Improving Reading Comprehension of Third-Grade Students Through a Serious-Game Prototype

Abstract

According to national and international assessment results, there is a serious problem regarding reading comprehension skills in Mexico, specifically global reading comprehension. Different tools and techniques have been used to try to minimize this problem. Serious games with educational purposes are a popular tool, as they are useful in developing abilities or improving learning on top of being fun to play. This chapter presents the use of a prototype of a serious game to improve global reading comprehension in children attending the third grade of primary school. The instruction design was empathizing in the design section. Through a quasi-experiment during a four-month period, the game was tested in five third-grade students. Results show a significant improvement in their global reading comprehension skill. However, as future work, and after the quarantine, a bigger sample size is required to generalize findings.