Abstract

Problems. The problem of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a Computer-Assisted-Instruction program in teaching students traditional philosophy. The students were enrolled in the Introduction to Philosophy of Higher Education course, HIED 525. The CAI program was designed to assist the instructor in teaching philosophical concepts and tenets of philosophy, giving the instructor more class time to discuss current issues of education and relate them to traditional philosophy. ;Procedure. To determine the effectiveness of the CAI program, a pretest was developed. The pretest was administered to the students in the first week of the semester. Upon completion of the course the same test was administered as a post test. Also recorded was the amount of time the students spent on the CAI program and the number of times the students used the CAI program. ;Correlations were calculated using the Pearson-product coefficient. Also t-tests were used. A correlation was calculated between the variables of the post-test scores and the amount of time each student used the CAI program. ;Of interest to this study was whether the students changed their personal view of philosophy from one traditional philosophy to another. Of the 30 students participating in the study, 28 had changed their personal choice of traditional philosophy. ;Another means of determining the effectiveness of the CAI program was to analyze the students' interaction with the CAI program. The philosophical analysis was conducted in accordance with the writings of Jonas Soltis. This analysis provided a description of the interaction between the students and the CAI program. To understand how the analytical processes were accomplished by the students, Gagne's learning theory was applied to explain how the students learned philosophical concepts and rules of philosophy. ;Findings. The findings of this study show that the program was effective in teaching students traditional philosophy. The more the students used the CAI program, the more traditional philosophy they learned. However, there was no positive correlation between the number of times the students used the CAI program and the post-test scores. ;There was insufficient data to determine whether students who remained consistent in their personal choice of traditional philosophy scored better on the post test than those who were not consistent. ;There was evidence to show that the students performed three different types of analytical analysis on the post test. The students were able to learn rules of philosophy through interaction with the CAI program