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How Does Constructive Feedback in an Educational Game Sound to Children?

Hwang, D., & Kang, Y. (2023). How Does Constructive Feedback in an Educational Game Sound to Children?. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 36, 100581. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2023.100581

Project Highlights

  • 2x3 between-subject factorial experiment with 60 preschool children.

  • Discovered that type and voice significantly impact children's emotional reactions.

  • Developed child-friendly measurement tools to effectively observe children's experience.

Game preview video

Challenge

Educational games are effective tools for children, as they naturally increase their motivation and engagement. While previous studies have revealed the varying influences of different types of feedback in education, there has been a lack of attention to the design of constructive feedback in educational games. My goal was to find how different voices and feedback types actually affect children's learning experiences, beyond just measuring performance.

Will children's performance, retention, inquisitiveness, emotional reactions, and impression of the game differ according to different voices and types of feedback?

Approach

1. Designed & Prototyped MathSoup

​I created a math game for preschoolers (ages 5-6) to be used for the experiment.

 

2. Designed 2x3 between-subject factorial experiment

This study was conducted with 60 children and their parents, where each child played with one of the six possible feedback combinations.

 

3. Developed child-friendly measurement tools

Due to difficulty of gathering concrete data from young children, I designed custom tools that involved visual and interactive elements.

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4. Mixed-methods analysis

The significance of the different types of feedback was analyzed through a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), chi-squared tests, and qualitative observation notes taken during the game sessions.

emotion sticker.png
smileyometer.png

Study tools tailored to experiment with children.

(Left) Emotion cards with shapes and colors / (Right) Smileyometer to address reaction

Key Findings

  1. Simple, direct verification feedback was linked to negative reactions.

    A majority of children (69.2%) reported feeling 'sad' after simple verification feedback ("It's wrong") for an incorrect answer. This result was notable compared to other types of feedbacks.
     

  2. Encouragement was not unconditionally effective.

    While this type of feedback made children feel "proud," repeated generic praise led to some children being skeptical about it and exhausted.
     

  3. Children formed their own persona of game characters based on their voice.

    Participants consistently identified the adult voice as a "teacher," and the peer voice as a "friend". This social perception also experienced their experience, as 85.7% children described wrong answer as "fun" when from a peer voice. 

Design Implications

  1. Guide, instead of just correcting.
    Feedback provided for incorrect answers should move beyond simple verification. To reduce negative emotions and support learning instead, it should provide elaborative assistance to guide the child for next level of learning.
     

  2. Make praise count and feel earned.

    While encouragement could foster pride in a positive sense, repetitive praise can lead to backfire. It is crucial to prevent unconditional or continuous encouragement and instead combine it with elaborated comments to provoke growth.
     

  3. Every voice and look leads to a persona formation.
    Children naturally assign social roles and derive their own persona of the character based on the voice types and visual elements, such as t-shirt color of the character. Designing agents in a certain way could also affect children's game experiences.

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