(361)COMPARISON BETWEEN COOPERATIVE COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION AND INDIVIDUAL COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION ON STUDENTS PERFORMANCE WITH DIFFERENT COGNITIVE STYLES

摘要

The main purpose of the study is to compare the cooperative computer-assisted instruction (CAI)approach to individual CAI approach in the teaching and learning of the topic ‘linear equation’ inMathematics. The effect of these approaches on academic performance and motivation of students withdifferent cognitive styles, field dependence (FD)and field independence (FI)was examined. Amultimedia courseware entitled ‘Mathematics For Secondary School’ provided by the Malaysian Ministryof Education was used for the study. This study used a [2 X 2] quasi-experimental factorial design withpretest and posttest. The study was carried out for two weeks with a sample of 80 secondary schoolstudents aged between 14 and 15 years old. The independent variables were the two treatments(cooperative CAI and individual CAI), the dependent variable was the students’ academic performanceand the moderator variable was the cognitive style of field dependence-independence. Four researchquestions were put forward and four main hypotheses were formulated and tested using descriptivestatistics and inferential statistics (t-test and ANCOVA). Research findings showed that the cooperativeCAI mode contributes a higher academic performance among students compared to individual CAI.Secondly, the cooperative CAI mode also brings about higher academic performance for both the fielddependence-independence students. Thirdly, there were no changes in motivation among the fieldindependencestudents using the cooperative CAI and individual CAI. However, the field-dependencestudents showed a higher motivation score using the cooperative CAI mode compared to the individualCAI. Over all, most of the students in the cooperative CAI learning group show positive perceptiontowards the implementation of cooperative learning. The implication of the study suggests thatcooperative learning in a multimedia computer based learning environment should be used as aninstructional strategy in mathematics teaching.