Abstract
The authors of this study seek to provide practitioners with evidence to support the instructional value of Ignite by Hatch, a digital learning game designed for preschool children. Analyses were conducted using the entire population of three- and four-year-old children who used Ignite during the 2020-2021 academic year (n = 29,417) and included the use of descriptive statistics to explore patterns of growth and the Rasch measurement model to explore item difficulty. This chapter also features a preliminary crosswalk establishing the alignment between the domains, subdomains, and games presented within the Ignite game environment and the learning goals provided by the North Carolina Foundations for Early Learning and Development framework. Results suggest strong preliminary evidence in support of the instructional value of Ignite by Hatch. Further research is recommended to understand how knowledge and skill acquisition within the game environment translate to developmental growth outside of the gaming environment.
TopReview Of Literature
Playful Learning
Play-based learning is not a new concept, but one that has emerged from years of research in the fields of Education and Psychology. For example, Psychologist, Jean Piaget (1962) described how play helped children move through the four stages of cognitive development. As children progressed through the various stages, he described the ways in which play became increasingly abstract. Another noteworthy Psychologist, Lev Vygotsky (1978) recognized the role of play in learning when he examined how play fostered cognitive development by allowing children to practice activities and try-on new behaviors within the context of imaginative play. One way to encourage playful learning in early childhood is to provide opportunities for children to engage with the curriculum through game-based learning experiences. While game-based learning can be defined as game play with specific learning outcomes (Shaffer, Halverson, Squire, & Gee, 2005), for the purpose of this chapter, we will focus on digital learning games, which can be defined as a game or experience that harnesses the entertainment power of a video game and serves a specific educational purpose (All et al., 2015).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Metacognition: The ability to think about one’s thinking.
Digital Learning Game: A play-based experience that was developed to help learners meet specific learning goals or learning standards and is accessed using technology.
Literacy Domain: A subset of Ignite experiences, which include alliteration, alphabet knowledge, blending, concepts of print, key ideas and details, letter sound correspondence, rhyming, segmenting, and writing development.
Self-Directed Learning: The ability to autonomously employ the necessary strategies to meet learning goals.
Game-Based Learning: A play-based experience used to support the acquisition of new knowledge and/or skills and incorporates the use of strategy and skill.
Ignite by Hatch: A digital learning game designed to support preschool children in achieving developmentally appropriate learning goals in seven domains of development.
Validity Evidence: A collection of information that allows researchers and practitioners to make appropriate and relevant interpretations about scores.
Language and Communication Domain: A subset of Ignite experiences, which include, experiences with academic vocabulary, vocabulary, conventions of language, listening and understanding, and receptive language.