Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Award Winner

Recipient of the 2014 Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award.

To go to the Graduate Student Award Recipients collection page, click here.

Availability

Open Access Dissertation

Keywords

Mathematics--Study and teaching (Middle school)--Middle West; Middle school students--Middle West--Attitudes; Computer-assisted instruction--Middle West;

Abstract

Online learning has become a staple within education for college students, and has started to enter high schools. While this instructional delivery system has been shown to work for older students, few studies have involved middle school students. If this trend toward online teaching of younger students continues, online learning could become a large part of education for middle school students, making research in this area important.

Multiple positive and negative aspects have been identified for online learning. Positive characteristics include individualized pacing; electronic resources, and the opportunity for rapid or personalized feedback, while negative aspects address increased student responsibility and technological ability. Online communication may be viewed as an asset and detriment, depending upon the emotional needs of middle school students that differ from the older online student.

This study examined sixth grade students' academic performance in face-to-face and online mathematics units. Research participants included 46 sixth grade students attending a rural middle school in a Midwestern state. The counterbalanced, repeated measures study compared pretest and posttest scores on unit tests addressing mathematical content learned under two instructional conditions. Students alternated between online and face-to-face units, completing ten units during the school year. No statistically significant differences in overall student performance between the two conditions were found. A Two One-Sided T-Test indicated that student performance in the online and face-to-face learning in this study could be called equivalent.

Students also responded to surveys in which they rated perceived learning and enjoyment of the learning condition. No significant difference in perceived learning between the conditions was found. Student-reported enjoyment was significantly higher for online learning, but that enthusiasm decreased a small but significant amount during the year, probably because of loss of novelty. Student responses concerning their reasons for preferences for instructional condition paralleled characteristics reported in the professional literature.

This investigation demonstrated the equivalency of both conditions; however, additional studies with a greater number and diversity of students are warranted. Future research studies will need to determine if a blend of both instructional approaches is optimal.

Year of Submission

2012

Year of Award

2014 Award

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

First Advisor

Audrey C. Rule, Chair

Second Advisor

Greg P. Stefanich, Co-Chair

Date Original

2012

Object Description

1 PDF file (v, 98 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Download

Comments?

Share

COinS