Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe effects of student characteristics and computer based modes of drill and practice on achievement in primary school mathematics( 1979)The study was designed to investigate the effects of extraversion, sex and computer based modes of drill and practice in arithmetic on achievement in arithmetic for grade three children. A computer based system of drill and practice in arithmetic, based on the 'Strands' program from Stanford University, was developed and implemented for the experiment which was conducted during Term II, 1978. The system of drill and practice was used in an interactive, individualized mode (CAI), a non-interactive individualized mode (CMI) and two modes in which the teacher selected exercises from the program. In one of these teacher selected modes the performances of the children were displayed in the classroom. The children were classified as extraverts, introverts or medium extraverts as a result of their responses to the Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory. The grade three children at Moreland Primary School were pretested for initial arithmetic achievement. They were randomly allocated to treatments of drill and practice in arithmetic after being ranked on the extraversion scale. The experimental program extended over eleven weeks in which the children were given daily drill and practice in arithmetic using the mode to which they were assigned. One hundred and seventeen students completed the program and the posttest. The experimental design for the investigation is a 2 X 3 X 4 factorial model for which an analysis of covariance was used to test the significance of the hypotheses formulated for the study. The cell frequency for the twenty-four cells was randomly reduced to three to enable analysis of covariance for equal cell frequencies. The hypotheses which were supported by significant t statistics are: i. Extravert students performed at a higher level of achievement in arithmetic than introverts ii. Boys had superior performance on the non-displayed mode of teacher selected. drill; when the results for the teacher selected mode were displayed the girls had superior performances iii. Extraverts are better suited to non-individualized modes of drill than introverts In six cases the analysis indicated possible trends that: i. Boys performed better than girls. ii. The performances on the teacher selected modes were superior to those on the individualized modes iii. The interactive, individualized mode of Grill and practice (CAI) produced superior results to the non-interactive individualized mode (CMI) iv. Extraverts are favoured by CAI, while the introverts are favoured by CMI v. In the teacher selected modes the introverts' performances improved on the displayed results mode; the extraverts' performances improved on the non-display of results, thus reducing the superiority of the. extraverts when the results were displayed.
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ItemThe effects of trait anxiety, mathematical ability, method of testing, task difficulty, and their interactions, on state anxiety and performance in mathematics at primary school( 1979)A review was made of the theoretical and research literature related to the trait-state concept of anxiety, the relationship of anxiety to academic performance; and some factors confounding the anxiety, performance relationship. A study investigating the differential effect of anxiety on performance under two different methods of testing was reviewed. A study to replicate the findings related to anxiety, performance and varying test precedures was proposed. Data collected in the study made possible an investigation of Spielberger's Trait-State concept of anxiety and Spence's Drive Theory. One hundred and seventy six male, State primary school children drawn from sixteen grade five and six classes took part in the study. All testing was carried out in term I of 1978. As hypothesized the formal method of testing proved to be more anxiety arousing than the informal method of testing and students performed better under the latter testing procedure. Low anxious students performed better than high anxious students under both testing conditions. The study provided further support for Spielberger's Trait-State anxiety theory with high trait anxious students displaying higher levels of state anxiety than law trait anxious students, confirming that the State-A scale is a sensitive device for measuring differential anxiety arousal. The hypotheses related to Spence's Drive Theory were only partially supported by the results. Explanations as to why the interaction between task difficulty, ability and anxiety might not have been significant in this study were discussed. In general this study found evidence confirming the notion that high anxiety hinders performance, particularly for low ability students.