The Impact of Instructional Technology on 4th Grade Student Achievement
Loading...
Links to Files
Permanent Link
Collections
Author/Creator
Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2020-05-07
Type of Work
Department
Program
Masters of Education
Citation of Original Publication
Rights
This work may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.
Abstract
This study examined the impact of instructional technology on 4th grade students’ achievement. The study was conducted at a public elementary school with a predominantly upper-middle class student population. Two pre-existing social studies classes of 25 students each were randomly assigned to the control or experimental condition. Groups did not differ significantly on the previous unit chapter test, which was used as pretest information. Students received four and a half weeks of instruction on events leading to the American Revolutionary War. The control group received traditional instruction, gleaning most of their information from textbooks and paper articles. The experimental group received instruction integrated with technology and accessed most of their information through videos and online articles housed on an online platform. Participants completed a researcher-designed post-test. Questions on the post-test were created using Bloom’s Taxonomy and consisted of multiple choice, matching, fill in the blank, and a short response question. Results of the post-test indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in the mean percentage correct between the control (Mean = 87.32, SD = 13.66) and experimental (Mean = 84.44, SD = 13.20) groups [t (48) = .76, p = .45]. Consequently, this researcher can conclude that instructional technology does not differ significantly from traditional methods in promoting academic achievement among fourth grade students predominantly from the upper-middle class, however, observational data suggests that students were more engaged when using laptops to enhance their learning experience. Implications and ideas for future research, including the role of socioeconomic status, are discussed.