THE EFFECTS OF COMPUTER BASED AND COMPUTER ASSISTED INSTRUCTION ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION OF KNOWLEDGE ON THE CONTENT OF “PARTICULATE NATURE OF MATTER”

The aim of this research was to investigate the effects of the computer-assisted and computer-based instructional methods on students’ achievement and retention rate on the content of “particulate nature of matter” from sixth grade science and technology class. The study was completed in 16 lessons with 78 students. An academic achievement test of science and technology was prepared by researcher and used as a pretest before instruction, as a posttest after instruction and as a delayed posttest four weeks later than instruction. The study designed as a quasi- experimental research with two experimental groups. Both of computer-assisted and computer-based instructional methods significantly increased achievement and retention. When these two methods compared in terms of achievement and retention, it wasfound that computer-based instructional method was more effective than computer- assistedinstructional method.