{"title":"Growth and application of literacy skills by rural Zambian mothers with assistance from their children","authors":"Jacob Chomba Nshimbi, Robert Serpell","doi":"10.1007/s11159-023-10028-8","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>The main objective of this case study was to use children as models to assist their parents in acquiring literacy with the help of a phone-based literacy game. Eight women in rural Zambia were loaned phones with GraphoGame<sup>TM</sup>, a digital literacy game, to use as a resource for literacy learning, with the assistance of their children. The participants were given literacy tests before the intervention and after their exposure to GraphoGame to determine the impact of the intervention. Analyses using <i>t</i>-tests and a Mann-Whitney U test found that the parents’ performance on the literacy tests improved significantly after the intervention period, compared with their pre-intervention performance. Furthermore, key informants indicated that the parents who participated in the study improved their literacy skills in various social and community interactions, as compared with parents within the same community who were not exposed to the game. Thus, the study showed that it is possible to use literacy technology to teach literacy to illiterate rural adults with the help of their children. The study concluded that literacy can play an important role in increasing community participation and consequently community improvement for rural women.</p>","PeriodicalId":47056,"journal":{"name":"INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF EDUCATION","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF EDUCATION","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-023-10028-8","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The main objective of this case study was to use children as models to assist their parents in acquiring literacy with the help of a phone-based literacy game. Eight women in rural Zambia were loaned phones with GraphoGameTM, a digital literacy game, to use as a resource for literacy learning, with the assistance of their children. The participants were given literacy tests before the intervention and after their exposure to GraphoGame to determine the impact of the intervention. Analyses using t-tests and a Mann-Whitney U test found that the parents’ performance on the literacy tests improved significantly after the intervention period, compared with their pre-intervention performance. Furthermore, key informants indicated that the parents who participated in the study improved their literacy skills in various social and community interactions, as compared with parents within the same community who were not exposed to the game. Thus, the study showed that it is possible to use literacy technology to teach literacy to illiterate rural adults with the help of their children. The study concluded that literacy can play an important role in increasing community participation and consequently community improvement for rural women.
本案例研究的主要目的是以儿童为榜样,在手机扫盲游戏的帮助下,协助父母识字。赞比亚农村地区的八名妇女借到了装有数字识字游戏 GraphoGameTM 的手机,在子女的协助下将其作为识字学习的资源。在干预前和接触 GraphoGame 后,对参与者进行了识字测试,以确定干预的影响。通过 t 检验和 Mann-Whitney U 检验分析发现,与干预前的成绩相比,干预后家长的识字测试成绩有了明显提高。此外,主要信息提供者表示,与同一社区内未参与游戏的家长相比,参与研究的家长在各种社会和社区互动中提高了识字能力。因此,该研究表明,利用扫盲技术,在孩子的帮助下向农村成年文盲传授识字知识是可行的。研究得出结论,扫盲可以在提高社区参与度方面发挥重要作用,从而改善农村妇女的社区状况。
期刊介绍:
The International Review of Education – Journal of Lifelong Learning (IRE) is edited by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, a global centre of excellence for lifelong learning and learning societies. Founded in 1955, IRE is the world’s longest-running peer-reviewed journal of comparative education, serving not only academic and research communities but, equally, high-level policy and practice readerships throughout the world. Today, IRE provides a forum for theoretically-informed and policy-relevant applied research in lifelong and life-wide learning in international and comparative contexts. Preferred topic areas include adult education, non-formal education, adult literacy, open and distance learning, vocational education and workplace learning, new access routes to formal education, lifelong learning policies, and various applications of the lifelong learning paradigm.Consistent with the mandate of UNESCO, the IRE fosters scholarly exchange on lifelong learning from all regions of the world, particularly developing and transition countries. In addition to inviting submissions from authors for its general issues, the IRE also publishes regular guest-edited special issues on key and emerging topics in lifelong learning.