THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION AND ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS AND LEARNING RATES OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN FIRST-YEAR CHEMISTRY (SCIENCE EDUCATION)

The Problem. This research proposed to determine the effects of computer-assisted instruction on both the level of achievement and the rate of learning experienced by secondary students in first-year Chemistry. The Hypothesis. The achievement of students in first-year Chemistry provided with computer-assisted instruction will be greater in the principles of the Gas Laws and Temperature Conversion, Boyle's Law, and Charles' Law than by students not receiving computer-assisted instruction. The learning rate of students in first-year Chemistry provided with computer-assisted instruction will be greater in the principles of the Gas Laws and Temperature Conversion, Boyle's Law, and Charles' Law than by students not receiving computer-assisted instruction. The Methodology. Students were pretested on their knowledge of the Gas Laws. The control group was taught the principles of each of these laws and concepts without the aid of computer programs, and without access to a computer for calculations. The experimental group received identical instruction. They, however, were provided the use of Apple II computers in order to practice programs in the Gas Law principles, as well as for calculations. Posttests on each Gas Law were administered to both the experimental and control groups. Subsequently, a statistical analysis of each student's gain scores (the difference between the pretest and posttest scores) was made through the application of a one-way analysis of variance. The Results and Conclusion. No statistical difference was observed between the gain scores or the learning rate for the experimental and control groups when tested at the alpha = 0.05 level. The research hypothesis was not, however, rejected, due to the following criteria: the mean gain scores of the computer-assisted group were greater than those of the control group in the areas of Temperature Conversion, Boyle's Law, and Charles' Law. Gain scores for students with low mathematical ability also improved with the introduction of computer assistance.