Description

Research on the Informing Others CD Program

 

Overview

The Speaking with Power: Informing Others program was written and developed using Flash 8 and was designed to be stand-alone software, compatible with both Macintosh and Windows platform computers. The program provides self-paced instruction in communication strategies that can be used to enhance expressive language. Instruction includes the differences between the use of formal and informal speech, discriminating when to use each, and practice to reach mastery with regard to formal speech. The Informing Others program teaches students to listen, manage, and build effective communicative in a variety of contexts as they present new information. Their goal is to inform or teach. They learn to research a topic, organize the information into main ideas, create a well-formed introduction (with an attention grabber), body, and conclusion, and include supporting statements (examples, reasons, and comparisons), and they practice presenting the information concisely and smoothly. The program contains major instructional segments related to research, preparation, presentation, and connecting with an audience when giving a short speech.

 

The program was field-tested in schools located in a suburban area. Low SES students enrolled in junior high schools with a history of receiving “D’s” or “F’s” on assignments in a core subject area participated in the study. A pretest-posttest control-group design (Campbell & Stanley, 1963) was used to determine the effects of the CD instruction on student knowledge and performance of oral language skills compared to students who had not received the CD instruction. Prior to the experimental group beginning instruction, all students completed written tests and a performance task (an oral presentation) related to the program. During the experimental condition, students independently worked through the computerized program. Finally, at the end of each study, all students took all the tests again. Following completion of the CD program, experimental students completed a satisfaction questionnaire. Four measures were used in the field test of the program: (a) a computerized student quiz and student tracking measure gathered by the IM Program; (b) a written knowledge measure, (c) a skill performance measure; and (d) a social validity measure.

Results

            Computerized quiz and tracking. Results showed that the students used the program as it was designed to be used. All sections of the program were completed sequentially. In addition, the large majority of student responses to the practice items were correct. Table 1 shows the mean percentage of items in each “Quiz” section of the CD program that participants answered correctly on the first attempt. Participants were required to answer each item correctly before they were allowed to progress through the program, so eventually every student answered every item correctly.

 

Table 1 Mean Percentage of Computerized Quiz Items Correctly Answered on the 1^st Attempt

Segment                                    n            Mean Scores                                                                       

Quiz 1                        57       93%

Quiz 2                        55       92%                               

 

Students in the experimental group maintained a Strategy Log where they entered the time they spent on each segment of the program. The mean amount of time recorded is summarized in Table 2.

 

 

Table 2 Mean Number of Minutes Spent Engaged in Each Instructional Segment                       

     Mean Minutes

Section 1                                                                                          21

Section 2                                                                                          34

Section 3                                                                                          11

Section4                                                                                          42                                                                                                                                               

 

Strategy Knowledge Test. The Strategy Knowledge Test was a test comprised of open-ended questions related to expressive language. Table 3 show the mean scores for the students prior to instruction and after instruction was completed by the experimental and control groups.

Table 3 Mean Percentage Scores on the Strategy Knowledge Test on the Pretest and Posttest

                                                                                                                                               

           Mean Score

Pretest Posttest

Experimental Group                                                                        14%                                                                        77%

Control Group                                                                                          14%                                                                        18%                                                     

The percentage of interscorer agreement on this measure was 97% (369 agreements out of 380 opportunities).

 

The INFORM Strategy Knowledge Test scores were analyzed using an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) in which the experimental and comparison posttest scores were compared using the pretest scores as the covariate. The level of significance (alpha) used for the tests was .05. The ANCOVA revealed significant differences between the posttest scores of the two groups, F (1,107) =549.912 , p = 0.000. The partial eta-squared value was .850, which is interpreted by Cohen (1988) as a very large effect size.

 

            Performance Test. For each Performance Test, students were given information related to a topic and were asked to prepare to give a speech about the topic to a pretend audience. Speech-giving results are shown in Table 4. The results of the ANCOVA for the performance measure revealed significant differences between the posttest scores of the experimental and control groups for speech giving, F (1,109) =283.130, p = 0.000. The partial eta-squared value for speech giving was .728 which is interpreted by Cohen (1988) as a very large effect size.

 

Table 4 Mean Percentage Performance Scores (giving a speech) on the Pretest and Posttest           

           Mean Score

                                                                                                                              Pretest                                                                         Posttest                                                                       

Experimental Group                                                                        27%                                                                        74%

Control Group                                                                                          23%                                                                        25%                                                                       

The percentage of interscorer agreement on this measure was 80% (192 agreements out of 240 opportunities).

 

Student satisfaction measure. The students’ mean ratings on the items on the Satisfaction Questionnaire ranged from 4.5 to 5.6 (on a 7-point Likert-type scale, with “7” indicating “extremely satisfied” and “1” indicating “extremely dissatisfied”). The mean overall rating for the Informative Strategy program was 5.1. Those items with the highest ratings included the following: the program was free from cultural and ethnic bias, the interactive activities, they knew how to use the Strategy Checklist, they understood and could complete a map for a speech, and they had an understanding of how the strategy could benefit them.

 

Conclusion

This research study showed that an interactive software program can be used to teach students knowledge about informative speeches. It can also be used to help them improve their speaking performance. The students participating in the study, on average, were satisfied with the program.

 

Reference

Vernon, S. (2011). Effects of a hypermedia program on persuasive and informative speaking skills. Final report for SBIR Grant #1 R44 HD047974.