E-Textbooks vs. Print textbooks: A neuroscientific study on reading and completing exercises in primary school students

Abstract

Textbooks remained as the most widely used didactic materials in schools and, for some years now, its digital format has tried to find a niche in the classroom, given that children and young people are increasingly receptive to technological developments. Within these technological innovations, pupils live engaging and stimulating experiences that share with others in a natural and active way, therefore it is normal for them to find the traditional didactic resources they use in their schools as not very motivating. Aiming at finding out if textbooks are perceived as attractive materials to the participants of this study and what emotional effects caused them in the pupils, we have carried out a case study in which five neuromarketing devices were placed on the participants during reading and performance process (post-reading tasks) in both paper and digital textbooks. The data obtained reveled different physical and emotional reactions with high scores in the case of the on-paper learning, both in frontal asymmetry, electrodermal activity and pupillary dilation. Regarding the emotional parameters, there were participants with very high levels of stress and rejection, especially with the on-screen learning (E-textbook), while others obtained high enjoyment scale scores, specifically with the book in paper format.