This is my final summative assessment piece for my Research Methods course at Endicott. I found this to be an extremely demanding project, but also a very rewarding accomplishment. The course was designed to perfection and Dr. Barrie Jo Price was an absolute pleasure and inspiration to work with.
This is the first of two courses so there are some sections that will be filled in once I have actually conducted the intervention.
Minecraft
for Reading Comprehension
Timothy
J. Wilson
Endicott
College
Abstract
“This will be completed during IED574 Research
Project in the fall semester.”
Background
Study Location
This study will be
conducted at St. Francis College in São Paulo, Brazil. St. Francis is an International Baccalaureate
(IB) school providing each of the Primary Years Program (PYP), Middle Years
Program (MYP), and Diploma Program (DP) following an inquiry model of learning. St. Francis, as required by the Brazilian
Ministry of Education, adheres to the Brazilian curriculum in addition to and
in conjunction with the IB curriculum. The
college has two campuses, which are located approximately three kilometers
apart. The Jardim Europa campus has
early years and primary students preschool to grade five, While the Pinheiros
campus has students from early years straight through grade twelve. St. Francis College was founded in 2004 with
the mission to offer a challenging educational program with
rigorous assessment through inquiry-based instruction.
Student Demographics
The
population of the school is made up of 700 preschool to grade 12 students
spread across the two campuses. The
campus in Jardin Europa has two and three form entry classes from preschool to
grade 5, while the Pinheiros accommodates single form entry classes from
preschool to grade 12. The student
population is predominantly comprised of Brazilian national students, making up
over 50 percent of the student body.
There are many other nationalities represented including many from South
America and in less frequency, some from Mexico, the United States, Canada, Asia, and
Europe. The most common language spoken
by the student population is Portuguese, however the language of instruction is
English, with the goal of mastery in preparation for university.
The Researcher
The
Researcher is the educational technology integration specialist at St. Francis
College. He holds a Bachelor of Science
degree in education from Western Michigan University in the United States of
America. He is currently working toward
his M.Ed. in administration through Endicott College; additionally, he is in
the process of becoming a Google Certified Teacher. The researcher has taught educational
technology, physical education, and heath education at three different
international schools in China and Brazil over the past eight years.
Importance of the Study
Reasons for Undertaking the Project
St. Francis
College serves a diverse population of students and highly interested using technology
in innovative ways to increase student learning. Using creative video games, games in which
players create the content, as learning tools has sparked much interest in the
education world. The effectiveness of
using Minecraft specifically to
develop reading comprehension has not been explored as much as the use of Minecraft in other curricular
areas. The researcher seeks to investigate
the effects of using Minecraft in the
learning of reading comprehension skills.
Significance to the Researcher
The researcher is
an educational technology integration specialist and is examining various
technologies that can be integrated into the classroom to increase student
learning. Prior knowledge of the game
and plus observations of students’ engagement while playing Minecraft indicate that using Minecraft for specific instructional purposes
may have positive impact on student learning.
The researcher seeks to use quantitative data to sample whether or not
the use of Minecraft for specific
instructional purposes in reading might be valid.
Significance to the Students
The role of the
educational technology integration specialist is to determine the best ways for
teachers to use technology to enhance student learning. Students learn in many different, individual
ways. They have different interests and
learning styles. Using Minecraft provides multifaceted
interactive opportunities for students to create understanding. It is the aim of the researcher for the
students to be able to express their understanding in a multitude of ways,
which most efficiently suit the individual.
If the proposed research shows innovative ways to use tools like Minecraft, there is potential for
positive impact on student learning and the teachers’ approach to using
technology in the classroom. The use of
the game for educational purposes could be expanded into other subjects and
more specifically in a trans-disciplinary manner. Students will benefit by understanding the
interconnectedness of all areas of life and developing strategies for
navigating through their experiences. The
researcher will keep the benefits to students as a point of reference for the
study.
Significance to the School
Many of the
teaching staff at St. Francis College have not yet embraced using technology to
enhance student learning. The findings
of this study may produce interest among these teachers in using any
technologies for the benefit of their students.
It may also show the leadership that more resources and training should
be allocated to technology education and professional growth in the use of
instructional technology within the school as a whole.
Literature Review
Technology
has become pervasive in today’s society, weaving its way into all areas of
life. Technology is used to monitor
health, communicate, create, gather information, express ideas, and for an
endless list of other purposes. Technology
has been moving into schools and with a wave of research many applications to
develop teaching and learning have been produced. Educators have been utilizing technology to
more efficiently deliver content or deliver it in a more engaging way, for
instance, providing video instruction for students to view outside of school. Educators
have borrowed ‘gaming’ strategies for motivation from the video games their
students play and incorporated the ideas into their teaching practice
(Wakefield, 2015). With the advent of
‘sandbox’ video games, games where the player can move around in virtually any
direction and interact with the environment, choosing their own path, many more
opportunities for learning have arisen.
These games develop collaborative problem-solving, digital media
literacy practices, and computational literacy (Steinkuehler, Duncan, Simkins, 2007)
Most
of the research on the implementation of technology in the classroom has
focused on the benefits that technology can have on enhancing math skills,
computational skills, spatial awareness, and code writing. In the United States there has been a big
push for Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, with
3.4 billion in federal dollars budgeted for the 2012 fiscal year, going to
support schools and educators to develop these competencies (National Science
and Technology Council, 2011).
However,
there has not been much focus on how technology can enhance the non-STEM areas,
like languages, physical education, social sciences, and reading
development. “Games like Minecraft, however, actually lend
themselves more towards literacy and the humanities than they do to math.” (J.
Tillinghast, personal communication, July 22, 2015) A known way that students
learn best for understanding is for them to create representations of what it
is they understand. Students also learn
when they are interested in the subject or the discovery path itself (Levin,
2015).
Minecraft is a ‘Sandbox’ game where
players discover and create virtual worlds.
The term ‘Sandbox’ refers to a child’s sandbox where play is not
restricted but open to the players choice of how, when, and what to engage with
(Glossary of game terms,
n.d.). Players can build structures, dig
for minerals and resources, interact and collaborate with other players online,
and advanced players even write code for special modifications or Mods, that
are added to affect the gameplay itself (Tablets for schools, 2014).
There
is a movement amongst educators that is not being driven by research, but by
the practitioners themselves, to use Minecraft
in all subject areas including reading comprehension. There are many innovative ways in which
teachers are using Minecraft to enhance
learning. Educators at the University of
Alaska Southeast have created a program called Givercraft, which has students
recreate, in depth, the entire setting from the book The Giver by Lois Lowry (Graham, n.d.). There is a Google group with nearly 3000
educators who collaborate by sharing lessons and advice through reflections of
their experiences in the classroom (Minecraft
teachers, n.d.). There is a clear
interest in Minecraft from educators
and students alike and more research is needed to determine the educational
implications.
“This
will be started during IED582 Research Methods.” It will be added to during
IED574 Research Project in the fall semester.”
Statement of the Issue
The purpose of
this research is to determine if student reading comprehension is different
when Minecraft is used to recreate
setting and aid in retelling as opposed to when it is not.
Research Question
What
happens to grade 5 international school students’ reading comprehension, as
measured by a teacher created test, when they use Minecraft to recreate settings and retell stories versus retelling
stories without the use of Minecraft?
The null hypothesis is that the
intervention of the using Minecraft
in recreating settings and retelling stories will have no effect on student
achievement. The research hypothesis is that students who use Minecraft will achieve at a higher level
of comprehension on the post-test than those students who have learned with the
traditional method.
Research Methodology
Sample
The population
will consist of two separate 5th grade classes composed of 22 students each. The researcher will then choose, from those
groups, two equivalent groups as the sample.
The sample size of the control group will be [] and the sample size of
the experimental group will be [].
Materials
General classroom
materials will be used for the control group along with the standard plot
diagram in which students write the exposition, rising action, climax, falling
action, and resolution. The experimental
group will use their own devices (BYOD) with the Minecraft application (app) added.
Instruments
The pre-test,
which will be identical to the post-test, will serve as an evaluation instrument
and will be created by the researcher and his colleagues. The test will consist
of short response and multiple-choice questions. The researcher will rely on the content
validity since the assessments were co-created.
Procedure
A two-group
quasi-experimental research method, as shown in Table 1, will be used to gather
data related to the research question. The design is set such that the pre-test
and post-test are represented as well as the measures of central tendency.
Before classes
begin, one grade 5 class will be assigned as the intervention group while
another grade 5 class will be assigned as the control group. The assignment
will be decided based on two sections that are closest in number and provide a
homogenous group of students. There will be two separate teachers, the regular
class teachers, for the two classes.
Classes will begin
on August 3rd and the reading of the chosen book will begin by
August 24th to ensure that they have completed the reading before
the first of October. Upon completion of
the reading, the pre-test will be administered. This pre-test will serve as a
test of equivalency for the intervention group and the control groups. Data
will be collected for both groups.
The intervention
will be implemented during three weeks from October 5th until
October 30th excluding the week of October 12th, as the
students are on holiday. Both groups
will discuss the components of a story, however the control group will be using
plot diagrams to retell the story while the intervention group will reconstruct
the settings using Minecraft to
retell the story. The researcher will
make descriptive observations of both groups during the study. After the unit
is complete, the post-test for the unit will be administered. Data will be
collected and analyzed.
Calendar Plan
In the lead up to
the research project the researcher will coordinate the project permits and
calendar with the school authorities within the first week back at school
beginning Aug 3. The researcher will
also coordinate at this time with the grade 5 teachers to prepare them for the
intervention involved in the research project.
Parents´
permission slips will be given out at the beginning of September with September
23rd as a purposed collection date. The permission slips are
designed to ensure the privacy of students when data is collected. Research
will begin the first full week of October with the following dates:
Week 1: October
5th
Week
2: October 19th
Week
3: October 26th
Data Collection and Analysis
The data for this
study will be collected and analyzed with measures of central tendency. The
mean, median, mode and standard deviation will be presented as shown in the
table 1 below. The researcher will use
Microsoft Excel software for all statistical functions, including p values in determining statistical
significance of the data set.
Table 1
M. Central Tend.
|
Control Group
|
Intervention Group
|
Pre-test
|
Post-test
|
Pre-test
|
Post-test
|
|
Mean
|
||||
Median
|
||||
Mode
|
||||
Standard Deviation
|
The
pre-test and post-test data for each of the two groups will first be analyzed
using a two-tailed, type 1 t test to
determine statistical significance within the same group. The two groups will then be compared by their
post-test results using a two-tailed, type 2 t test to determine if the intervention has had statistical
significance. A p value of <.05 is considered to be of statistical significance.
Research
Project in the fall semester.”
Results
“This
will be completed during IED574 Research Project in the fall semester.”
Extraneous influences
“This
will be completed during IED574 Research Project in the fall semester.”
Implications for Teaching and Research
Limitations of the Study
-Since two different teachers lead
the classes there is a possibility of a difference in quality of instruction,
which may skew results.
-This will be the first time the
students use Minecraft for an
educational purpose.
-There is a one week holiday in the
middle of the three weeks
Implications for Teaching
“This
will be started during IED582 Research Methods.” It will be added to during
IED574 Research Project in the fall semester.”
Conclusion
“This
will be completed during IED574 Research Project in the fall semester.”
References
Glossary of video game terms: Sandbox game. (n.d.). Retrieved
July 23, 2015 from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_video_game_terms#Sandbox_game
Minecraft teachers Google
group forum. (n.d.) Retrieved July 23, 2015 from https://groups.google.com/forum/#!members/minecraft-teachers
Graham, L (n.d.) Retreived July 23, 2015
from Givercraft wiki: http://www.givercraft.com/
J Levin. (2015, July 2). Here’s what we’ve been up to.
Retrieved from http://minecraftteacher.tumblr.com/
Lowry, L. (1993). The giver. Boston, Massachusetts : Houghton Mifflin
Mojang. (2015) Minecraft
[Video Game]. Stockholm.
National Science and Technology Council. (2011). A Report from the Federal Inventory of STEM Education Fast-Track Action
Committee Committee on STEM Education National Science and Technology Council (Pub.
L. No. 111-358) Washington, D.C.
Steinkueler,
C., Duncan, S., & Simkins, D. (2007) Massively multiplayer online games
& education: an outline research. eLearning, 4(3) 297-318
Tablets for Schools. (2014). Teachers! Learn how to use
Minecraft as an educational game. Retrieved from
http://tabletsforschools.org.uk/teachers-learn-how-to-use-minecraft-
as-an-educational-game/
Wakefield, J. (2015) Technology in schools: Future changes in classrooms
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30814302
Google groups. (n.d.)
Retrieved July 23, 2015 from Minecraft teachers Google group forum https://groups.google.com/forum/#!members/minecraft-teachers
“This will be started during IED582 Research Methods.”
It will be added to during
IED574 Research Project in the fall semester.”
Appendix 1 ….. as needed…..
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Etc…
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