Lauren Torres
Research Mentor(s): Zexuan Pan
Mentor Department: Combined Program in Education and Psychology (CPEP)
Authors: Lauren Torres, Echo Pan
Session: Session 2 (10:00am – 10:50am)
Presentation Type: Poster 74
Abstract
The use of educational media is becoming more prevalent in the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and language education. Despite its growing impact in early childhood learning, it is important to investigate how educational media impacts learning outcomes for young children with different characteristics. The goal of this study is to explore the influence of children’s characteristics, particularly age, on their learning outcomes from educational media. In collaboration with PBS KIDS, we investigated how children of different ages learned from watching the television series, Lyla in the Loop. We recruited 160 children from the ages of four through eight years old to watch three Lyla in the Loop episodes in the lab settings. Followed episode watching, we conducted tests to assess children’s learning from educational media (i.e., Lyla in the Loop). In particular, we assessed children’s learning outcomes in two dimensions: computational thinking and vocabulary, both of which were covered in the episodes. In terms of analysis, regression models were used to investigate the relation between age and children’s learning of computational thinking as well as vocabulary. This research is significant because educational media continue to have an increasing influence on daily life and learning environments. Understanding how children’s age influences their learning from educational television can enable educators effectively integrate these media resources into their teaching strategies and help students achieve better learning outcomes. Additionally, this research can provide insights for content creators to develop television series that align with the developmental needs and learning capacities of their target audience.
