Journal of Educational Computing Research

This research was initiated to examine instructional technologies and educational cultures in relation to identified cognitive and metacognitive strategies used in school tasks. The project involved activities from the social studies curricula that were presented through two new software programs intended to support the development of problem-solving and reasoning strategies—IDEA [Interactive Decision Envisioning Aid, Pea (76)] and Notecards (34)—and through instructional approaches based upon “cognitive apprenticeship” views of learning [Collins, Brown, and Duguid (36)]. After piloting the project, ten high school juniors participated in instruction with these technologies and redesigned methods, composing essays about their selection of arguments about a candidate for U.S. President and about a “most important social issue.” Essays about these topics written prior, during and after the project were collected and analyzed for their reasoning, using the work of Toulmin (40) and Hillocks (46). In addition, the ongoing interactions of the students with the instructional technologies were recorded and analyzed to assess their cognitive and metacognitive strategies as they occurred. Quantitative analyses revealed significant (p < .05) increases in the “breadth” and “depth” of students' reasoning in the “presidential candidate” essays as a result of the project (independently of the presented knowledge base), but little or no improvement in their reasoning in the “issue” essays (intended as transfer tasks). Data collected from students' ongoing use of the technologies is also analyzed and reported, including positive correlations (Rho = .68, Rho = .78) between written reasoning and interactions with the “executive control” functions of the software programs. These results, as well as qualitative findings, are discussed in relation to recent literature about cognition and learning with instructional technologies.

Ninety-eight student teachers enrolled in an introductory computer course were simultaneously administered four computer attitude scales. The responses were used to compare the reliability, dimensionality and construct validity of the four scales. All were found to give a reliable measure of general attitudes toward computers and their use. The scales primarily evaluated three attitude dimensions: Computer Anxiety, Computer Liking and Social and Educational Impact of Computers. One scale, the Computer Use Questionnaire, sampled only the last of these three dimensions and seems to be particularly appropriate for evaluating attitudes related to the impact of computers. Another, the Computer Attitude Scale, sampled only the first two of these dimensions making it a particularly appropriate choice to measure the attitudes of computer-novices. The other two, the Computer Survey and the Attitudes Toward Computers, sampled all three dimensions.

This article reports on exploratory research that examined the effectiveness of guidance tools to help users access information in a hypermedia program. Also, the study examined the influence of affective and motivational dispositions and cognitive strategies on users' search strategies. A stepwise regression analysis revealed that students were able to effectively use the Guide and the Browse modes to locate information that pertained to focus questions assigned them. The Index was not an effective means of locating information. The findings also suggested that students need adequate learning and study skills preparation to be successful navigators in hypermedia systems.

Computers are used widely for many purposes in educational settings. In this article the computer is used as a tool in an experimental setting. This study investigates the effects of self-generated questions and external questions on thinking processes. Thirty-three subjects received the program under three conditions of questioning: 1) external higher order questions, 2) external lower order questions, and 3) self-generated questions. The results revealed that question conditions were unrelated to the quality of explanations of a complex situation constructed by subjects. Note-taking was related to the quality of the explanations. The nonsignificant findings for question conditions were interpreted as indicating that questions and prompts to generate questions may elicit overt compliance without necessarily motivating the subjects to actually interrogate the material.

This article investigates the relative effectiveness of a computer assisted teaching (CAT) program in Physics on 1) correct application of multiplication and division calculation algorithms, and 2) the degree of intuitive mastery of the target notion of density of French students aged approximately fifteen, enrolled in a special “technology” class in a vocational school.

The purpose of this article is to examine the effects of Cooperative and Individualistic Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) programs on cognitive and affective variables in mathematics. Participants were 149 sixth grade students who studied in five classrooms. Within each classroom, pupils were stratified by previous achievement into triplets and then randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions: using CAI in pairs (N = 90), or individually (N = 59). Results showed that students who used CAI for drill and practice in pairs performed better than students who used the same program individually. In addition, the study showed that the individualistic and cooperative CAI methods equally affected students' mathematical self-concept, but the C-CAI treatment alleviated math anxiety of low ability students more than did the I-CAI treatment.