Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

6-1982

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Curriculum and Instruction

Major Professor

Russell L. French

Committee Members

Charles Chance, Ken McCullough, Robert Maddox, John Ray

Abstract

The intent of this study was to determine the impact of learning packet instruction and lecture instruction on cognitive change, attitude change and knowledge retention In addition, in students studying child passenger safety. the study looked at sex and rural-suburban characteristics of students exposed to the instructional methods.

A comparative treatments, pretest, posttest control A group design was used to compare the two treatments. pretest, posttest and a follow-up posttest were used for evaluation of the 165 subjects. Two sites were used for the experiment, Carter High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Pleasant Ridge High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Ten driver education classes in all received the two instructional methods. Five classes used the learning packet instruction, and five classes received the lecture instruction.

The students were tested with an objective, multiple choice test for cognitive change and again three weeks later for knowledge retention. A Likert-type scale was used to assess attitude change three weeks after the treatment. The t-test of significance was used to analyze the impact of the independent variables, learning packet instruction and lecture instruction, on the dependent variables, cognitive change, attitude change and knowledge retention.

The primary findings from the comparisons of the two instructional methods showed no significant differences in cognitive change for the two groups, learning packet students and lecture students. This was true also in the primary findings in knowledge retention. However, there did appear to be significant differences in attitude change with learning packet students showing greater attitude change than lecture students in a number of comparisons.

Secondary analyses, those related indirectly to the three main hypotheses, which made comparisons by geographical and sex characteristics, found a number of differences. For example, suburban female students scored higher in cognitive change than suburban males in each of the two treatments. In attitudinal change, suburban females showed greater improvement using learning packets than did the males; however, suburban males showed greater attitude improvement using lecture than did the females. Geographically, rural students scored higher in attitude change than did suburban students in the lecture instruction. And, in knowledge retention, while rural females retained more knowledge retention than males in both treatments, suburban females out-scored the males in knowledge retention in only one treatment--lecture instruction. Geo-graphically, the rural students retained more knowledge with the lecture instruction than did suburban students.

No cause and effect regarding instructional method and learner outcomes was established from this study. Inferences, however, were drawn from the comparisons of scores of the two instructional treatments and from the comparisons of geographical and sex characteristics. More definitive research is needed on the influence of learning packet instruction on the learner.

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