EVALUATION OF EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE AND PAPER-BASED RESOURCES FOR TEACHING LOGICAL-THINKING SKILLS TO GRADE SIX AND SEVEN STUDENTS

Authors : Peter Fenrich

Pages : 434-454

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Publication Date : 2016-09-01

Article Type : Research

Abstract :To determine whether there were any differences between the effectiveness of educational software and paper-based materials in teaching the logical-thinking skills of classification, analogical reasoning, sequencing, patterning, and deductive reasoning, a quantitative assessment was conducted using a pre-test, post-test, experimental design. One-way ANOVAs were used to compare an experimental group learning from educational software (32 students), an experimental group learning from paper-based materials (32 students), and a control group (32 students). Tukey HSD Post Hoc Tests were performed since a significant difference was found between the groups. For each test, the subjects taught through educational software and those taught through paper-based materials scored significantly higher in logical-thinking ability than the control group, except for the subskill of deductive reasoning for both experimental groups. There were no significant differences between subjects taught through educational software and those taught through paper-based materials on any test. Results from paired samples t-test results showed that the subjects learning from educational software and those learning from paper-based materials had significant percentage gains on all of their pre-test to post-test scores, except the subjects learning through paper-based materials showed no significant gains on the subskill of deductive-reasoning.
Keywords : Logical thinking, instructional design, educational software