Teacher Scaffolding of Preschoolers’ Shared Reading With a Storybook App and a Printed Book

ABSTRACT

Teachers are increasingly using new technologies such as tablets and apps during shared reading experiences at preschool. However, little is known about how teachers scaffold young children’s shared reading with interactive e-books such as tablet-based storybook apps and how it compares to using printed books. In this observational study, a teacher read a storybook app to children ages 2 to 4 years (N = 13) individually or in a small group using an iPad. The same storybook was read to children in printed book form. The teacher’s utterances were coded into three types of scaffolding behaviors (cognitive, affective, and technical). Scaffolding was observed for both the storybook app and the printed storybook. The frequency of cognitive scaffolding was similar across both the storybook app and the printed storybook. However, the frequency of affective and technical scaffolding was higher with the storybook app than with the printed storybook. The teacher made more utterances and spent a longer time reading the storybook app than the printed book. The findings suggest that affective and technical scaffolding may be important factors to consider during a shared reading with storybook apps.

KEYWORDS:

• E-book
• iPads
• scaffolding
• shared reading
• storybook app
• teacher
• touch screen tablet
• young children

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.