The Impact of Social Interaction on Virtual Learning of Numerical Knowledge in Kindergarteners

Abstract

Teachers and children have experienced disruption in their classrooms caused by the pandemic, making it challenging to continue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning within a virtual environment. This study aims to understand whether incorporating social interaction into a playful, developmentally-appropriate virtual learning activity increases numerical knowledge for young children. Specifically, the study compares the effect of playing a computer number board game one-on-one with an experimenter to the effect of playing the same board game one-on-one (seemingly) with a computer on kindergarteners’ numerical knowledge. Approximately 60 kindergartners from diverse cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds will be recruited from Hawaiʻi. Participants are randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Social Interaction, Computer Interaction, or Active Control (color board game), during which they meet with a researcher using Zoom to play the game together. Afterwards participants complete measures of magnitude comparison and arithmetic. Preliminary results indicate that there are significant differences on numerical knowledge between the Social Interaction condition and the Active Control condition for the symbolic magnitude comparison assessment, but not for the arithmetic assessment.