Keyboarding versus handwriting: Effects on the composition fluency and composition quality of third grade students

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.