(Iwamoto D. H.

, Hargis, Taitano, & Vuong, 2017)Digital Assessment Project

Barbie Earnest
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The Use of Kahoot! As a Review Tool

Introduction:

Engaging young minds in the classroom through traditional methods has become

increasingly more challenging, due in part to a digital society which promotes instantaneous

feedback and results. Traditional teaching methods can sometimes be viewed as mundane and can

cause some struggling students to lose interest. The Horry County second grade ELA curriculum

changed drastically this year and the Imagine It! Unit Assessments proved to be quite challenging

for even our high flyers. During the fall semester my second grade team discussed several

alternative lessons we could teach prior to the unit assessment in hopes of increasing our students’

understanding of the material, which we hoped would in turn, improve their assessment scores.

During the month of February I received 1:1 devices (albeit, a mixture of iPads, desk tops, laptops

(Think Pads). To say I was excited would be an understatement. It seemed to be perfect timing as

this assignment would ultimately inspire me to create the research question: Will playing Kahoot!

on a weekly basis as a review tool improve my students, Imagine It! unit test scores? There

are typically four sections on the assessment: Phonics, Grammar, Vocabulary, and

Comprehension. The phonics, grammar, and vocabulary portions of the unit assessment are based

upon slides shown and reviewed Monday through Thursday on the smartboard. They are also

revisited in workstations throughout the week. The comprehension questions are based upon

comprehension skills that are taught through whole group and small group via anchor charts and a

text dependent analysis. I was very interested in conducting this research to determine if using
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technology as a review tool would add enthusiasm to the review process and create an environment

which would give each student autonomy as they entered their answer on their individual device.

I framed each question on Kahoot!, based upon the questions in each section of the unit test. This

research was conducted in my second grade class of 25 students ranging from first grade-fourth

grade reading levels.

Review of Literature:

Literature reviews are an integral part of any research project as they offer insight from

various sources that create a framework from which to glean valuable information about trends in

education. There were so many articles about gamification in education but a limited number of

articles on Kahoot!, specifically.

The article, Analyzing the Efficacy of the Testing Effect Using Kahoot! on Student

Performance is a study that was conducted by a professor at a four-year university in the South

Pacific. His objective was to compare the performance outcomes of his psychology students on

high stake exams. Prior to the beginning of the semester he determined which section would be

the control group and which would be the experimental group. Each group took the same high-

stakes multiple choice exam in their class on the same day. However, to prepare for the test the

control group received an entire class period (fifty minutes) reviewing the material that would be

on the test, as well as a lecture and study guide which had all questions that would be covered on

the Kahoot! review test. The experimental group used their 50 minute class period to replay all

Kahoot!
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quizzes. The experimental group performed better on their high-stakes exams that those who had

lecture and study guide. While I completely understand the grouping of this study, I teach one

class of second graders and don’t have the option of separating students based upon their class

sections. However, one thing we have in common is that I have used study guides in the past and

and am basing my comparison study on Unit 3.1 through unit 4.2 assessments. Study guides were

used for these assessments and were replaced by Kahoot! for the remaining units 4.3 through 5.2.

Another article of interest, Kahoot! It or Not? Can Games be Motivating in Learning

Grammar? offered some insightful information, albeit the research stemmed from a study of

college students as opposed to younger children. This study was done in Poland with 112 college

students to find out how gamification using specifically Kahoot!, increases motivation to

participate in learning. The objective was to find out how and why a student’s motivation increases

and how effective this type of learning actually is. There was a lot of talk about intrinsic

motivation, and how Kahoot! and games like it, foster intrinsic motivation. In addition to learning

the intended material, there was also a survey of questions pertaining to engagement, fun, and

desire to continue playing Kahoot! and other similar games. The desire to win seemed to be a

motivating factor among these students, as well as the social element, even though autonomy was

a large part of the game. The four things that were measured were fun, learning effectiveness,

learning recommendations, and types of feelings while playing these games, all of which ranked

high in the survey. This article interested me because there were many similarities between the
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students in this study and mine, the only difference was the age of those studied. I was glad that

autonomy was mentioned in this study because one of my desired motivating factors for my

students was for my students who are not comfortable speaking out in class and answering

questions, for fear of giving an incorrect answer, to be able to answer in a non-threatening

environment where there possible incorrect answer would not be an object of public scrutiny. In

Kahoot!, students who answer correctly do see their names on the leader board but there isn’t a

public announcement of those who answer incorrectly. My hope was that all of my students would

enjoy participating in the review, as opposed to only those students who rarely answer incorrectly,

or who do not seem to be bothered if they do.

The article, Gamification and Game-Based Learning, primarily focused on two methods

of learning; gamification and serious games. The focus was to find whether or not either or both

are effective way to educate. This article addressed the fact that gamification is different from

serious games in that gamification is more for entertainment. I found this interesting because one

of my biggest concerns before I introduced Kahoot! to my students was that they would be

distracted by the competitive nature of the game as opposed to using the game as a review for the

assessment.

An additional article I found of interest was, Game-Based Learning and Information Literacy:

A Randomized Controlled Trial to Determine the Efficacy of Two Information Literacy

Learning Experiences, discussed a study in which games were integrated into standard

curriculum and tested for efficacy. This study was originally based on Information Literacy,

otherwise referred to as IL which refers to the skills that are needed to use a wide range of
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information tools and are used to create solutions to problems (Zurkowski, 1974). These skills

were addressed and the article discussed how important these skills are to the 21st century

learner. Two games were designed to increase students’ ability to identify and use appropriate

pieces of information or date they were given to get the results they needed by using certain

targeted skills. Results indicated that the games effectively hit target skills and improved

performance on end of the year testing in literacy instruction. While this article did not focus on

Kahoot!, it did offer insight to how games can target particular skills which increase student

achievement. This article gave me hope that Kahoot! and other similar games will prove to be

effective tools for learning that will enhance the traditional means of teaching and add a fresh

perspective for learning that a generation of gamers can enjoy as they review or learn new skills.

My final article, A Collaborative Game-Based Learning Approach to Improving

Students’ Learning Performance in Science Courses, focused on a study of elementary students

and their attitudes on learning and motivation, achievement, and self-efficacy and found that that

they improve with the use of the Mindtool integrated collaborative games in the elementary

classroom. This experiment was conducted in an elementary school science classroom and

proved that not only did these games help improve their attitudes about learning but also

improved their learning achievement. This study was different than the others as it was more of a

collaborative effort by the students as they shared their findings and what they learned through

the game playing process. The results from this study were the culmination of what I would

view as the ultimate desired effect of digital gaming in the elementary classroom. Achieving
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both elevated engagement as well as improving academic achievement is the optimal desired

effect for a teacher.

After sifting through much research on this topic, yet knowing there is still a plethora of

relevant information for my future perusal, I found these articles to be quite helpful as I began

my own study of integrating Kahoot! as a learning tool into my weekly unit review. The results

from these articles seemed to all be in agreement that games like Kahoot! have a positive impact

on the learning process in the classroom. Therefore, I deduced that based on the research,

integrating Kahoot! as part of my review process would be an endeavor that would most likely

yield the results I desire in terms of attitude toward learning, as well as improvement in academic

performance.

Methodology

Having the research to back up my initial interest in integrating Kahoot!, in the curriculum

was the catalyst for my prodding the technology liaison at our school to gather as many devices

as she could for my 25 second grade students so that each would have a proper device on which

to play Kahoot! While my media center has an iPad rolling cart, our school has the largest

increase in student population in the district and one small cart of iPads does not fill the need of a

student population of over 1,100 students. However, once I had my devices and had downloaded

the Kahoot! app on each, it was time to analyze the unit tests and create questions in a similar

format including phonics, grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension. While my class consists of
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25 students, four of these students receive intervention and do not take the unit assessment, but

were able to participate in the review

Unlike high school classes which are divided into blocks, I teach a regular education class

of 25 second graders. I am unable to separate my students to allow some to use a study guide

while the others play Kahoot! Therefore, as my quantitative data I compared the test scores on

the Imagine It! unit assessments 3.1 – 4.2, which were assessments taken using study guides and

other traditional means for review, and compared those scores with Imagine It! unit assessments

4.3-5.2, which were assessments taken after using Kahoot! as a review tool for the weekly

assessment.

There are typically 11-14 questions on the unit assessment so I kept the number of Kahoot!

questions within that range. Due to the fact that I have many slow readers I had to be mindful of

the time I allowed for each question. While some of the fast readers might get a little impatient

waiting for the answer, I felt that it was important to give those struggling readers a chance to

read the question and answers so that they had the same chance as the strong readers. Therefore,

if the questions and answers were a little wordy or required more think time, I might allow 90-

120 seconds for the question. There were no more than one or two with this lengthy time limit. I

used Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to teach the concepts which would be tested on the unit

assessment. We would play Kahoot! on Thursday as a review for Friday’s assessment. For the

last couple of assessments, we played again on Friday morning due to some questions that were

proving to be cause for concern for some students.

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For my qualitative data, I observed students as they played Kahoot! I watched to see which

students were engaged and which were looking at other student’s iPads for help on the question.

Following each question we would briefly discuss the answer choices and why one was the best

answer choice. If I noticed more than three students had chosen an incorrect answer, I would

have students hold up their iPads so I could see whether their screen was red or green. I would

then look to see if there was a pattern with certain names appearing on my list. I took those

students who seemed to be missing certain questions and pulled a quick small group to reteach

the concept and check for understanding. For instance, we have been working on quotation

marks and I noticed that several students kept missing those particular questions. The small

group lessons on that specific skill seemed to really help. While second graders can reflect on

Kahoot!, interviewing them and expecting some profound thought on how they feel about

playing Kahoot! is not likely, so my students answered some survey questions at the end of each

game. While the questions were very simple I felt that they were a great springboard for survey

questions to come in my students’ academic future. We discussed the word “recommend.” and

how you would base your recommendation. They all really enjoyed completing the survey and it

was fun to show them the results. Below is a screen capture of the results from the survey of my

most recent Kahoot! survey.

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Analysis

To analyze my data I chose to take the average unit assessment scores from Unit 3.1 – unit 4.2

which were assessments taken before Kahoot! was implemented. I compared these scores with

unit 4.3 – 5.2 unit assessments which were taken after using Kahoot! as a review tool on Thursday

of every week prior to their assessment. The averages are found below.
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Findings

Upon reviewing my quantitative in conjunction with my qualitative data I was pleasantly

surprised to see that most student’s scores improved after playing Kahoot! before the assessment.

I would have to say that my results mirrored more closely, PanellHan-YuSung’s article on

engagement and academic improvement. I am encouraged by the results and view them as

another means to engaging our students. Kahoot! offered a fresh perspective to my students who

do not have the opportunity to play many games during the academic schedule. They are

required to have 60 minutes of LEXIA per week and must complete their minutes before they are

allowed to visit EPIC or other educational games. Therefore, playing Kahoot! was a much

needed dose of healthy competition which encouraged many of my students who are not as

verbal in the classroom arena. My feelings regarding my students who refrain from answering

questions in class unless I use cold call and ask them for a response, seemed to really benefit

from playing Kahoot! While it is competitive it still allows autonomy to some extent and those

less vivacious children can answer questions comfortably behind the screen without fear of being

judged publicly for incorrect answers. While their names may not always appear on the leader

board they still have the opportunity to be a part of an educational game and from the results it

appears that their scores are improving. I am inspired to continue my use of Kahoot! for review. I

am currently working on a Kahoot! math review and my students are ecstatic!

References

Ewa, Z.-P. (2016). Kahoot It or Not? CAn Games Be Motivating in Learning Grammar? Teaching English

with TEchnology, 16930, 17-36.

Iwamoto, D. H., Hargis, J., Taitano, E. J., & Vuong, K. (2017). Analyzing the Efficacy of the Testing Effect

Using Kahoot on Student Performance. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education,, 18(2) 80-

93.

Karagiorgas, D. N., & Niemann, S. (2017). Gamification and Game-Based Learning. Journal of Educational

Technology Systems, 45(4), 499-519.

pannellHan-YuSung, & Gwo-JenHwang. (2013). A Collarboative Game-Based Learning Approach to

Improving Students' Learning Performance in Science Courses. Computers & Education, 63, 43-

51.

Wilson, S. E., Black, J. E., Yager-elorriaga, D. K., Thompson, W. M., McConnel, A., Cecena, J. E., . . . Terry,

R. A. (2017). Game-Based Learning and Information LIteracy; A Randomzied Controlled Trial to

Determine the Efficacy of two information Literacy Learning Experiences. International Journal

of Game-Based Learning, 7(4), 1-21.