional media (paper or/and electronic books) on young childrens divergent thinking and reading abilities when time limitation is imposed on usage of the media. Six groups were arranged for this study: A and B groups only read a paper book with and without time limitation, respectively. C and D groups only read an electronic book with and without time limitation, respectively. E and F groups read both paper and electronic books with and without time limitation, respectively. The following research questions were set to meet the above purpose.
1. How do instructional media and time limitation of activity affect young childrens divergent thinking?
1-1. Is there any significant difference in divergent thinking between the groups reading only paper book(A, B), reading only electronic book(C, C) and reading both paper and electronic book(E, F)?
1-2. Is there any significant difference in divergent thinking between the groups with (A, C, E) and without (B, D, F) time limitation?
1-3. Does interaction between instructional media and time limitation affect young childrens divergent thinking?
2. How do instructional media and time limitation of activity affect young childrens reading?
2-1. Is there any significant difference in reading between the groups reading only paper book(A, B), reading only electronic book(C, D) and reading both paper and electronic book(E, F)?
2-2. Is there any significant difference in reading between the groups with(A, C, E) and without(B, D, F) time limitation?
2-3. Dose interaction between instructional media and time limitation affect young childrens reading?
2-4. How do instructional media and time limitation of activity affect young childrens story-book reading?
The current study was conducted for children of 4 year old in a nursery school in Pusan. Seventy two students in the school were divided into six comparison groups: A, B, C, D, E and F.
The experimental procedures were as follows: 1) pilot study, 2) pre-test, 3) experimental treatment and 4) post-test. As the treatment tools, paper and electronic books (for 3-4 year old children) produced by Scholastic Inc. were used. The title of the electronic (CD-ROM) and paper books were I SPY Junior (Korean version, 1 CD) and I SPY Little book (Korean version, 4 volumes), respectively. Both books bear similarity in contents. Divergent thinking was assessed by using K-CCTYC (Korean Comprehensive Creativity Test for young Children)(1999). Words reading was assessed by using words cards made of words included in both of paper and electronic books. Story-book reading was assessed by using Sulzby categories of story book reading(1985). Reading interest and visual memory were assessed by using Saracho(1988)s Preschool Reading Attitudes Scale(PRAS) and the test created by Wepman, Morecy and Seidl(VMT)(1975), respectively. The data analyses were carried out by using Two-Way MANCOVA taking pre-test score as a covarience. Story-book reading score between pre-test and post-test was compared among the six groups with regard to research question of 2-4.
The findings from the current studies are as follows:
1. Instructional media, time limitation and interaction between instructional media and time limitation affects young childrens divergent thinking in significance. Among them, the effect of instructional media was the most important.
Instructional media affects young childrens divergent thinking, especially originality and imagination. Experiencing both paper and electronic books yields the best result. Time limitation affects young childrens divergent thinking, especially flexibility. Interaction between instructional media and time limitation affects young childrens divergent thinking, especially imagination and flexibility. The best improvement in divergent thinking was recognized in the group that experienced both paper and electronic book without time limitation.
2. Instructional media affects young childrens reading, especially reading interest and visual memory. The groups that experienced electronic book showed better result in visual memory than the groups that experienced paper book. The group that experienced both paper and electronic books showed better result in reading interest than the group that experienced electronic book only. Time limitation to reading does not significantly affect young childrens reading. Interaction between instructional media and time limitation did not significantly affect young childrens reading ability but was determined to be effective in visual memory according to univariate analysis.
Difference in story book reading level between pre-test and post-test was found to depend on instructional media and time limitation. The group that experienced paper book with time limitation showed the lowest, while the group that experienced both paper and electronic books without time limitation showed the highest.