The paper analyzes the comparative effectiveness of Computer-Assisted
Learning (CAL) and the traditional teaching method in biology on primary
school pupils. A stratified random sample consisted of ...214 pupils from two
primary schools in Novi Sad. The pupils in the experimental group learned the
biology content (Chordate) using CAL, whereas the pupils in the control group
learned the same content using traditional teaching. The research design was
the pretest-posttest equivalent groups design. All instruments (the pretest,
the posttest and the retest) contained the questions belonging to three
different cognitive domains: knowing, applying, and reasoning. Arithmetic
mean, standard deviation, and standard error were analyzed using the software
package SPSS 14.0, and t-test was used in order to establish the difference
between the same statistical indicators. The analysis of results of the
post?test and the retest showed that the pupils from the CAL group achieved
significantly higher quantity and quality of knowledge in all three cognitive
domains than the pupils from the traditional group. The results accomplished
by the pupils from the CAL group suggest that individual CAL should be more
present in biology teaching in primary schools, with the aim of raising the
quality of biology education in pupils.
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