Frontiers in Psychology (Dec 2014)

A cluster randomized control field trial of the ABRACADABRA web-based literacy intervention: Replication and extension of basic findings.

  • Noella Angele Piquette,
  • Robert Samuel Savage,
  • Philip eAbrami

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01413
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5

Abstract

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The present paper reports a cluster randomized control trial evaluation of teaching using ABRACADABRA (ABRA), an evidence-based and web-based literacy intervention (http://abralite.concordia.ca) with 107 kindergarten and 96 grade 1 children in 24 classes (12 intervention 12 control classes) from all 12 elementary schools in one school district in Canada. Children in the intervention condition received 10-12 hours of whole class instruction using ABRA between pre- and post-test. Hierarchical linear modeling of post-test results showed significant gains in letter-sound knowledge for intervention classrooms over control classrooms. In addition, medium effect sizes were evident for three of five outcome measures favoring the intervention: letter-sound knowledge (d = +.66), phonological blending (d = +.52), and word reading (d = +.52), over effect sizes for regular teaching. It is concluded that regular teaching with ABRA technology adds significantly to literacy in the early elementary years.

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