Chapter One: Introduction
Theoretical Perspective and Research Design
Competencies are measurable portion of a person performing and/or willing to perform in certain instances assigned by a particular guide. It measures observable knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors pertaining to success. Competencies equip a person during lifelong activities and instances of participation. Some portion of the competency become visible like an iceberg floating on the ocean bed. It also defines skills and competence of the individual performing in the context for fulfilling certain objectives. Knowledge is the practical or theoretical understanding of a subject. Skills and abilities are natural or learned capacities to perform acts. Behavior is a pattern of actions or conduct.
Attainment of competency as observed in different individuals varies considerably. For example somebody sings well, some other person is a good painter, some can speak well, some rarely speaks. Lot of examples can be furnished in this regard. Regarding some of the selected competencies (considered as critical) most of the learners feel problem. Addressing these competencies with some learning outcome is to be worked out. It can bring some reflection upon the Application of Computer in regular day to day study and skill acquisition. It may true that computer cannot replace a teacher because of some reason. It may facilitate teaching by availing its mechanized process.
Statement of Problem
Competency non-achievements at school level are frequently reported from the student of 11- 14 years of age-group. Some of the group specific and some individual specific problems identified from the specified age group were as follows:
1. In a classroom having teacher: student ratio- 1:60, a teacher rarely capable of implying individual attention upon all students. A teacher usually follows a stereotype model of curriculum transaction in a generalized way for finishing the job within a time-frame prescribed to him/her.
2. While attending a group, general instructional strategies adopted for all the participant students; and by that way a student having individual specific problems in competency achievements may remain unreached and even unattended by the teacher.
3. Students spending less than two hours a day for study at home usually become non-achievers.
4. Students promoted to upper class with previous history of non- achievements in any subject area may become non-achiever for the second time.
5. Lack of proper guidance at home often makes students poor in study.
6. Lack of interest in study is the major reason of competency non-achievements.
Problems observed in achieving certain level of competencies by all students in common. For instance students rarely attempt questions of Geometrical Portion in common. They also often avoid questions related to measurements, calculation of area of certain space and also problems related angles and straight-line. Plan of study came in mind after observing the commonness to the non- performance or poor- performance of some students of class seven and eight. It also became evident that students losing interest in study due to periodic lecture session running throughout the day.
Set of Objectives
Questions arose about role of teacher in the process of competency enhancement. The process enhancement concerns with up gradation of the quality exhibited by the participant students. How one can improve the level of competency enhancement was also a matter of concern. Application of computer in content delivery system and also designing and applying some software for the regular study can be practiced on an experimental basis. By that process experimental research came on surface with following objectives:
1. To trace-out different areas of Critical Competencies at Elementary Stage ( 6 to 14 years of age-group.)
2. To develop different Computer Aided Learning Packages and Monitoring and Evaluation Tools on the basis of different areas of Critical Competencies identified earlier.
3. To expose students in different learning – teaching environments for evaluating their achievements.
4. To exercise different learning teaching environments for evaluating learner’s achievements.
5. To find out levels of achievements in both the case of administration of CAL Package and normal way of study.
6. On the basis of results preparing modules and models of study for wider application.
Hypothesis
The research hypothesized following aspects:
1. Computer Aided Learning will minimize the instructional gap and thereby it will influence the competency achievements.
2. Activity oriented learning will gain much more attention of students, and thereby competency achievement will be enhanced.
3. All the competencies may not be arranged in as per their inter-relations. Rearranging competencies in different modules will ensure easier competency achievements.
4. Computer Aided Learning will expose teachers to other areas of Curriculum.
Hypothesis can be tested through a process of experimental study where selected students receive special treatment and another group will not receive such treatment. Competency achievements will be tested afterward. Tests were organized both before and after the process of experimentation. For experimentation four competencies selected from the table of basic competencies available. These were as follows:
1. Speaking (Linguistic Competency);
Grammar and Vocabulry2. Mathematical Reasoning(Mathematical Competence);
Factors and Multiples; Decimals and Fractions; Geometric Assumptions;3. Strategic Vision (Perception Competence).
State of Matters4. Planning & Organizing
Algorithm FlowchartsLearning outcome of all these competencies designed as per the area of competencies concerned (see Table 1.1).
Scope of Computer application on all these competencies considered possible and a system of instruction process for three months designed for addressing these competencies through computer aided content areas and related evaluation tools.
Table 1.1: Learning outcome of Competencies
| Competencies | Learning Outcome (After attaining such competence candidate can achieve enlisted abilities perfectly) |
| Speaking (Linguistic Competency); | Conveys ideas and facts orally using language the audience will best understand. |
| Mathematical Reasoning(Mathematical Competence); | Uses mathematical techniques to calculate data or solve practical problems. |
| Strategic Vision (Perception Competence). | Sees the big, long-range picture. Compare the state of matters and also understand the changes in the state of matters. |
| Planning & Organizing | Coordinates ideas and resources to achieve goals. |
| | |
Addressing each competency separately is not possible, hence the group of four competencies considered in an integrated fashion while selecting content areas of study.
Research Design
Pre-test post - test research design considered for this purpose. That means both the group (Experimental and Control ) will participate in the evaluation process both before and after the special treatment administered upon the Experimental Group ( Table 1.3). Treatment of Computer Aided Learning Package introduced only upon the Experimental Group and changes in the achievement level observed through evaluation. Laboratory engagements planned as per the availability of the computer.
Table 1.3: – Pre-test – Post - test Design
| Group | Pre-test | Treatment of Computer Aided Learning | Post-test |
| Experimental | O1 | C | O2 |
| Control | O3 | | O4 |
| | | | |
This design allows us to compare the final posttest results between the two groups, giving an idea of the overall effectiveness of the intervention or treatment. (C) We can see how both groups changed from pretest to posttest, whether one, both or neither improved over time. If the control group also showed a significant improvement, then we must attempt to uncover the reasons behind this. We planned to compare the scores in the two pretest groups, to ensure that the randomization process was effective. These checks evaluate the efficiency of the randomization process and also determine whether the group given the treatment showed a significant difference. Beyond discovering causal relationships, experimental research further seeks out how much cause will produce how much effect; in technical terms, how the independent variable will affect the dependent variable. We know that turning the knob clockwise will produce a louder noise, but by varying how much we turn it, we see how much sound is produced. On the other hand, we might find that although we turn the knob a great deal, sound doesn't increase dramatically. Or, we might find that turning the knob just a little adds more sound than expected. The amount that we turned the knob is the independent variable, the variable that the researcher controls, and the amount of sound that resulted from turning it is the dependent variable, the change that is caused by the independent variable.
Experimental research also looks into the effects of removing something. For example, if we remove a loud noise from the room, will the person next to us be able to hear us? Or how much noise needs to be removed before that person can hear our sound?
The term treatment refers to either removing or adding a stimulus in order to measure an effect (such as turning the knob a little or a lot, or reducing the noise level a little or a lot). Experimental researchers want to know how varying levels of treatment will effect what they are studying. As such, we often have an idea, or hypothesis, about what effect will occur when they cause something. Few experiments are performed where there is no idea of what will happen. From past experiences in life or from the knowledge we possess in our specific field of study, we know how some actions cause other reactions. Experiments confirm or reconfirm this fact.
Selecting groups entails assigning subjects in the groups of an experiment in such a way that treatment and control groups are comparable in all respects except the application of the treatment. Groups can be created in two ways: matching and randomization. Randomization, then, is preferred to matching. This method is based on the statistical principle of normal distribution. Theoretically, any arbitrarily selected group of adequate size will reflect normal distribution. Differences between groups will average out and become more comparable. The principle of normal distribution states that in a population most individuals will fall within the middle range of values for a given characteristic, with increasingly fewer toward either extreme (graphically represented as the ubiquitous "bell curve").
Thus far, we have explained that for experimental research we need:
• a hypothesis for a causal relationship;
• a control group and a treatment group;
• to eliminate confounding variables that might mess up the experiment and prevent displaying the causal relationship; and
• to have larger groups with a carefully sorted constituency; preferably randomized, in order to keep accidental differences from fouling things up.
But what if we don't have all of those? Do we still have an experiment? Not a true experiment in the strictest scientific sense of the term, but we can have a quasi-experiment, an attempt to uncover a causal relationship, even though the researcher cannot control all the factors that might affect the outcome.
A quasi-experimenter treats a given situation as an experiment even though it is not wholly by design. The independent variable may not be manipulated by the researcher, treatment and control groups may not be randomized or matched, or there may be no control group. The researcher is limited in what he or she can say conclusively.
The significant element of both experiments and quasi-experiments is the measure of the dependent variable, which it allows for comparison. Some data is quite straightforward, but other measures, such as level of self-confidence in writing ability, increase in creativity or in reading comprehension are inescapably subjective. In such cases, quasi-experimentation often involves a number of strategies to compare subjectivity, such as rating data, testing, surveying, and content analysis.
Since we're mentioning the subject of statistics, note that experimental or quasi-experimental research cannot state beyond a shadow of a doubt that a single cause will always produce any one effect. They can do no more than show a probability that one thing causes another. The probability that a result is the due to random chance is an important measure of statistical analysis and in experimental research.
Our Research activity proceeded through following five stages…
• Identifying a research problem
• Planning an experimental research study
• Conducting the experiment
• Analyzing the data
• Writing the paper/presentation describing the findings
The process started by clearly identifying the problem we wanted to study and considering what possible methods one should workout to obtain a solution. Then we selected the method we wanted to test, and formulated a set of hypothesis to predict the outcome of the test.
The next step was to devise an experiment to test our hypothesis. In doing so, we considered several factors, such as….
• how generalizable will be the end results?
• Do we want to generalize about the entire population of high school seniors everywhere, or just the particular population of seniors at specific school?
• The amount of time funding that we want to allocate.
Continuing the fact depicted above, we wanted to organise a small study at one school involving four teachers, each teaching two sections of the same course. The treatment in this experiment was administering Computer Aided Learning Packages referring selected group of competencies having demarcation as Critical one. Each of the four teachers were assigned the same curriculum as per the prescribed framework of regular educational activities; the treatment group participated in experimental process that equipped with Computer Aided Learning Packages, while the control group received only teacher’s comments on their drafts as per the conventional curriculum transaction process known to them.
At the start of an experiment, the control and treatment groups were evaluated for assessing the level of competence they have in specific areas of study. Competencies of similar kind and similar framework were administered upon all groups under consideration. In that way there was no variation in terms of contents to be delivered for achieving the desired level of competence within prescribed time frame assigned to each teacher.
Each teacher expected to handle the selected group as per the frameworks selected for the study. We had two classes for a control groups and two classes for treatment/experimental groups. The written and referral assignments were given and the teachers were briefed not to change any of their teaching methods or contents delivered to them in terms of write-up for the control group and some Computer Aided Programmes for the experimental groups.
The fourth step was to collect and analyze the data. This is not solely a step where we collect the papers, read them, and say our methods were a success. It must explicit certain success as per the desire and expectation that duly objectivated during initial frame of the experimental study. Covering competencies through curriculum transaction was not the motto, also referring certain individual specific problems was not the point of interest, only the fact was the concern of Competency Enhancement; more elaborately to say Enhancement of Critical Competencies. . We must devise a scale by which evaluation of the enhancement process can be made visible on surface. For doing that we evaluated the data being received, therefore you must decide what indicators will be, and will not be, important.
Tools of Experimentation
We considered Computer as a tool of the experimentation. Potential of computer application explored properly to deliver different Computer Aided Learning packages as per our expectation and planned perspective of the research. Computer worked as a powerful interface in between the teacher and the students. In this case teacher worked earlier in advance for reaching the point of learning activity. Computer directly worked on the basis of the process operations delivered to it by experts of the particular experts. Different teaching and learning instances of Computer Application were duly recorded. Statistical test has been used to analyze differences in the scores of two or more groups.
This research activity wanted to examine the effectiveness of Computer Aided Learning Packages upon a selected group of students as a process motivator/ inducer for Competency Enhancement process. The research initiated with a courage and enthusiasm of attaining desired results at the end of the experimentation.