London’s Daily Mail Online covered the research of Dara Williams-Rossi, clinical assistant professor and director of undergraduate programs in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development.
The article by Ted Thornhill, Can’t get your boy to read? Buy him a Kindle, say researchers, published March 29.
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The students in the study were part of a reading improvement class in their school that included Amazon’s Kindle e-reader. After use of the e-readers, boys’ attitudes about the value of reading improved, while girls’ attitudes declined, said Williams-Rossi.
EXCERPT:
By Ted Thornhill
Daily Mail Online
Boys like using Kindles but girls prefer real books, a study suggests.Research found that using the Kindle e-reader gave boys a greater appreciation of reading – but with girls they have the opposite effect.
Researchers looked at 199 kids aged eleven to 14 who were having trouble with reading and asked them to use a Kindle for two months.
Boys had a higher self-concept of their reading than girls in the first place, and after using the e-reader their attitude about reading improved.
But girls appreciated reading less after using the Kindle.
Researchers from the Southern Methodist University in Dallas say it shows that while technology motivated boys, girls appear to prefer actual books.
Dara Williams-Rossi, writing in the International Journal of Applied Science and Technology, said: ‘The data showing the girls’ preference were statistically significant and particularly intriguing.
‘This is part of a three-year study and this data came midway through, so we are continuing our investigation and interviewing girls to understand their reaction to the e-readers.
‘It may be that they prefer curling up with actual books and that they enjoy sharing their reading with their friends.’
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