Children as courseware collaborators: Using participatory research to produce courseware integrating science and sustainable development

6.2.1. Improvement of the content

Through this new experience of developing courseware and collaborating with the children, the teachers felt enthusiastic about measuring the opinions of the students. Findings from the interviews, focus-group discussions and surveys show that the children displayed more excitement towards the viewing lessons than towards the reading texts. This could be attributed to the novelty of using IMMC in teaching. For the video content, the majority of the children claimed that the lessons on the environment, cultural practices and women’s empowerment were educational, interesting and informative. The following excerpts demonstrate their evaluation:

The children approved of the video content and considered it essential to create a sustainable world. Some shared their dismay about malnutrition and poverty around the world but were curious about various global indigenous practices and sports. Their excitement about learning with videos demonstrates the ability of multimedia to enhance student learning and digital skills (Schmid and Petko, 2019), student engagement and learning (Coyne et al., 2018), motivation and learning (Liao et al., 2019), and positive attitudes towards learning (Alsalhi et al., 2019).

Although the participants claimed that the reading lessons promoted relevant information about sustainability, most of them considered the assignments to be boring, tiring and long. Many of them suggested using shorter reading texts. However, the experience validated studies that have found that reading on paper promotes better reading comprehension than reading on a computer screen (Kong et al., 2018; Støle et al., 2020).

What was rewarding about the collaboration with the children was their honesty and integrity about the science content. They felt that reading articles on global warming or solar power was a boring experience but that watching videos about climate change was educational. This conflicting reality made us realize that offering the same topic using different modalities can yield different levels of comprehension and appreciation. For example, the children preferred viewing a scientific video about a carbon footprint to reading about it.

This experience added to our understanding of materials development that integrates science concepts, especially in terms of selecting the mode of content delivery. The alignment of video content and instructional design to learning outcomes is a complex process (Bétrancourt and Benetos, 2018) that needs more investigation. Digital reading has fewer benefits than paper reading when the reading materials are informational texts (Delgado et al., 2018). In the courseware, most reading materials were categorized as informational texts, such as those discussing sustainable food consumption and calorie counting, peatland burning and greenhouse gas emissions.

These types of texts develop global and scientific knowledge but are considered cognitively demanding and require active reading strategies (Mariage et al., 2019; Santoro et al., 2016). This process of improving the courseware content through children’s participation proves the importance of participatory learning processes in creating ESD materials (UNESCO, 2014a).

Some recommendations from the children were not fully followed due to the required learning competencies that the courseware needed to achieve. For example, putting subtitles on all videos was not done because some of the videos were designed to develop the required competency of ‘note-taking of events’ or ‘vocabulary’. The teachers and I agreed to put subtitles on videos that required a strong and technical science background and on videos that used unclear language. For instance, the video on global warming that focused on carbon emissions statistics had a subtitle to promote the scaffolding of the science-based topic.

This decision conforms with the findings of Pujadas and Muñoz (2019), who concluded that embedding subtitles in videos depends upon the language competence of the students to comprehend the video and the goal of the instruction. The subtitles can help both the students and the English-language teachers to understand the technical context and jargon of the topic. Furthermore, they can promote reading ease and appreciation of the lesson rather than explicitly discussing all the jargon before, during and after watching the video.

6.2.2. Clarifying the level of difficulty

As adults, teachers may have different experiences or schemas of the content’s level of difficulty. The children’s participation helped to clarify the viewing and reading content’s levels of difficulty, familiarity and interest. For example, at first, the teachers were uncertain about including a video commercial featuring Thai football players who lived in a fishing community. The video had a message of diversity, but all the dialogue was in Thai, so it could not promote competence in oral English fluency. However, when it was shown to the students, all of them were happy to watch the video. When they were asked to summarize the video, they could recall in English the elements of the plot.

What the teachers perceived to be difficult or complex was proven otherwise by the children. This experience demonstrates the beneficial effects of PAR in materials development. PAR allows the narratives and feelings of the children to be heard in courseware development (Dell, 2018; Zhao et al., 2017). It empowers the end users and participants to decide on the materials they will learn (Balakrishnan and Claiborne, 2017; Danley and Ellison, 1999).

The children also stated that the article on the Kyoto Protocol was interesting but too difficult to appreciate. They said that the words were mainly jargon that was difficult to understand in one reading. When the teachers and I reviewed the article, we realized that it was too technical because of its sociopolitical–legal nature. This difficulty in reading sustainable development texts is common in internationally produced ESD materials (Kioupi and Voulvoulis, 2019). This could be due to the nature of the texts, which have sociopolitical undertones that are context dependent.

To improve the article, the teachers subjected it to readability testing and revised some words into understandable English without sacrificing the content. We also added a pre-reading activity that focused on the technical terms and their definitions.

The teachers’ action of revising the article shows that PAR can transform material to make it more learner centred and comprehensible to promote a wider appreciation of the content by the end users. Listening to the critical opinions of children as collaborators enhanced the ESD IMMC (Dell, 2018; Zhao et al., 2017). In response to the children’s sincere comments, the text was revised to match the students’ cognitive level, and a pre-reading exercise was created to promote scaffolding. This collaboration between the researchers and the participants as end users of the material created more humane and child-friendly courseware (Balakrishnan and Claiborne, 2017; Danley and Ellison, 1999).

6.2.3. Improvement of the GUI

Asked about the GUI, the children were generally satisfied with the layout of the video, reading texts and navigational buttons. Only a few suggested making the font size bigger and changing to a lighter background. Perhaps this was because the children were accustomed to customizing their gadgets into dark or light backgrounds. However, this is a limitation of the courseware. It has only one default lighting background that is not adjustable.

What was noticeable in the pilot testing was that students did not perform well when doing longer reading exercises that required scrolling down the page. Student E said, ‘Scrolling down to read more information is not helpful.’

When asked about this action, many claimed that scrolling was too inconvenient for them. Student F shared, ‘I didn’t know there were more items to answer. I thought it was only five. I didn’t scroll down.’ Student G explained, ‘It is more practical for me to read and answer exercises that are shown in one screen only, like a true-or-false test.’

This experience of scrolling is a common issue in multimedia design (Støle et al., 2020) and is a limitation of the courseware’s interface and setting. It does not offer links for students to access on the internet. This means that all reading texts are contained on the screen, which requires scrolling up and down. However, these comments from the children allowed the teachers to reflect on and to revise their choices in the multiple choice section without sacrificing the required competencies of the lessons.

6.2.4. Students’ qualitative evaluation of IMMC in the implementation stage

After the collaboration and revision, the courseware was implemented in a Grade 8 English class of 39 students in a state university high school in Cebu, Philippines. The courseware was used as the primary instructional material for learning specific English-language competencies for one month. The teacher served as the facilitator of learning while the students were using the courseware on their individual computers in school.

An open-ended questionnaire and focus-group discussion were conducted with the students to determine their experiences of using the courseware. The findings show that the courseware promoted the seven ESD themes of environmental conservation and protection, sustainable production and consumption, health promotion, overcoming poverty, gender equality, cultural diversity and intercultural understanding and peace. Table 2 shows sample statements taken from the questionnaire.

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Table 2.

Students’ qualitative evaluation of the IMMC.

ESD theme	N (%)	Code	Sample student response
Environmental conservation and protection	39 (100)	G4	I can only say one thing, always remember the three Rs. This would serve as a steppingstone to prevent global warming, where we will suffer in the future if it is not prevented. Global warming is the phenomenon where there is so much heat stored in the atmosphere, which would probably result in severe droughts on land, heatstroke of living things and more heat everywhere.
		G3	The videos and articles depict that global warming is taking place these days. It showed that fumes, factories and CFCs [chlorofluorocarbons] are the reasons why there is global warming.
Sustainable production and consumption	39 (100)	G1	Calamities and devastation are one. When crops are destroyed because of these, there is less production of crops and the demand gets higher. Prices will go up and less food will be eaten because of the high prices. As a result, there will be malnutrition, and sickness will follow. To fight food insecurity, there were investments done in order for crops to be produced well. I learned how to value food and value its importance.
		G21	I’ve learned that there are programmes that provide secure food. The WFP, or the World Food Programmme, provides food for the people to lessen malnutrition and to get them the right amount of food with proper nutrition.
Health promotion	39 (100)	G2	I’ve learned that the environment can really affect the people’s health. If the environment is clean, the people . . . are ensured safe and humane homes. But if not, people are most likely to suffer from communicable diseases and illnesses, just like the people in dumping areas. People also suffer from the effects of the nuclear fall-out in Chernobyl, Ukraine. Children suffered because they were born with deficiencies.
		G20	I’ve learned how to take care of ourselves when we get sick. Drink plenty of fluids. Eat the right amount of food and, of course, get proper sleep and rest in order to recover. I’ve also learned that when we get sick, it’s not good to depend on tablets always. It is better to use herbs and other plants with medicinal benefits to get well.

Table 2 shows that the children claimed that the courseware promoted ESD and science concepts. Student G4 shared that global warming was caused by fumes and CFCs, while G3 added that global warming is a phenomenon in which there is too much heat in the atmosphere. G4 suggested doing the three Rs – reduce, reuse, and recycle – to prevent global warming.

For sustainable production and consumption, student G1 shared that when crops are destroyed by calamities, their supply and demand are affected. G21 added that the World Food Programme provides proper nutrition to fight malnutrition. G2 discussed the relationship between a clean environment and people’s health. G20 advised that we should not be too dependent on using drugs to treat sickness but should instead use herbs and other medicinal plants.

The reflections prove the importance of conducting PAR among children before implementing the curriculum and instructional materials with them. The end users did not complain about experiencing difficulty in comprehending the reading materials on global warming and CFCs because these texts had undergone readability testing and revisions during the pilot testing. They were revised based on their reading level and were shortened, as recommended by the children. The whole experience of ease of reading supports the assertion of Zhao et al. (2017) that listening to the critical opinions of children as collaborators can promote the development of learner-centred material.

The children’s active critiques in the pilot testing made the courseware’s topics on sustainability and science more appropriate to their cognitive level and sociocultural needs (Macdonald, 2012). Thus, the ESD and science topics, which were deemed to be complex and ambiguous (Kioupi and Voulvoulis, 2019), gained acceptability among the student end users. This is validated in the reflection of student G3: ‘The courseware showed that fumes, factories and CFCs are one of the reasons why there is global warming because of the greenhouse gas that is produced.’

The students’ positive evaluation proved that the use of IMMC in teaching sustainability among younger students is beneficial. The data confirmed some studies that found that the use of innovative and interactive digital pedagogies with inquiry can contribute to successful ESD contributions (see e.g. Cebrián et al., 2020; Ricard et al., 2020). The interactive feature of the IMMC aroused the interest of the students to learn these technical concepts (Zeti et al., 2020).

When educational digital materials use sound interface design, content and activities, they have the potential to improve the learning process (Zeti et al., 2020). IMMC can be an effective strategy in stimulating students’ interest in learning vocabulary related to science or ESD concepts (Yue, 2017).

It is therefore feasible to use CBI in English-language teaching. The Grade 8 students learned not only language skills but also ESD and science topics, which are required in the curriculum. These science concepts prepared the students in their academic reading in their biology and social sciences classes. This research shows that CBI can promote multiliteracy through learning language content, science and technology (Snow, 1998; Stoller, 2004).