Children Intrinsic Reading Motivation and Playful Applications: Investigating the

Relationship

Fatma Al Aamri, Stefan Greuter, Steffen P Walz

RMIT University, Australia

Reading motivation is a multi-layered construct that includes aspects such as the person’s

reading goals, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, self-efficiency, and other social motivations for

reading (Guthrie and Wigfield,2000)

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Reading Motivation

• Current research suggests that intrinsic motivation has the highest impact on reading for pleasure.

• Children read for pleasure if they are highly intrinsically motivated to read.

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INTRINSIC READING MOTIVATION

• Intrinsic motivation is more effective within the context of improving reading skills than extrinsic motivation (Wigfield et al., 2004)

• The intrinsic motivation of reading is the curiosity about reading and the preference for challenge in reading (Guthrie and Wigfield, 2000)

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INTRINSIC READING MOTIVATION

• Several researchers reported a higher average reading motivation for girls than for boys

• Research found that girls had significantly higher intrinsic reading motivation than boys but no gender differences were reported in regards to the extrinsic reading motivation (McGeown et al., 2012)

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READING MOTIVATION and Gender

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Trees of Tales

• Four Common Questionnaires:

– The Motivation to Read Profile (MRP)

– the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ)

– the Motivation for Reading Scale (MRS)

– the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI)

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MEASURING INTRINSIC READING MOTIVATION

• Designed by Gambrell et al, (1996)

• Measures two motivational dimensions:

– The students’ self-concept as readers

– The value students have for reading

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The Motivation to Read Profile (MRP)

• Designed by Wigfield and Guthrie (1995)

• Measures eleven dimensions:

– Reading efficacy - Challenge – Curiosity - Reading involvement, – Importance - Recognition, – Grades - Social competition, – Compliance - Reading work – Avoidance

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Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ)

• Designed by Baker and Scher (2002)

• Measures: – Enjoyment,

– Perceived value

– Perceived competence

– Students’ interest in library-related activities such as visiting a library

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Motivation for Reading Scale (MRS)

• Designed by Ryan (1982) • Includes seven subscales that can be used

depending on which are needed: – Interest/Enjoyment - Perceived Competence – Effort/Importance - Pressure/Tension – Perceived Choice - Value/Usefulness – Relatedness

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Intrinsic Motivation

Inventory (IMI)

• Enjoyment/Interest/curiosity/involvement

• Value/Importance/Usefulness

• Self-concept/Reading Efficacy/Perceived Competence

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Common Motivation Subscales

• Enjoyment – 1. Reading is a very interesting thing to do – 2. I like to read – 3. I think reading is a boring way to spend time (r)

• Value – 4. It is very important to me to be a good reader – 5. I think people can learn new things from reading – 6. I think reading could help me become a better student

• Self-Competence – 7. I am a good reader – 8. I know that I will do well in reading next year – 9. Reading is hard for me (r)

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The IRMS

• 3 reading interventions:

– Printed books – Basic e-book – Trees of Tales

• 18 children – 3 groups • They take the reading intervention home for the

weekend. • When they return the intervention back, an IRMS is

measured

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Experiment

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Results

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Results

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Results

• Children who read from the playful application (Trees of Tales) scored slightly higher levels of intrinsic motivation

• Female children were more intrinsically motivated to read from the playful application Trees of Tales.

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Findings

• Male children were more intrinsically motivated to read from traditional printed books.

• Children who perform better at reading, are more intrinsically motivated to read regardless of the format

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Findings

• Playful applications that supports reading for pleasure have the potential to motivate primary school children to read more often.

• Reading more will have an impact on the children’s overall achievement in school.

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Conclusion

Thank you

Any questions?