Effects of Computer-assisted Instruction (CAI) on 11th Graders' Attitudes to Biology and CAI and Understanding of Reproduction in Plants and Animals

Abstract

This study investigated whether the use of the combination of the lecture, discussion and computer-assisted instruction (CAI) significantly improved the experimental students' attitudes to biology and the computer/CAI and their understanding of reproduction in plants and animals. The sample comprised 77 Jamaican grade 11 female students from two traditional high schools in Kingston. Attitudes to a biology questionnaire, attitudes to the computer/CAI questionnaire and a biology achievement test (BAT) were used for data collection. The results indicated that the experimental subjects' post-test attitudes to biology and the computer/CAI were significantly better than those of the control group subjects taught with the lecture and discussion methods; the experimental subjects significantly outscored the control group subjects on the post-test BAT; there were significant differences in their post-test BAT means based on their attitudes to biology in favour of experimental subjects with highly favourable attitudes to biology, but there were no significant differences in their means attributable to their post-test attitudes to the computer/CAI; there was a positive statistically significant but weak relationship between the experimental subjects' post-test attitudes to biology and their post-test BAT scores.