Digital Storybooks in Early Childhood Settings. How Do Teachers Utilize Them and How Do Teachers Perceive Digital Storybooks’ Effectiveness?

Abstract

This qualitative research aimed to explore the Aotearoa New Zealand preschool teacher’s perspective of digital storybooks, a relatively new resource in early childhood centers, their benefits, and the influence they think they have on young children’s understanding of language. The researcher also investigated how teachers report utilizing digital storybooks in early childhood settings and the benefits and challenges that teachers perceive. Four focus group interviews had been conducted with ten preschool teachers from several preschools in Auckland. Participants were purposely selected and the criteria for recruiting participants were that they taught preschoolers and had experience in, and have successfully used, digital storybooks in their teaching practice. In addition, the researcher analyzed the features of two popular digital storybooks mentioned by preschool teachers to gain further understanding of the features they referred to in their discussions. The thematic analysis was conducted after the data collection. Participating teachers reported several features of digital storybooks which could contribute to preschoolers’ learning including animated illustrations, narrations, and sounds. They believed that digital storybook reading has a positive impact on preschoolers’ engagement and literacy development including vocabulary learning and comprehension skills. However, the participants were concerned about using digital storybooks without adult intervention as they potentially contained features that could cause distractions that impede learning. Findings demonstrated that some pedagogical approaches could be employed by teachers to optimally utilize digital storybooks in ECE classrooms including asking questions, providing appropriate adult guidance, choosing proper times to use digital storybooks; creating their own storybooks, and using digital storybooks for celebrations of different cultures.