Metacomponential development in a Logo programming environment.
Douglas H. Clements · Journal of Educational Psychology · 1990
Effects of a theoretically based Logo environment on executive-level abilities were investigated. Forty-eight third graders were tested to assess pretreatment level of achievement and were randomly assigned to one of two 26-week treatments: Logo computer programming or control. Posttesting with a dynamic interview instrument revealed that the Logo programming group scored significantly higher on the total assessment of executive processing. Features of the instructional environment, such as explicitness and completeness, help account for these effects. Structural coefficients were meaningful for three of four individual processes. The type of Logo environment used may have less effect on planning processes than on those processes that construct elaborated mental schemata for problems. Classroom tasks may provide substantial experience only with the former; in contrast, the Logo environment may have emphasized the expression of the latter in general, as well as domain-specific, terms. Contradictory research results regarding the use of the Logo computer programming language to enhance higher-order thinking abilities appear in no small part attributable to differences in instructional environments. Unfortunately, these environments are not usually described in sufficient detail, based on a theoretical foundation, or closely linked to expected cognitive consequences. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a theoretically based Logo environment on the executive-level abilities of third-grade children.