THE EFFECT OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION UPON READING ACHIEVEMENT WITH SELECTED FOURTH-GRADE CHILDREN

The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of computer-assisted instruction upon reading achievement with selected fourth-grade students. The students in the study were given traditional reading instruction along with computer-assisted instruction. A comparison of this group with a group of students receiving only the traditional reading instruction was conducted. A review of selected literature was conducted to gain background and supportive information to the development of the study. One hundred thirty-two fourth-grade students comprised the experimental and control groups for the fifteen-week study. The California Achievement Tests were administered as the pre- and posttest measures to all subjects in the research. Two-way analysis of variance (1 repeated measure) tests, the t-test, and the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. No significant difference existed between the means of the experimental and the control groups on reading comprehension. However, students in the experimental group showed a significant gain between the administrations of the pretest and the posttest. Based upon the findings of this study, the following conclusions were drawn. (1) From an educational viewpoint, the experimental group made a significant gain. (2) Matching the software to the objectives being taught in the traditional reading curriculum appears to be an effective educational practice. Based upon the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made. (1) A study should be conducted assigning students randomly to the experimental control groups in one school with the same teacher conducting classes for both groups. (2) More than one computer should be placed in the classroom to allow more computer time for students in order to ascertain whether increased amount of time would affect achievement. (3) A study should be conducted in Chapter I reading programs. (4) Further research should be conducted due to the limited number of studies