THE DESIGN AND EVALUATION FOR INTERACTIVE ANIMATIONS TO IMPROVE TRADITIONAL CULTURE LEARNING FOR CHINESE PRESCHOOL STUDENTS

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study examines the effectiveness of the application of interactive animation to preschool students’ learning of traditional culture, focusing on the role of interactive animation in stimulating students’ interest and promoting their understanding of traditional cultural knowledge. Method: Quantitative research methods were used to collect test data from 4-5 years old kindergarteners in the middle class through whole cluster sampling. The data collection tools included: Learning Competency Evaluation Sheet and Satisfaction Questionnaire for parents, preschool students, and teachers. Result: The results show that children are inclined to cartoon characters with high saturated colors, and are favor of animal-type characters than human-type characters, especially large-eyed and oval-shaped animals, and the exaggerated actions with the characters can easily bring children into the plot. Children are more sensitive to fast-paced music, and the guidance sound effects have increased children’s interactivity when the branching storyline. During interaction, children prefer simple touch-based controls such as tapping and dragging. Meanwhile, the interactive animation learning intervention significantly improved students’ grades in the traditional culture, and positive evaluations from parents and teachers further confirmed that interactive animation has great potential for application. Significance: The effectiveness of interactive animation on traditional culture curriculum is verified through empirical data, providing a design framework for interactive animation that suits the cognitive development of Chinese preschool students, filling the gap between interactive animation and traditional culture curriculum in a new integration method, suitable for popularization and use in different countries and cultural, and providing domestic and foreign educators with teaching strategies to improve the teaching effect.