Artificial Intelligence (AI) Innovation Enhance Children’s Reading Engagement and Attainment

Abstract

AbstractThe positive relationship between learners’ engagements and their overall reading performance has been well documented. Governments, educators and global societies have worked hard on discovering ways to improve young people’s participation in reading, in order to create a literate and well-read society for young people to live in. Owing to the widespread concern at the perceived low engagement in reading after schools amongst young people in Guangzhou, the local educational executives, recently, has conducted an AI-assisted reading project––so-called “Smart Reading”––to tackle this issue. The project has been enacted within 110 pilot Guangzhou primary schools for one year. This study investigates timely on how and whether this Smart Reading project improves learners’ reading engagement. In this paper, a comparative response of participant learners from pilot schools versus non-pilot schools towards questionnaires about engagement in reading activities is presented. Results indicate that learners from pilot schools exhibit higher engagement and attainment in reading than their counterpart peers from non-pilot schools. The results can offer implications for future AI-enhanced learning.KeywordsAI-Powered learningAI enhancedReading engagement