Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2011
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.947
Abstract
The effectiveness of a web-based reading support tool, ABRACADABRA, to improve the literacy outcomes of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students was evaluated over one semester in several Northern Territory primary schools in 2009. ABRACADABRA is intended as a support for teachers in the early years of schooling, giving them a friendly, game and evidence-based tool to reinforce their literacy instruction. The classroom implementation of ABRACADABRA by briefly trained and intensively supported teachers was evaluated using a quasi-experimental pretest, post-test control group design with 118 children in the intervention and 48 in the control. Children received either a minimum of 20 hours of technology-based intervention or regular classroom teaching. Results revealed both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students who received ABRACADABRA instruction had significantly higher phonological awareness scores than their control group peers. The effect size for this difference was large (eta squared=.14). This finding remained when controlling for student attendance and the quality of general non-technology-based literacy instruction. Limitations of the study and implications for effective practice in remote and regional contexts are discussed.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
No
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, v. 27, no. 4, p. 727-750
https://ajet.org.au/index.php/AJET/index
Scholar Commons Citation
Wolgemuth, Jennifer R.; Savage, Robert; Helmer, Janet; Lea, Tess; Harper, Helen; Chalkit, Kalotina; Bottrell, Christine; and Abrami, Phil, "Using Computer-Based Instruction to Improve Indigenous Early Literacy in Northern Australia: A Quasi-Experimental Study" (2011). Educational and Psychological Studies Faculty Publications. 173.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/esf_facpub/173
