Pedagogische Wetenschappen Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen Touch typing: better spelling and writing IPRS Meeting Intersteno Parliamentary and other professional Reporters’ Section Zagreb, October 5-8, 2016 Dr. Henny van der Meijden & Mariëtte Tesselhof (M SEN) Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen Tesselhof Opleidingen Raalte The Netherlands This presentation • What is touch typing? • What do we know about touch typing? • Research at Radboud University • Effects of a touch typing course (van der Meijden & Tesselhof) • Conclusion: Why touch typing? • Questions? Touch Typing: used terms • Visually guided • Touch typing • Hunt and peck • Blind typing • Keyboard gazers • Monitor gazers When typing a sentence: 4 processes important • Remembering So: mental actions must • Putting in working memory be transferred into • Chunking in characters motorist actions • Striking the right finger Several authors (see paper) A skilled typist • Transfers without problems • Position of the keys • Automated motor actions • Preparation of next keystroke without thinking Several authors (see paper) Touch vs visually guided Position of the body Reduced arm movement Monitor gazers: no movement of the head Use of all fingers of both hands Content related Focus on content (cognitive load theory) No need to attent keystriking Touch typers are better writers Reading and typing in one: more cognitive processes active Research in the past Only among adults - speed - accuracy Present research Among children language skills * handwriting * memory * spelling * writing Touch typing vs visual guided 10 Research at Radboud University PARTICIPANTS RESEARCH QUESTIONS Elementary school higher level (age 9-12) Speed & accuracy Secondary school Language skills lower level (age 12-14) Dyslectic children Motivation Perseverance In company: adults Speed & accuracy Health, motivation Research at Radboud University PARTICIPANTS RESEARCH QUESTIONS Elementary school higher level (age 9-12) Speed & accuracy Secondary school Language skills lower level (age 12-14) Dyslectic children Motivation Perseverance In company: adults Speed & accuracy Health, motivation Research among adults: 121 participants 151 Research among adults: 121 participants 151 243 Results: What happened? Participants enrolled 121 Actually started 109 Drop outs 53 (9 just before the final test!!) Final test 46 Positive results 39 Negative results 7 Not enrolled in final test 20 Results: Speed Speed TypesnelheidSpeed 0,6 0,4 Experimenteel 0,2 geslaagd 0 Experimenteel -0,2 meting 1 meting 2 meting 3 niet geslaagd -0,4 Controle -0,6 -0,8 Results: Physical complaints Physical complaints shoulder (right side) Conclusion • Less physical complaints (positive final test) • Good exercise and perseverance needed • Negative break when participants start using use touch typing in their regular work In sum: It is hard for adults to change their typing behavior Research together with Mariëtte Tesselhof PARTICIPANTS RESEARCH QUESTIONS Elementary school higher level Speed & accuracy (age 9-12) Language skills Secondary school lower level (age 12-14) Motivation Dyslectic children Perseverance Speed & accuracy In company: adults Health, motivation Research Question What are the effects of a touch • 234 children typing course on • Age 8 – 12 spelling and • Boys 103 creative writing? • Girls 110 • Pre-test-Post test Control group design • 157 experimental group • 77 control group 3 tests (pre and post) Validated language test (TAK) Test 1 Typing from paper Test 2 Dictation Test 3 Creative writing The Lessons • 15 lessons, 1.5 hours, every 2 weeks • Homework • Body & finger position • Repetition • Motivation • Parent involvement 22 Results Exp pre Exp post Contr pre Contr post typing skill nr 527 1682 632 754 Resultatenkeystrokes Tesselhof spelling nr errors 10.2 6.01 8.3 7.9 dictation Creative nr words 89 151 100 117 writing % pictures 5.7 8.3 6.5 6.3 % relations 3.09 4.66 3.11 3.11 punctuation 2.1 2.4 1.8 1.8 All differences statistical significant 23 Results Number of key strokes/10 minutes pretest posttest All 24differences statistical significant Results Punctuation pretest posttest All 25differences statistical significant Summary of findings • Enormous increase in typing speed • Less errors (typing, dictation, story) • Longer stories, better quality • Significant differences in all variables • Counts for both good and weak typists Possible explanations • Not only typing skill but also writing skills • Full automation • Less cognitive load • Intensive practice • GUIDANCE is very important Regular school Online course Contest Study at 2 schools Online course: typeworld 88 students in total 2 experimental classes at 2 schools 2 control classes at the same schools the same test for spelling and creative writing Children typing school vs regular school 1800 1682 nr keystrokes 1600 1400 1200 1000 825 800 612 600 527 400 200 N=157 N= 43 0 1 2 pretest posttest pretest posttest typing school(n = 157) regular school(n=43) Online course: Typeworld 100% 100% 2013-2014 90% 2014-2015 83% 2014-2015 begeleid 80% 78% 78% 74% 70% 69% 60% 50% 48% 44% 40% 32% 30% 28% 19% 20% 18% 15% 15% 12% 12% 10% 3% 3% 0% aangemeld en gestart direct afgehaakt bij eiland 1 eiland 1 gehaald, maar op verder dan eiland 11 verder dan eiland 15 eiland 20 gehaald eiland 2 gestopt gekomen gekomen A contest: 10 minutes typing : who is the best? 29 students grade 4 A contest: 10 minutes typing : who is the best? 29 students grade 4 Findings our studies? • Learning how to touch type is beneficial for both children and adults • More attention for typing skill seems justified (in schools and in companies) • Lower levels students can even profit more • Automation of typing has positive effects on the quality of the typed work Intensive guidance is a MUST Conclusion: Why touch typing? Milo, before and after a touch typing course Touch typers can actually see the painting Less productive employees Time Loss of time Loss of time Loss per 6 working on due to technical due to lack of hours PC problems skills 6:00 0:14.30 0:13.07 0:27.37 hours minutes seconds 7.6% Loss higher: less educated employees (10.1%) Van Deursen & van Dijk, 2012 Why touch typing? Profits for a company Labour hours per week 40 Hours typing per day 2 Days off 28 Days not present (training, illness) 5 Typing speed now 151 Age 42 After a course touch typing 243 Profits in DAYS 21 Calculator developed by Martin Beijer, To conclude: A touch typing course: worth the effort!! QUESTIONS? [email protected] [email protected] Touch typing for better spelling and creative writing Paper presented at the IPRS Meeting Intersteno Parliamentary and other professional Reporters’ Section Zagreb (Croatia) October 5th – 8th, 2016 Henny van der Meijden (MSc, PhD) Mariëtte Tesselhof (M SEN) Educational Science Tesselhof Opleidingen Radboud University Nijmegen Raalte The Netherlands The Netherlands [email protected] [email protected] 1 Introduction It is impossible to imagine a life without computers these days. Already in primary education in the Netherlands, students are increasingly required to work on the computer. Some authors think that children automatically learn how to type by working on the computer, whereas others state that touch typing, similar to learning how to write, is a skill which should be taught at school (Van der Meijden, Hamerling, & Scholten, 2006). Only since the nineties, typing research focused on children. Moreover, the research focused not only on speed and accuracy, but more and more on the relation between typing fluency and language skills. In this paper, we present a study on the effects of a course “touch typing” in primary school children in the Netherlands Touch typing Two typing strategies can be distinguished: touch typing and visually guided typing (Yechiam, Erev, Yehene, & Gopher, 2003). Typists who touch type place their hands in a fixed position on the keyboard and use this as a starting point for pressing particular keys by using all 10 fingers, without looking at the keyboard. Visually guided typists on the other hand gaze at the keyboard searching for the right keys to press and type without placing their hands and fingers in a fixed position. According to Salthouse (1986), four processes play an important role when a person is typing a sentence. First the sentence must be remembered, put in the working memory, then the sentence has to be chunked in characters, finally leading to the striking of the right letter at the keyboard. This is more difficult for less skilled typists than for skilled typists (Alves, Castro, & Olive, 2008). Problems in the transfer from input to motorist actions might cause the differences in text production between skilled and less skilled typist (Christensen, 2004). In several experiments, Rieger (2004) showed that skilled typist, when typing a letter, already prepare the next keystroke. Thus, a skilled touch typist has memorized the position of the keys on the keyboard, is aware of the position of the hands and fingers, has automated the motor actions of striking the keys, and without further thinking prepares the next keystroke. Research on typing skill and spelling Research on typing skill and spelling is mainly focused on the differences between typing and handwriting. A review of studies on this topic by Cochran-Smith (1991) showed that in general typed texts were longer and contained less spelling errors than handwritten texts. Students worked longer on a writing assignment and revised the assignment more often when keyboarding