1. Implementing a Serious Vocabulary Game
for Primary School Underachievers
Petra Fisser, Joke Voogt & Mila Bom
University of Twente, Curriculum Design & Educational Innovation
IFIP Working Conference
3 July 2012
09/07/2012 Title: to modify choose 'View' then 1
'Heater and footer'

2. This presentation…
 Something about
 primary school underachievers
 vocabulary education
 serious game “Word Score”
 findings from our project
 Questions for you!
 Experiences with serious games?
 Experiences with under achievers & vocabulary education?
 Experiences with under achievers & games?

3. Our Context
 5 schools in the region of Twente, the Netherlands
 relatively high population of pupils who are underachieving in
reading and mathematics
 participating in the project Educational Time Extension (ETE)
 Dutch national project of the Ministry of Education
 stimulates primary schools to fight underachievement by
 focusing on pupils from upper primary schools that are
underperforming
 extending regular teaching time for reading and mathematics
through summer schools, weekend schools or extending a regular
school day

4. Our Context
 Pupils who are selected to participate in ETE:
 pupils with a low sore on literacy and mathematics tests
 but also underachievers which might be in fact so-called "high
potentials“
N Respondents
46 Pupils ETE: experimental group
36 Pupils No ETE: Regular class time: experimental group
60 Pupils No ETE: control group
2 Teachers Only present during ETE
6 Teachers Present during teaching time and ETE
2 Teachers Present during regular class time

5. Word Score & FC Twente
 Development of Word Score (Taaltreffers) initiated by the
Foundation “FC Twente, Scoring in the Community”
 FC Twente is one of the Dutch professional soccer clubs, has its
home in the city of Enschede and has been the national soccer
champion
 Scoring in the Community: a belief that FC Twente should be
engaged in society, especially in the direct surroundings of the
stadium to enhance solidarity between all “neighbors”
 Word Score
 Response to vocabulary deficiencies in some of the areas
around the stadium where people with a lower socio-economic
status live

6. FC Twente & University of Twente
 The foundation invited the University of Twente to determine the
educational value of the game and to study the implementation
issues that are related to using the game in practice
Mila

7. Word Score
 Word Score
 Online serious game with supporting educational materials
 Intended to increase the vocabulary of pupils in primary schools in
grades 4-6 (age 9/10-12) in a playful way
 The students encounter about 400 words, all related to soccer
 Journalism
 Health & safety
 Administration
 …
 For the entire game with the 400 words and the accompanying
lessons teachers and students need about 15 hours

8. Word Score, the game
“Can you help
Twente to win the
championship?”
>> Play
Word Score

9. Word Score, the game

10. Word Score, the game

11. Word Score, the game
Video or picture
related to the word
Words that you already have
Words that have to be found
“Crowd” means
A) Many people together
B) Separating home and out supporters
C) Notification that tickets are sold out

12. Word Score, the game

13. Word Score, the game
Very famous
FC Twente player!!
(talking about a meeting that
will take place in room 459)

14. Didactical design of the lesson activities and the game
 Word Score and the additional materials are designed with an
educational model for learning new vocabulary (Verhallen &
Verhallen, 1994)
 activating previous knowledge (in class)
 giving meaning to new words (in class)
 consolidating the new words (in game)
 testing if the new words have become part of the daily
vocabulary (in game)
 The game itself is build by a professional company (IJsfontein)

15. Our study
 pre-test (vocabulary test and the attitude questionnaire)
 experimental group played Word Score for four weeks
 post-test (vocabulary test and the attitude questionnaire)
 teachers were interviewed
 a t-test of the different conditions was calculated
 scores of the experimental and control group were compared
 the increase in vocabulary per pupil was determined

16. Results of the study
Group N Average of good Standard t df Significance Cohen's d
answers on the Deviation (1-sided)
test
pre post pre post
Experimental 82 26.77 29.13 6.639 7.757 -2.098 162 0.019 * 0.3
group (game)
ETE 46 29.35 32.52 6.509 6.470 -2.346 90 0.011 * 0.5
Regular 36 23.47 24.81 5.256 7.147 -0.902 70 0.185
class time
Control group 60 30.12 31.53 6.298 6.419 -1.220 118 0.113
* Significant difference

17. Conclusion
 Word Score increases the vocabulary of the pupils in the ETE
condition
 The teachers who participated in ETE were very positive about
Word Score: learning vocabulary through a serious game has a
high potential (they are also eager to participate in the next
version of Word Score)
 The pupils were also enthusiastic about Word Score. They were
challenged and motivated by the game

18. Questions
 Are serious games such as Word Score an addition to supporting
under-achievers or high potentials?
 Could serious games be a catalyst for children that might not be
motivated to learn in more traditional ways?
 What kind of support do teachers need to implement a serious
game such as Word Score?
 Other questions? Comments? Feedback?

19. Further information
 Petra Fisser, p.h.g.fisser@utwente.nl
 Joke Voogt, j.m.voogt@utwente.nl
 Mila Bom, m.v.bom@student.utwente.nl
for the Dutch people: www.taaltreffers.nl