University of South Alabama
College of Education
Instructional Design & Development
Program
ABSTRACTS
Keyboarding versus handwriting: Effects on the composition fluency
and composition quality of third grade students
Shorter, Laurie Lee
2001
Chair: Davidson-Shivers, Gayle V.
This study had two main purposes. The purpose of the first part of the
study was to examine the effects of two different practice methods on the
acquisition of keyboarding skills by third grade students (n = 91). The
second part of the study was conducted in an effort to determine the effects
of two different modes of composition on the composition quality and composition
fluency of third grade students (n = 91). Two of four intact classrooms
were randomly assigned to control group status, and the other two to experimental
group status. For the first part of the study, participants in the experimental
group were further assigned to either the directed keyboarding practice
group (KPD) or the independent keyboarding practice group (KPI). After
two weeks of instruction in key location and operation of the AlphaSmart
3000 word processing machines, students began the practice portion of the
study. Students in the independent practice group worked on their own in
small groups during morning work time. These students practiced keyboarding
for an equivalent time (20 minutes per day) using materials identical to
those of the directed practice group. Students in the directed practice
group practiced together as a whole class under the direct supervision
of the classroom teacher. At the end of the study, an analysis of the data
showed that the directed practice group made statistically significant
gains in their keyboarding scores. The purpose of the second part of the
study was to determine the effects of keyboarding versus handwriting on
composition fluency and quality. Two intact classrooms studied cursive
handwriting during the 20 minutes that the other two intact classrooms
studied keyboarding. This part of the study was designed to determine whether
students who could keyboard proficiently performed better on measures of
composition fluency and quality than students who wrote by hand. Only a
few students reached the necessary level of proficiency required by the
study design. Therefore, research questions related to this part of the
study could not be answered.
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