Experiment
1
Method
Participants. The participants were an intact group of
8th grade students in an Explorations of Technology class from a central
Georgia middle school winter semester. The ethnicity information for
the 1,072 students attending this central Georgia middle school was
as follows: 61% were African-American, 2% were Asian, 36% were Caucasian
and 1% were Hispanic. There were 549 students (51%) that received free
or reduced lunch. A total of 64 children (32 boys and 32 girls), aged
13 and 14 years old, participated in this study. Students were matched
based on reading scores from the Georgia
Criterion-Referenced Competency Test and placed into same
sex pairs.
Measurement Instrument. A pretest was given to investigate
possible differences between males and females in terms of computer
technology achievement. The pretest consisted of 10 multiple-choice
questions published by Learning Labs, Inc. Students were given the same
10-question multiple-choice pretest as a posttest measure.
Learning Labs, Inc. (P.O. Box 1419
Calhoun, GA, 30703) is an educational resource business with hundreds
of technology products on the market. Their products have been adopted
and implemented in well over a thousand schools nationwide. Learning
Labs, Inc. produces exceptional technology-based educational packages
for both middle and high school levels.
Procedures. The researcher has taught Explorations in
Technology to 8th graders at Weaver Middle School since January 1997.
According to the curriculum guide for technology education developed
by the Georgia Department of Education in 1988, the purpose of the middle
school industrial arts/technology program is to provide students an
orientation and exploration into the technologies of communication,
manufacturing and construction, and energy and power control. A further
purpose is to augment the students' base of concrete experiences providing
better foundation for the development and understanding of more abstract
academic concepts.
In the Exploration in Technology class, students worked independently
through 3 technology units per semester. Pairs of students completed
9 self-directed activities from a lab manual developed by Learning Labs,
Inc. without teacher instruction. All the units began with a brief history
of the subject followed by 8 days of step by step instruction and was
concluded with a problem solving activity. Each area included a pretest
and posttest. Students completed a set of study questions and vocabulary
words while progressing through the unit. In addition, all units included
multiple worksheets, experiments, demonstrations, and problem solving
activities.
At the beginning of winter semester, same sex students were randomly
paired in 4 Explorations of Technology classes. Students were given
a pretest on animation and assigned to work in the animation lab area
(module). Over a period of 9 school days, students spent 40 minutes
a day working on the student directed activities found in the animation
lab manual compiled by Learning Labs, Inc.
In the animation module students learned about the history of animation
and gained a working knowledge of how to operate a computer animation
system. Students generated numerous animation sequences by utilizing
an existing library of computerized actors as well as actors they created
from scratch. Students also used these animated sequences to produce
a videotape with animation and sound.
Students worked in pairs to complete the activities and were instructed
to solve problems within their group. All classes had the same assignments.
Academic objectives were the same for each class. All tests measuring
achievement were identical.
Study Design and Data Analysis. This was a casual-comparative
research study. This design involved selecting 2 groups differing on
an independent variable (gender) and comparing the groups on a dependent
variable (achievement). The scores from the pretest and posttest of
male and female students were compared using Analysis of Covariance
with repeated measures and gender as the factor. The repeated measure
was the pretest and posttest. The probability level was set at alpha
= .05 for a two-tailed test.
