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THE RELATIONSHIP OF FORMAL COMPUTER COURSEWORK TO COLLEGE STUDENTS' CRITICAL THINKING ABILITY
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to determine the relationship of formal computer coursework to college students' critical-thinking ability. The study involved 163 students enrolled at Chadron State College. Sixty-six students enrolled in three sections of a computer literacy course titled "Introduction to Computer Applications" comprised the experimental group and 97 students selected from four general education non-computer classes comprised the control group. Subjects in the experimental group were introduced to general concepts of computer usage, wordprocessing, electronic spreadsheets, database, and their integration. The subjects in the experimental group were required to complete writing assignments using wordprocessing, to compose spreadsheets from scratch using elementary formulas, to develop a database for practical application and finally to demonstrate competency in an integration of the aforementioned areas. Forms A and B of the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal were administered to all participants in the study as pre- and posttest measures of critical-thinking ability. Additional information such as class status, grade point average, age, degree of prior computer exposure, background, and sex was gathered from the students. These factors were considered statistically as independent variables. Multiple regression and correlation techniques and t-tests were utilized to statistically determine the relationships of the independent variables to critical-thinking ability. An appropriate regression equation by the method of least squares was obtained. In the model tested, neither computer literacy, grade point average nor sex was significantly related at the.05 level to posttest scores on the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal. However, age was significant at the.01 level and graduating from a rural high school was significant at the.05 level.
Subject Area
Curricula|Teaching|Educational software
Recommended Citation
WRIGHT, JAMES ARTHUR, "THE RELATIONSHIP OF FORMAL COMPUTER COURSEWORK TO COLLEGE STUDENTS' CRITICAL THINKING ABILITY" (1987). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8804007.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8804007