The Effects of HyperCard Programming on Teacher Education Students’ Problem-Solving Ability and Computer Anxiety

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a lengthened HyperCard treatment could promote problem-solving ability and reduce computer anxiety. It built upon a previous study by Reed and Liu (1994), which examined the comparative effects of the BASIC programming language and the HyperCard authoring language on students’ problem solving and computer anxiety. The Reed and Liu study found that after being exposed to the programming instruction for approximately 54 hrs, the problem-solving skills of the BASIC group improved significantly, whereas the problem-solving skills of the HyperCard group did not. This present research sought to answer the question “Can HyperCard promote problem solving if the treatment is lengthened and more of the programming components of HyperCard are included?” This study replicated a similar treatment, but lengthened the HyperCard instruction from 54 to 150 hrs of exposure to the language. The results showed that the lengthened treatment on HyperCard programming had an effect on problem solving. Students’ problem-solving scores increased significantly from pretreatment to the posttreatment. The most significant increase occurred between midtreatment and posttreatment, when students were involved in intense HyperCard programming. Students’ computer anxiety was reduced significantly, and a possible relationship between problem solving and computer anxiety was suggested. The implications of these findings with relation to teaching authoring languages such as HyperCard and traditional programming languages like BASIC were discussed.