Investigating the different facets of student engagement during augmented reality use in primary school

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study into the different facets of student engagement during interactive augmented reality experiences presented on individual tablet computers to students in early primary school. The study was conducted as part of a pilot research project “SCOLLAm,” researching various approaches to learning with tablets in primary school in Croatia. To explore engagement in such an environment, an experimental approach based on an innovative digital lesson platform is taken, comparing augmented reality-based digital lessons and multimedia-based ones. In both approaches the contents are being shared, but presented differently, thus isolating augmented reality effects versus general technological intervention effects, an approach so far not explored in the early primary school context, but important, per existing literature. The data is analysed via video coding based on accepted engagement observational techniques and qualitative analysis. The results show that the AR-based interactive learning experiences are in general more cognitively and overall engaging in the early primary school context, while having less non-engagement or disengagement of the students than interactive learning experiences in multimedia digital lessons. Those findings are triangulated via teacher interviews and student focus groups, identifying likely reasons for such a difference, and examining how to best apply the results in everyday educational practice.