The Effectiveness of Cognitive Scaffolding in an Elementary Mathematics Digital Textbook

The purpose of this study is to find a way to improve digital textbooks for self-regulated learning by applying cognitive scaffolding designs to an elementary math digital textbook and examining the effectiveness of the system. Hence this study was conducted in two steps. First, a framework for scaffolding design was devised by examining the problems and difficulties students encounter when using a mathematics digital textbook. Second, after the digital textbook was revised by applying the scaffolding design frameworks, the effectiveness of the scaffolding framework was examined by comparing students' achievement levels in an experimental group and that of students in a control group. Seventy fifth-graders participated in this study. Students were divided into two groups: an experimental group and a control group. The students in the experimental group studied with the revised version of the digital textbook and the students in the control group studied with the original version of the digital textbook. The students received a pretest before the experiment. After the experiment, they took an achievement test and completed a usability questionnaire. The data were analyzed by ANCOVA with the SPSS Windows version. The results revealed that the students who used the revised program (to which design strategies for scaffolding were applied) showed higher levels of achievement than those who used the original version. In addition, students in the experimental group generally showed higher scores on the usability survey, which consisted of four sub-categories such as 'effectiveness', 'efficiency', 'satisfaction', and 'learnability'. There was a statistically significant effect on 'efficiency'. These results implied that scaffolding strategies were effective for mathematics learning through the use of an elementary digital textbook.