Playing an Active Role in Learning: Tappity Science App

About Tappity

Tappity is a library of interactive educational content for kids. Kids don’t just watch Tappity on a screen; they play an active role. They become the central character in our stories. Why? Because learning is simply more fun, more enriching, and more engaging when you’re more than just an audience member.

Kids don’t just watch Tappity on a screen; they play an active role. They become the central character in our stories. Why? Because learning is simply more fun, more enriching, and more engaging when you’re more than just an audience member.

The truth is: when your child develops an obsession with space after watching a meteor shower or when they wonder why rain falls from clouds on a long car ride to grandma’s, we want to be there.

Because that spark of curiosity? That’s important; it matters. And growing that sense of wonder is what Tappity is all about.

My Personal Background with this app

I personally subscribed and used this app when homeschooling my children (6 and 11) during the COVID-19 pandemic. I was looking for something beyond the textbook, but less actual hands on where I would have to purchase equipment for experiments and the like. Once a day, during science period, I would have them log on to this app and use air play to show it on the big screen TV. At first, my children were hesitant to try it because it was an educational app. However, after a few lessons, they realized that they could take control of their learning and therefore requested it even on the days when we didn’t do typical school days.

Inspiring Curiosity

Epistemic curiosity refers to a desire to gain knowledge to explain the causes of gaps in one’s understanding or why something is happening the way it is (e.g., “Why is my car engine making that noise?” or “What did Einstein mean by E=mc2?” or “What technique can I use to remember the geographical locations that are likely to be on the test?”) (Reiser, Dempsey, 2017). The Tappity app helps facilitate the curiosity that naturally happens and helps to inspire curiosity in the learner in different ways. More than 100 years ago, John Dewey in his book, The School and Society (1899), noted that children’s natural curiosities such as “interest in conversation, or communication; in inquiry or finding out things; in making things, or construction; and in artistic expression [are the] natural resources, the uninvested capital, upon which depends the active growth of the child” (pp. 47–48). The Tappity app is geared towards helping the learner figure out why things are the way they are, and then expands on their knowledge. The learners can then gauge how much they’ve learned with knowledge checks. If the learner is still curious and wants to learn more, the app provides more information on every subject. New subjects and even new information on each subject is added periodically in order for the learner to continue this journey.

Volitional Strategies

Volitional learning is a learning that is primarily driven by the will to consciously undertake, persist in, and fulfill a particular learning goal, whether formally or institutionally defined or self-chosen or conceived (Elstad, 2012). Research has been biased toward learning in formal settings (Elstad, 2012). However, volition for learning is not only interesting from the perspective of instruction-facilitated learning, but also in informal settings and in the context of self-education(Elstad, 2012). The Tappity science app helps the learners self-regulate in allowing them to choose the content in which they learn, they allow them to spend as much or as little time on a subject in which they choose. The goal here is the answer the question they had initially, or expand upon a subject they show interest in. Heckhausen and Gollwitzer (1987) suggest that volitional processes can be segmented into four different, consecutive phases. The first phase is called the pre-decision phase and poses the task of setting preferences among wishes and desires by determining their desirability (Heckhausen, Gollwitzer, 1987). Once preferences are set, the learner faces the challenge of how to get started with goal-directed behaviors (the second phase) (Heckhausen, Gollwitzer, 1987). The execution of goal-directed action is the third task (action phase) (Heckhausen, Gollwitzer, 1987). In the fourth phase (post action) the learner needs to decide whether the desired goal has indeed been achieved or whether further striving is needed (Heckhausen, Gollwitzer, 1987). Learners can use the Tappity app for all of these phases, if the curiosity is sparked before coming to the app, the subsequent phases are still facilitated via this app.

Satisfying Outcomes

The relationship between learning and pleasure is fundamental in Aristotelian thought: “Naturally, all men desire to know (eidenai),” reads the opening sentence of the Metaphysics (1.980a22) (Munteanu, 2012). Motivation to learn is promoted when learners anticipate and experience satisfying outcomes to a learning task (Reiser, Dempsey, 2017). The anticipation of learning through being the main character in the story is something new for learners. Tappity allows the learners to be the main character and even allows them to experiment and guide the story in their own way. The satisfying outcomes come when the learners are able to complete the tasks. John Atkinson (1957; Atkinson & Birch, 1978; Atkinson & Feather, 1966; Atkinson & Raynor, 1974, 1978) developed an expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation. The basic idea of this and other expectancy-value theories is that behavior depends on one’s expectancy of attaining a particular outcome (e.g., goal, reinforcer) as a result of performing given behaviors and on how much one values that outcome (Schunk, 2020).

References

Reiser, R.A., Dempsey, J.V. (2017) Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, 4th edition, Pearson.

Dewey, J. (1899). The school and society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Elstad E. (2012) Volitional Learning Strategies. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_103

Heckhausen, H., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (1987). Thought contents and cognitive functioning in motivational and volitional states of mind. Motivation and Emotion, 11, 101–120.

Munteanu, Dana LaCourse (2012) Aristotle on Pleasure and Learning. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA. 312-313 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_103

Schunk, D. H. (2020). Learning theories: An educational perspective (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson.

Atkinson, J. W. (1957). Motivational determinants of risk-taking behavior. Psychological Review, 64, 359–372.

Atkinson, J. W., & Birch, D. (1978). Introduction to motivation (2nd ed.). New York: D. Van Nostrand.

Atkinson, J. W., & Feather, N. T. (1966). A theory of achievement motivation. New York: Wiley.

Atkinson, J. W., & Raynor, J. O. (1974). Motivation and achievement. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.

Atkinson, J. W., & Raynor, J. O. (1978). Personality, motivation, and achievement. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.

Atkinson, R. C. (1975). Mnemotechnics in second-language learning. American Psychologist, 30, 828–921.