PUBLICATION INFORMATION
TITLE OF PUBLICATION
THE INFLUENCE OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION ON STUDENTS’ CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING OF CHEMICAL BONDING AND ATTITUDE TOWARD CHEMISTRY: A CASE FOR TURKEY
NAME OF AUTHOR(S)
Haluk Ozmen
NAME OF PUBLISHER
Computers & Education
LANGUAGE OF PUBLICATION
English
PUBLICATION TYPOLOGY
Research
TARGET GROUP OF PUBLICATION
School Directors, Researchers, Teachers
SIZE OF THE PUBLICATION
Over 10 pages
DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS
This study presents the effect of computer-assisted instruction on conceptual understanding of chemical bonding and attitude toward chemistry. The experimental study was implemented on 11 grade students; 25 experimental and 25 in a control group. The collected data consists of the CBAT (Chemical Bonding Achievement Test) each with two-stage questions and the CAS( Chemistry Attitude Scale) with 25 items. These two tests (CBAT and CAS) were maintained as pre-test and post-test.
Having some indications about the Turkish Educational System may definiteley enhance one in comprehension. The Turkish Republic is an applicant for he European Unioun (EU) for many years and is a developing country with a population of about 70 miilion. The Turkish Educational System consists of four stages:
1. Pre-School, which is according to choice
2. Basic-Education, which comprises a compulsory 8-year-education period
3. Secondary-Education, which comprises a non-compulsory 3-year-education period
4. Higher-Education, encapsulating universities which have generally an education period of 4 years.
In addition, science is a compulsory subject in the Turkish Educational System. Science subjects begin at the 4th grade and continue until the 8th grade – quasi a five year education.
The appliances used for this experiment are the CBAT(Chemical Bonding Achievement Test) which is developed by Demircioğlu et al. (2005) to evaluate student attitudes toward chemistry and the CAS (Chemistry Attitude Scale) which is developed for gathering the date the experiment.
The used instruments CBAT and CAI were guided by 30 students in order to check their scope and to elaborate certain points before the implementaion. One of the research questions for this study was to determine the effect of CAI on students’ attitude toward chemistry. When the attitudes were assessed and the attitude statements were evaluated according to pre-test results, no statistically significant differences were found between the control and experimental groups. The second research question for this study was to determine whether or not the CAI or traditional instruction were effective in improving students’ understanding of chemical bonding unit. The CBAT test was administered to both groups as pre-test and post-test. The third research question for this study was to determine if CAI or traditional instruction was effective in the remediation of the student alternative conceptions. In Turkey, there are a few studies related to effectiveness of CAI. In these studies, the main aim of the research is generally to determine the effectiveness of the CAI compared with the traditional teaching on students’ achievement and attitudes (Ertepınar, 1995 and Morgil et al., 2005).
The experiment was applied in a 3 weeks period during the 2004-2005 academic years. The selected teachers and students who participated this study are chosen deliberately and carefully which have similar background knowledge and experiences, worke at the same school, and have experiences in using computers. The control group students were taught by a traditonal teacher-centered approach involving ‘talk-and-chald’ Taype lessons- which is the dominant teaching approach in Turkish Schools. In contrast to that, the experimental group received the CAI as a complement to other teaching methods such as PowerPoint presentations and regular classroom intructions. The CAI material containing chemical bonding were introduced to the students via data-show where students had the opportunity to use interactive applications on the computer. There were 12 available personal computers,hence the students had to work in pairs. The CBAT and CAS were implemented to the groups before and after the experiment in forms of pre-test and post-tests. Both groups were observed during the procedure. The independent t-test was used to compare and evaluate the pre-and post tests.
REVIEWER’S COMMENTS ON THE PUBLICATION
This publication presents a research about the computer-assisted instruction on conceptual understanding of chemical bonding and attitude toward chemistry and the consequential effects of this. The instruments CAS and CBAT were implemented to experimental and control groups before and after the Computer Assisted Instruction. The pre-tests have been shown that there are no significantly differences between the groups with respect to chemistry achievement and attitudes toward chemistry. In contrast to this, the post-test’s results have shown that there are significantly differences in favor of the experimental group. Therefore, it is possible to say that the results are suggesting that teaching and learning of concepts related to chemical bonding can be improved with the help of Computer Assisted Instruction. Developing the essential software for different chemistry concepts according to improve the student’s visualization skills and understanding is a very important and supportive tool but it is not enough as a single teaching method. CAI should be used in order to support the teaching process and it shouldn’t be considered as a teaching method itself.
NAME OF THE REVIEWING ORGANISATION
Kırıkkale University
Comments about this Publication
Your comments are welcome
Date: 2014.03.10
Posted by John Pountos (Greece)
Message: This publication aims at exploring whether computer-assisted learning (CAI) can have an effect in Turkish students’ achievements, students’ attitudes and students’ misconceptions related with the specific subject of chemical bonding. The author provides a quite long but also quite useful review on past research conducted in the field of chemistry teaching via CAI. Subsequently, the author presents the methods employed for data collection and analysis. More specifically, the study made use of two instruments (Chemistry Attitude Scale, CAS) and Chemical Bonding Achievement Test (CBAT)) in a pre-test and post-test experimental design in two groups (control – experimental) consisting of 25 students each. The existence (or not) of statistically significant differences were examined via the use of the independent t-test. The author should present more concrete evidence for the validity of the use of the t-test for the statistical analysis due to the rather small sample size.
Despite this ambiguity, the data provide evidence for the increased effectiveness of CAI both on student achievement and on their attitudes towards chemistry, when compared to the traditional student-centered teaching approach. It should be noted however that there is a quite significant increase both in students’ achievement and attitudes via the use of either teaching approach (CAI and traditional).
The study provides also evidence that CAI results in increased remediation of several students’ misconceptions related with chemical bonding.
Overall, this is a publication which is relevant and useful for the issues examined in the Chemistry is All Around Network, since it provides an example of a successful approach in chemistry teaching. Some more detailed discussion on the limitations of computer-assisted learning as well as provision of practical advice for the successful implementation of ICTs would make this work even more beneficial.
