The Effect of Computer Programming on The Problem-Solving Strategies of Preservice Teachers
Rucinski, Terrance Timothy
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/69097
Description
Title
The Effect of Computer Programming on The Problem-Solving Strategies of Preservice Teachers
Author(s)
Rucinski, Terrance Timothy
Issue Date
1986
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Technology of
Abstract
The effect of computer programming on the problem solving strategies of preservice teachers was investigated. The experimental subjects were students enrolled in the course, "Microcomputers in Education" and the control groups were made up of students enrolled in "Metric Geometry and Teaching Elementary Mathematics" and "Instructional Tasks in the Secondary School." The computer language taught to the experimental group was BASIC. A variation of the "Nonequivalent Control Group Design" as described by Campbell and Stanley (1966) was used. Both the pretest and the posttest were derived from problem situations designed during a series of investigations in problem solving at the Loyola University Psychometric Laboratory under the leadership of Horacio J. A. Rimoldi in the middle 1960s. A 2 x 2 repeated measures Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to test the five hypotheses posited for the study. No interactions between group and treatment (a beginning course in computer programming) were significant at the .05 level. Significance was approached, however for mean number correct for Problem 1, which was used in the pretest and the posttest, (p < .13), mean proportional scores for Problem 1 (p < .12) and mean proportional scores for the complete test (p < .17). It would seem that an introductory course in computer programming does not have a statistically significant effect on the strategies used in solving problems of the type presented in this investigation. A follow-up study of subjects from this same age group (sophomores or higher in college) who have taken more than one course in computer programming as well as a study of subjects enrolled in a course teaching a language other than BASIC is recommended. It is also possible that exposure to a programming language might produce different results than those in this study with subjects whose major is in an area other than Elementary Education.
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