Web tool to improve reading comprehension levels of public school students

Abstract

The purpose of our study was to evaluate the improvement in reading comprehension skills in primary school children through the use of a web tool that incorporates  gamification elements. A quantitative approach was used with a descriptive-correlational and quasi-experimental design. 58 fourth grade students were surveyed in a public school in Lima. Cronbach's Alpha coefficient was used to measure reliability, the Shapiro-Wilk test to evaluate the normality of the data, and the Student T test and Wilcoxon test to analyze the results. Preliminary tests and post-tests were applied to verify the results. Significant improvements were observed in all sections, with average increases of 25.64%, 2.79%, 24.21% in Literal Comprehension, 39.79%, 14.17%, and 24.64% in Inferential Comprehension, and 42.47%, 17.67%, and 28.9% in Critical Comprehension. In summary, it was concluded that the implementation of the gamification-based Web tool resulted in a notable improvement in the reading comprehension skills of the participating students.