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Using Carl Glickman's model, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect computer assisted instruction had in teaching Developmental Supervision. The research expectancies were to yield improved supervisory behavior and conceptual understandings of Developmental Supervision, in the areas of style flexibility and style effectiveness. A synopsis of pertinent literature in these areas suggests that the supervisory role of school administrators need style flexibility, .style effectiveness, and the use of technology, computer assisted instruction, as a major component in educational improvement. Thirty-two (N = 32) administrators from a large metropolitan public school system in the south were randomly selected for participation in this study. The subjects were randomly assigned to the control group and experimental group, 16 and 16, respectively. The treatment utilized a three-session workshop format for the experimental group and no treatment was administered to the control group. Using a pre-test post-test design, both groups were administered the pre-test, Leadership Behavior Analysis II, during the first session. During the second session, the control group was given a placebo. The administration of the treatment was conducted by computer assisted instruction for the experimental group only. The disk began with the Supervisory Beliefs Inventory, individually, to ascertain their actual supervisory style; collaborative, directive or nondirective. The second section of the disk addressed training in supervisory style, teacher maturity, and the methodology needed to aid teachers to developmentally improve. The third session was in two parts: The beginning session for the experimental group was a discussion of the Developmental Supervision concepts and the control group experienced another placebo. The final component of the training was the administration of the post-test, Leadership Behavior Analysis II, to all subjects simultaneously. A t-test for independent and dependent samples was used to ascertain the difference between means in the sixteen experimental subjects and the control subjects. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation was administered to the data to determine the strength of the relationships in the control group and experimental group or pre-test and post-test results, respectively. The pre- and post-tests findings on the Pearson Product Moment showed a weak relationship in the experimental and control group. The pre- and post-tests findings, as were determined through the use of a t-tests for dependent and independent samples suggests that the use of computer assisted instruction to teach the key concepts of Developmental Supervision did not have a significant impact on the style effectiveness and style flexibility of supervisors in the school environment. In conclusion, the use of computer assisted instruction to teach key concepts of Development Supervision had no significant impact on the style flexibility and style effectiveness of the experiment group as compared with the control group.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

A cornerstone of much educational research in individualised and automated instruction (e.g., computer-based learning) is the assumption that learners be permitted to set the rate at which they work through the material to be learned. Experiments that have compared learning under conditions of self pacing (determined by the learner) and external pacing (determined by the experimenter), using a variety of tasks and populations, often have not supported this assumption. To evaluate the putative advantages of student self pacing in automated instruction, the studies in this thesis compared the effects of self-paced, and externally-paced, programmed instruction on student accuracy, retention efficiency, and satisfaction. Under self-pacing conditions, learners completely controlled the rate of progress through learning materials; that is, although the program paused when learners were required to provide answers, score answers, and proceed to the next item, it continued as soon as the learner pressed any key. External pacing was operationalised by programming a noncontingent 10-s postfeedback delay after every item; that is, learners could not progress to a subsequent item until the delay period was over. All relevant learning material for the current item was present during the delay. In a series of experiments using an alternating conditions design, learners completed approximately 40 sets of a programmed course in behaviour analysis (Holland & Skinner, 1961). A baseline of self-pacing conditions was followed by an experimental phase in which baseline conditions were randomly alternated with one or more experimental conditions. Later experiments also included a return to baseline conditions. In Experiments 1 and 2 externally-imposed delays resulted in greater accuracy than self pacing. This advantage occurred when the delays were accompanied by the study materials, but did not occur for a condition in which delays were presented without the learning material being visible. Hence, it was proposed that noncontingent postfeedback delays are effective because they provide a study opportunity which is otherwise not taken. In addition, imposing delays only slightly increased overall time to completion, and learners rated their satisfaction with external and self pacing similarly. Experiments 3 and 4 replicated the accuracy advantage found for external pacing, and showed also that material learned under these conditions was recalled better in both immediate and 1-month delayed posttests. These experiments also provided information about factors that influence efficiency during completion of materials. One of these factors was a requirement that, at the end of an instructional set, each question answered incorrectly be repeated until it was answered correctly (i.e., review feature). This is part of the standard implementation of programmed materials and had been employed in all conditions. In the earlier studies, externally-paced and self-paced conditions showed little difference in overall time to completion. It was apparent that although the externally-paced condition had an increased task time due to enforced delays, this condition did not take longer overall because more errors were made in self pacing, so more items were reviewed, and the overall time of a session was increased. Therefore, although imposing delays entailed a time cost, this was offset because it reduced the number of errors and time-consuming repeats. Experiment 4 demonstrated that when the review requirement was removed, noncontingent delays caused an increase in overall time to completion. Another factor determining efficiency was workrate during nondelay components of the task. Measures of the time learners spent responding, correcting responses, and continuing to subsequent frames, indicated that delays promoted faster workrates at each of these points. This was interpreted as evidence of a generalised escape motivation that is increased by being delayed and which offsets some of the time lost due to delays. The final two experiments investigated the effects of reviewing incorrect items on student performance because it had been a potential confound in previous experiments. Previously, both self-pacing and external-pacing conditions required subjects to repeat incorrect items until answered correctly. It is possible that because reviewing items increased time on task (like imposed delays), they also led to compensatory changes in workrate, and influenced timing and efficiency measures. Any such influence was not controlled across experimental conditions, however, because self pacing typically resulted in more errors and larger reviews, and any influence of review size on timing measures could not be separated from the effect of delays. It was found that, compared to a no-review condition, reviews reduced efficiency and had little influence on accuracy and retention. Hence, this feature was unlikely to have interacted with the delay variable in previous experiments. In conclusion, the results of the experiments show that self pacing reduced accuracy, retention, and workrates compared to external pacing. These studies indicate that learners often make poor choices about optimum learning conditions. They also show that small changes in the learning environment can result in consistent and substantial changes in learner performance, and that behaviour analysts have an important role to play in the design and implementation of instructional materials.

Includes bibliographical references. / 2 v. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Education, 1994

Thesis (M.Comp.)--Unitec New Zealand, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-1980).

Thesis (M. Ed.(Curriculum Studies) -- University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

The purpose of the study was to determine if learning computer programming on a microcomputer in BASIC language has a significant effect on the reading comprehension of fourth grade students.The study population consisted of eighty students in four fourth grade classrooms in a metropolitan district in central Indiana. The classes were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Each of the four classes received thirty minute instruction sessions. The experimental group received programming instruction while the control group received no programming instruction, but were instructed in computer awareness and the use of math computer software.Findings the data from this study indicated:1) There were no significant differences in 1 reading comprehension between the group of students that learned to do computer programming and the group of students that did not learn programming without regard to sex or reading ability levels.2) Learning computer programming had a significant effect on the comprehension achievement of female students in the average and below average reading ability groups.3) Computer programming instruction did not result in a significant gain for students in the above average reading ability group.Conclusions based on the findings of this study the following conclusions were drawn:1) Learning how to do computer programming did not significantly affect the reading comprehension achievement of fourth grade students without regard to sex or reading ability level.2) Students with reading abilities in the average and below average range responded better to programming instruction by demonstrating higher mean comprehension gains.3) Female students demonstrated a better response to programming instruction than male students no matter what the classification of reading ability.4) Lower ability students made greater gains whether they did or did not learn programming, possibly indicating that hands-on experience with a computer may assist in improving reading comprehension.The results of this study indicated that the students responded favorably to learning computer programming. Only two students in the experimental group did not improve their comprehension scores. Nine students in the control group did not improve their scores. However, no significant evidence was found that suggested that learning computer programming would improve comprehension achievement.With the educational community rapidly entering the technological world, the influence of computers in the education of elementary students will continue to increase. This study has attempted to add to the body of knowledge that educational decision makers will need in order to make education and schools of the future use computers effectively as tools for enhancing reading growth and improvement, and overall learning.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

Thesis (MEd(Computer-Integrated Education))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references.