The effects of locus of control and instructional method on self-efficacy with computers

Graduation date: 1987The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the interactive effects of locus of control and instructional method on perceived self-efficacy with computers. The two instructional methods in this\ud experiment were intended to represent variations in the amount of control over the lesson that students\ud would have, the amount of self-directed performance opportunities that would be provided in the\ud activity, and to contrast inductive and deductive teaching methods using the computer. The treatments\ud were identified by the names "student-controlled" and "program-controlled". The two instructional\ud methods were designed to be congruent with two generalized locus of control orientations, "internal"\ud and "external".\ud The general hypothesis was that subjects who receive instruction using computers by a method\ud that is more congruent with their locus of control orientation would have greater perceptions of self efficacy\ud about using computers than subjects who experience instruction by methods that are\ud incongruent with their locus of control orientation.\ud A total of 95 preservice teachers (both elementary and secondary) participated in the experiment\ud A two-by two factorial design was used,in which subjects were blocked by locus of control\ud orientation (internal/external) and then randomly assigned to the two instructional methods (student-controlled/program-controlled) yielding four treatment groups. A measure of perceived self-efficacy\ud was obtained from the entire sample following the instructional period. These data were analyzed\ud using appropriate analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of variance procedures.\ud The results of the test of perceived self-efficacywere not conclusive. Although there were no\ud statistically significant main effects or interaction effects for locus of control and instructional method,\ud examination of the means for each group indicated that the results tended in the expected direction.\ud Internal subjects who received the student-controlled treatment had higher mean scores than internals in\ud the program-controlled group. External subjects receiving the program-controlled treatment had higher\ud mean scores than externals in the student-controlled group