The effect of a microcomputer-based biology study center on achievement and attitudes in high school biology students

This research study was part of a collaborative biology curriculum development effort between the University of Michigan and the Washtenaw Intermediate School district. Teachers from 10 school districts in Washtenaw County, Michigan participated in the development of high school biology computer-assisted instruction (CAI). This study was designed to investigate the effect of the CAI on learning in high school biology students. Two classes of high school biology students (n = 56) enrolled in a suburban southeastern Michigan high school participated in the study. Achievement and attitude data were collected at the end of each exam for one public school semester.;Data were analyzed using the Single-Case Experimental Design model. A positive effect of the CAI was clearly demonstrated for underprepared students (defined as those students with standard achievement test scores that were below the class median). Females', African Americans', 9th graders', and male 10th graders' level of achievement were also positively affected by the CAI.;All students reported feeling better prepared for taking tests when they received the CAI than when they received traditional instruction only. Enjoyment for biology increased, test-anxiety decreased, and self-efficacy increased with use of the CAI.;An important discovery was made concerning how high school students used CAI in this study. It was found that high school students would memorize questions and answers to the questions in order to obtain a perfect score while using the software, but they would not truly understand the biological concepts. Thus, the software was modified so that all questions changed internally each time a problem set was run by a student. Final versions of the software required that students actually think through each problem carefully. Otherwise, a high score was not attainable.;Public school science teachers who participated in the development of the CAI reported asking more higher-order thought questions of their students during delivery of instruction as a result of their participation with the biology curriculum development project. The participating teachers also reported benefiting greatly from colleague interactions.