Abstract:

The research examined the effects of two computer games on 72 13- and 14-year old students' understanding of the IF-THEN-ELSE structure, considering students' cognitive type of field-dependence/independence (FD-I). Specifically, the researchers assumed a counterbalanced design. They investigated whether there were any statistically significant differences in the performance of field-dependent (FD) and field-independent (FI) students when they learned about IF-THEN-ELSE using two different computer games and whether the order in which they used the computer games differentially affected their learning. The VD computer game was developed using Scratch and used verbal descriptions to teach the IF-THEN-ELSE structure. The LD computer game was also developed using Scratch and used logical (visual) diagrams to guide the IF-THEN-ELSE structure.

As it is well confirmed from previous research, FD learners face difficulties in exploring and understanding visual representations because this kind of learning requires advanced analytical skills - skills that FD learners are well-known for not having (Narayanan & Hegarty, 1998; Hall, 2000; Waring & Evans, 2014). Therefore, based on these findings, the authors hypothesized that learning first with the VD computer game would facilitate FD learners' subsequent learning with the LD computer game, enabling them to outperform, on the same tests, the FD students who worked first with the LD computer game and the VD computer game second.

A 2Χ2 MANCOVA was conducted with Group and FD-I as the independent variables, the scores on the posttests as the dependent variables, and the scores on the pretests as the covariates. The results showed that the scores on the VD pretest did not affect students’ performance on the VD posttest in statistically significant ways (F (1, 66) = 0.15, p = 0.70) neither their performance on the LD posttest (F (1, 66) = 0.16, p = 0.06). Similarly, students’ scores on the LD pretest did not affect in a statistically significant way their scores on the VD posttest (F (1, 66) = 0.33, p = 0.57) neither their scores on the LD posttest (F (1, 66) = 0.76, p = 0.40). FD-I was found to be a statistically significant main effect only for the LD posttest (F (1, 66) = 6.66, p < 0.05), in favor of the FI learners, but not for the VD posttest (F (1, 66) = 0.34, p = 0.57). Most importantly, the results showed a statistically significant interaction effect between FD-I and Group for students' performance on the VD posttest only (F (3, 66) = 3.31, p < 0.05).

This research study showed that FD learners in Group A who learned about the IF-THEN-ELSE structure using the VD computer game first, followed by the LD computer game, outperformed the FD learners in Group B who learned first with the LD computer game and then with the VD computer game. These findings confirm the research hypothesis that the performance of FD learners, on both posttests, in Group A would be significantly better than the performance of FD learners in Group B. Thus, based on this empirical evidence, learning with the computer game facilitated FD learners' understanding of the branching structure. On the other hand, the interaction between field type and order of learning with the two computer games shows that only the FD learners benefited from learning with the VD computer game first and then with the LD computer game.

Keywords:

Games, computer science, secondary education, instructional design, cognitive type.