Efficiency of the computer-assisted programmed training in music teaching

The objective of this study is to compare the method of programmed training and traditional method of training in the 7th-year music lessons of primary school, thus determining whether it is efficient in the realization of learning. With this aim, primary-school 7th-year students? attitudes to the music lesson, to the way the course is conducted through a computer and their self-efficiency perceptions of the computer will be examined to find out whether there is a significant relationship between them.This study is composed of two parts, one descriptive and the other experimental. The descriptive part of the study is derived from qualitative and quantitative research methods and the experimental part from quantitative research methods. The model of the research is a mixed one in which survey and experimental methods are used. The relational survey model is used in the study, and so is the model with the pre-test ? post-test control groups.The universe of this study consists of the 7th-year students enrolled at the Primary Schools of the Ministry of National Education in Yenimahalle of Ankara during 2009-2010 training year. The sampling group of the study, however, is composed of the A (experiment: 24 students) and B (control: 23 students) branches of the 7th-year students at Celayir primary School in the spring semester of the 2009-2010 training year.The following are the tools of collecting data used in the study: ?Test of Achievement? and ?Computer-Assisted Programmed Teaching Material? developed by the researcher; ?Scale of Attitudes to the Music Course? developed by Ozmentes (2006); ?Scale of Attitude to Computer-Assisted Learning? developed by Askar et al (1991); ?Scale of Self-efficiency Perception of the Computer? developed by Askar and Isıksal (2003); and ?Form of Students? Views of the Music Course Taught according to Computer-Assisted Programmed Teaching Method? prepared by the researcher.In the study, experimental studies were carried out for ten weeks. Because the students? knowledge before the experimental study was revealed, pre-test (test of achievement) was performed before the application was started. The experimental group?s students took their music lessons with a computer-assisted teaching material prepared with Adobe Flash CS3 before the computer at the computer laboratory, while the control group?s students were taught through the methods of direct teaching and question-answer at the classroom. In addition, to determine the control and experimental groups? students? attitudes to the music course, Scale of Attitude to Music Course was applied in the pre-test and post-test.Because the experimental group took the lesson with the computer, ?Scale of Self-efficiency Perception of the Computer? and ?Scale of Attitude to Computer-Assisted Course? were applied to this group only in the pre-test and post-test. Prepared to take the experimental group?s students? views of the computer-assisted programmed method of teaching, ?Form of Students? Views? was filled by the students. During the experiment and five weeks after the last test applied to them, the control and experimental groups? students were given a test so as to determine the permanency of the information or knowledge taught.In this study, first of all, Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test was applied to control whether this assumption had been secured. As a result of the normality testing, parametric tests (t-test, ANOVA) were used in the groups? comparison for the variables that conformed to the normal distribution. In this sense, t-test (paired samples t-test) was used for the dependent samples in the comparisons of pre-test and post-test, while repeated measures variance analysis (repeated measures ANOVA) was used in the pretest-posttest-permanency test comparisons. In the comparison between the control group and experimental group, t-test (independent samples t-test) was applied in the independent samples. Levene test was used to examine the hypothesis of equality of variances in t-test. As a result of the variance analysis, Benferroni test was conducted to find out the difference between the measurements in the cases of significant differences. Moreover, correlation coefficients were calculated to see the relationships between the measurements. The `p? values obtained from the study were compared with the error levels of 0.01 and 0.05. The analyses in the study were obtained by using SPSS 18.0 package programme.As a result of the findings of the study, it was seen that there is a significant difference between the experimental group?s students? pretest-posttest and pretest-permanency test achievement scores but there is not a significant difference between the posttest-permanency test achievement scores. It was also seen that there is a significant difference between the control group?s students? pretest-posttest, pretest-permanency test and posttest-permanency test achievement scores. There was not seen a significant difference between the pretest-posttest-permanency test achievement scores of the students of the experimental and control groups and between the pretest-posttest-permanency test according to the gender.In the knowledge level of the experimental group?s students, there was seen a significant difference between the pretest-posttest, pretest-permanency test and posttest-permanency test achievement scores. In the control group, however, there was seen a significant difference between the pretest-posttest, pretest-permanency test achievement scores, while there was not a significant difference between the posttest-permanency test achievement scores. In the knowledge level of the experimental and control groups? students, there was not seen a significant difference between the pretest-posttest-permanency test achievement scores.In the perception level of the experimental group?s students, a significant difference was seen between the pretest-posttest-permanency test achievement scores. However, in the perception level of the control group?s students, a significant difference was seen between the pretest-posttest, posttest-permanency test achievement scores, but not between pretest-permanency test scores. The difference between the experimental and control groups? students? pretest-posttest-permanency test achievement scores was found as statistically significant.It was determined that the computer-assisted programmed teaching method was more efficient than the traditional method in securing the permanency test and in the perception level. It was seen that experimental and control groups? students has a positive attitude to the music lesson and there was not seen a significant difference between them.There was seen a significant difference between the experimental group?s students? attitudes to the computer-assisted learning, their self-efficiency perceptions of the computer. Accordingly, it was seen that experimental group?s students? attitudes to the computer-assisted learning and their self-efficiency perceptions are positive, and there was seen an increase in the scores of their attitudes to the computer-assisted learning and self-efficiency perception of the computer from the pretest to the posttest. It was determined that control group?s students adopted positive views of the music course conducted according to the computer-assisted programmed teaching methods and they took more pleasure in the course and used the time more efficiently thanks to the teaching software prepared for the course.