Transfer of Learning by Word Processing Students: An Analysis of Selected Factors

178 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997.The purpose of this study was to determine if word processing can be taught conceptually so that students can decontextualize concepts from a specific program setting and thus achieve a greater level of both learning and far transfer. The conceptual abstracting instructional method, which used an analogy, a conceptual framework of the word processing operation, demonstrations of the framework in two different word processing programs, and hands-on practice of the word processing operation, was used as a treatment. The control groups were taught word processing terms and concepts within only one context and were given homework within that context. Data were collected from students in four sections of word processing at Central Wyoming College during the 1991 school year (n = 38). Analysis of covariance with the transfer pretest as covariate showed a significant difference at the.01 level for both the transfer test and the skills test in favor of the treatment group. These results seem to support the conclusion that the conceptual abstracting instructional method increases both learning and transfer by a small amount. Mann-Whitney U tests run on the keystroke transfer test variables of students with the highest gain scores did not prove to be statistically significant at the.001 level. Descriptive statistics on error categories did show that less than 5 percent of errors remained unresolved.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD