Skip to main content

Minecraft for Reading Comprehension Research Paper

I've finally completed my research paper and case study of using Minecraft to develop reading comprehension.  I had a great time conducting the study and was quite pleased with the impact the activity had on the students.  Although the p value did not determine that the intervention was statistically significant, most likely due to the small sample size, the students in the class that used Minecraft on average scored 10% higher on a 15 point comprehension test than the students from the class that used a traditional sequence of events graphic organizer to retell the story.

The most important factor that I saw when observing the students using Minecraft was their engagement level.  The entire class was immediately engrossed in the task from the word go.  They intuitively organized themselves divying up tasks, communicating progress, and researching actual building in Johannesburg.  No one asked them to do this.  They did it because they were interested and wanted to make it the best that they could.

Here is a part of a group's retelling of the Journey to Jo'Burg short novel that they read using Minecraft.



If you would like to read the whole report here is the link.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwl5ppTDoTVWNVVsRlR1S0I4X00/view?usp=sharing

Comments

  1. Very interesting! Thanks for sharing your findings Tim!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Negotiation Final Project: Apple v. Samsung

Negotiation in the Smartphone Battles: Apple v. Samsung Maria Voicu Tim Wilson Kelsey Giroux Ross Ferris Endicott College For the past four years, Apple and Samsung have been the key players of an unprecedented legal war. It started in 2010 with Samsung’s launch of Galaxy S smartphone, which to Steve Job’s disbelief resembled and used similar technology to the iPhone, the breakthrough phone that his company launched three years before. Disputes over patents, technology, and innovation cost both companies tens of millions, spanned four continents, and five years later has seen little resolution. Background Samsung and Apple are both goliaths in the personal computing industry. Apple is an American prominent hardware and software company founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Stephen Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. It designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics. Apple enjoys a high level of brand loyalty and is the one of the world's most valuable brand. Throughout the...

Scientific Inquiry Method Assignment

Assignment 1: Scientific Inquiry Method My school is a PYP school which, by design, focuses on promoting students’ inquiry and developing strategies for them to follow their own inquiries.  In, what we call PYP 6 (third grade), the unit this term is “ Energy is fundamental to our daily lives”, which carries through to all of the students’ learning experiences including those in physical education class.  The head of PE asked me if I had any ideas on how they could explore the concept of energy within their PE classes (I used to teach PE so he often asks my input).  After talking through a few ideas I thought, wow this would be a perfect opportunity to develop this unit and the process of getting to the learning objectives using the scientific inquiry method.             There are two learning objectives that we are going to focus on.  By the end of the unit students will understand the concepts of: § ...

Personal Work Negotiation Plan

Personal Work Negotiation Plan Tim Wilson At my school, St. Francis College in São Paulo Brazil, I am currently the educational technology integration specialist.   I have been asked, by the heads of school, to provide some professional development sessions on technology, namely Google Apps, for teaching staff.   We have traditionally not done a whole lot of professional development for our staff and more so have never tracked professional development other than who has completed the required IB training.   What I am proposing is that I become the person in charge of all professional development.   I think it would be beneficial to centralize the listing of what professional development individual teachers have attended or undertaken so that t he rest of the teaching community can benefit from their learning.   The school is also pushing hard for teachers to work in transdisciplinary units.   With the overview of the teachers’ interests and str...