Abstract:
The curriculum taught in schools in Pakistan, do not offer much learner variability and requires
the learners to adopt it regardless of their learning abilities, learning preferences, backgrounds
and individuality. Static and rigid curriculum along with the pedagogic strategies followed to
teach this curriculum, contribute to the disengagement in learning tasks.
Even though the schools in Pakistan do have technological devices, the teaching techniques still
remain the same. Teachers mostly avoid using technology in classrooms due to various reasons
and even if they do make use of it, they do not go beyond showing PowerPoint Presentations to
deliver instruction.
The study undertaken, intends to introduce a new form of pedagogy i.e. teaching via contextually
designed digital stories to and explore its impact on student learning outcomes, engagement and
perception of using digital stories as an instructional tool. The participants of the study were 3rd
and 4th grade students studying at a private school in Islamabad. To pursue the study, a five-part
series of digital stories were designed on the topic of Habitats-chosen from the National
Curriculum of Pakistan. A total of 65 students participated in the 12-day session. Two types of
quasi-experimental design were used: non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design and
single-group pretest-posttest design. The pretests and posttest results unveil that using digital
stories had significant impact on improving student learning outcomes. Students also displayed
an overall positive perception and engagement regarding the use of digital stories as a
pedagogical tool.
