A Computer Simulation Approach to Teaching Research and Evaluation Skills

Abstract
Three intact groups of graduate education students enrolled in a required two course sequence in research design and data anlaysis were assigned to three levels of experience with a computer simulated program evaluation project: control (no experience), restricted (2 semester hours), and intensive (6 semester hours). At the end of term I performance was compared on four variables: the course final; attitudes toward research; self assessment of research competency; and an objective rating of the students' research products (proposal and final report). The general hypothesis was that scores on each variable would increase monotonically with the amount of experience. Analysis of co-variance confirmed this hypothesis for achievement and product scores, but no significant differences were found for attitudes. Additional experience and tests during the second term confirmed both these findings.

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