The Effect of Elementary School Keyboarding Instruction on Students’ Writing Assessment Scores
Keywords:
Elementary school keyboarding instruction, Writing assessments, Keyboarding courseAbstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in the writing scores for each of four traits—development, focus and organization, language, and conventions—as measured by the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) writing assessment for students who had a formal keyboarding course versus those who did not have formal keyboarding instruction. Method: A causal-comparative ex post facto research design was used. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Version 22 using the chi-square Pearson’s test was used to analyze data for all research questions. The test value for alpha (∞) was at the .05 level of significance for each null hypothesis. Results: For all null hypotheses, the p value was greater than .05 for each
grade level as well as for the total of all grade levels. The chi-square test results showed no dependency between test scores and keyboarding instruction. There was no statistically significant difference in the TCAP writing assessment scores for each of the four traits for Essay 1 or Essay 2 for students who had a formal keyboarding course compared to those who did not. However, there was a practical difference as shown in the pass rate percentages.
Downloads
References
Barkaoui, K. (2013). Examining the impact of L2 proficiency and keyboarding skills on scores on TOEFL-iBT writing tasks. Language Testing, 241-259. doi:10.1177/0265532213509810
Bartholome, L. W. (2003). Delivery systems for business education. In M. Rader (Ed.), Effective methods for teaching business education in the 21st century (Yearbook No. 41, 20-25). Reston, VA: National Business Education Association.
Conklin, W. (2011). Higher-order thinking skills to develop 21st century learners. Huntington Beach, CA: Shell Education.
Connelly, V., Gee, D., & Walsh, E. (2007). A comparison of keyboard and handwritten compositions and the relationship with transcription speed. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 479-492.
Davis, K., Christodoulou, J., Seider, S., & Gardner, H. (2012). The theory of multiple intelligences. Retrieved from http://howardgardner01.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/443-davis-christodoulou-seider-mi-article.pdf
Dickerson, J. (2007). Evolving introductory technology literacy courses: Reconciling student needs and abilities with curricular changes. Business Education Forum, 61(4) 46-48.
Dooling, J. (2000). What students want to learn about computers. Educational Leadership, 58(2), 20-24.
Erthal, M. J. (1998). Who should teach keyboarding and when should it be taught? Business Education Forum, 62(1) 36-37.
Johnson, B. (2001). Toward a new classification of nonexperimental quantitative research. Educational Researcher, 30(2), 3-13. Retrieved from www33.homepage.villanova.edu/edward.fierros/pdf/Johnson.pdf
Peterson, L. M. (2005). Marketing business education curriculum in an untapped market: Elementary school input technologies. Business Education Forum,60(2), 52-54.
Russell, M., & Haney, W. (1997). Testing writing on computers: An experiment comparing student performance on tests conducted via computer and via paper-and-pencil. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 5(3). Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ580763
Russell, M., & Haney, W. (2000). Bridging the gap between testing and technology in schools. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 8(19). Retrieved from http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/410
Shorter, L. L. (2001). Keyboarding versus handwriting: Effects on the composition fluency and composition quality of third grade students (Doctoral dissertation).
Stevenson, N. C., & Just, C. (2014). In early education, why teach handwriting before keyboarding? Early Childhood Education Journal, 42(1), 49-56.
Trapasso, M. L. (2015). Differences in handwritten and typed responses to curriculum-based measurements in written expression.
Trubek, A. (2011). Out of touch with typing. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved from http://www.technologyreview.com/view/425018/out-of-touch-withtyping/
Zeitz, L. E. (2008). A new look @ research-based keyboarding instruction. Retrieved from http://keyboarding.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/a-newlookresearch-based-keyboarding-instruction
