Digital storytelling for enhancing student academic achievement, critical thinking, and learning motivation: A year-long experimental study

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of Digital storytelling (DST) on the academic achievement, critical thinking, and learning motivation of senior high school students learning English as a foreign language. The one-year study adopted a pretest and posttest quasi-experimental design involving 110 10th grade students in two English classes. The independent variable was information technology-integrated instruction (ITII) on two different levels - lecture-type ITII (comparison group) and DST (experimental group). Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected, including English achievement and critical thinking scores, questionnaire responses for learning motivation, as well as recordings of student and teacher interviews for evaluating the effectiveness of DST in learning. Descriptive analysis, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), and qualitative content analysis was used for evaluating the obtained data. Our findings indicate that DST participants performed significantly better than lecture-type ITII participants in terms of English achievement, critical thinking, and learning motivation. Interview results highlight the important educational value of DST, as both the instructor and students reported that DST increased students' understanding of course content, willingness to explore, and ability to think critically, factors which are important in preparing students for an ever-changing 21st century. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.