A study of the efficacy of LOGO programming on the achievement of fifth grade students
Linda Stathis · CSUSB ScholarWorks (California State University, San Bernardino) · 1989
Statement of the ProbleniThe pu:^bee of this project Was to determine the effects that LOGO programming had on the ability of fifth grade students to solve specific types of mathematical problems.Educational Programs are often implemented with little research to determine the effectiveness bf the learning intervention.There is a need for research on LOGO programming to discover if the use of this program is a viable way to broaden a student's academic growth by using a single inter vention (Noss, 1987).; ;The research at Mary Tone Elementary School involved two groups of fifth grade students, one experimental group and one control group.Each group was pre-and posttested using the California Achievement Test (CAT) Form E, Level 15, Test 6, entitled Mathematics Computation.Students in the control group receiyed no instruction in LOGO programming.The students in the experimental group received eighty minutes of LOGO programming per week in a computer lab setting working in pairs.Over a period of eleven weeks students received over fourteen hours of LOGO instruc tion.In addition, the treatment students had access to LOGO programming in their classroom on a sign-up basis during this ■ 'iii' .sain^ eleven Tyo Apple lie 'compu1ter$ w0re available to students in their regular classroom on a sign-up basis for working with LOGbwriter.Thus> students were able to access the LbGOwriter programming in two ways.T^ scores were statistically analyzed to determine if the knowledge of LOGO had any significant effect on the students' academic achievement.The results of the pretest scores were used to determine the eguality between groujpsi The ppsttest scores were; exainins"!toj di^ if there ; waS any statisticaliy significant difference between the cohtrol group and the treatment group.Both pte-aind posttest scofeS were used to determine if there was a statistically significant difference in achievement of the treatment group.In all three comparisons, no significant difference was found.V : A great deal more reliable research is needed in the area of LOGO programming.Educational developers and implementors need concrete evidence that LOGO will impact educational environments through improved test scores before they will invest time and money to establish LOGO programming.