TEACHERS’ USAGE OF INSTRUCTIVE APPS IN SAUDI EARLY CHILDHOOD CLASSROOM PRACTICE

Sarah Alarfaj
 (Ms.) University of Leicester, United Kingdom, snma1@leicester.ac.uk

Abstract

Since 2010, a revolution of tablet technology, particularly iPads, has taken place in education around the world due to the innovation of apps. Educational apps have become popular with users worldwide, including with preschoolers, because of their ability to create self-learning environments. Thus, several pre-schools have been directed to use instructive apps (a type of educational app) in their classrooms to improve students’ individual self-learning exercises. Technology-based exercises for students under five years old has recently gained momentum in Saudi pre-school classrooms’ self-learning practices due to the country’s learning development project, resulting in teachers changing the individual self-learning exercises to implement instructive apps. In Saudi Arabia, various instructive apps have recently been used to improve the individual self-learning exercises of three main learning concepts: letters, numbers and shapes. Such learning exercises are particularly insightful for an early childhood self-learning environment, where the learning content emanates from the apps to serve students. The purpose of this article was to analyse the use of instructive apps by two early childhood teachers in early childhood classroom of country where education still heavily relies on traditional curricular materials. The study draw on teachers’ interviews and classroom practice to reflect on transformation of the early childhood practice. The findings of the study suggest that instructive apps emerging letter, shapes and numbers exercises stimulated early childhood students’ motivation. They also provide chances for these students for participant in independent learning environments. Such results encourage other early childhood teachers to consider as they valued the opportunity such apps afforded to deliver learning content in independent way.  

Keywords: instructive apps, technology-based exercises, self-learning practice, teachers, pre-scholars.