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January 2012 Volume 15 Number 1 - Educational Technology ...

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A one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) test was further used to increase power in the above one-way<br />

ANOVA by using pretest scores as covariates. It could control the initial differences in pretest scores to remove<br />

"covariate bias" or "selection bias", which weakens internal validity. The ANCOVA test yields a significant effect of<br />

the two prompted conditions compared to the non-prompted condition (F (2, 25) = 19.550, p < .05). However, the<br />

pair-wise comparison showed that there was no significant difference (p = .142) between the SP and GP groups as to<br />

the learning gains from pretest to posttest.<br />

Map Analysis in Main Study<br />

The quality of the students’ concept maps in the main study were evaluated to determine whether students’<br />

conceptual understanding of elementary economics varied as they worked on agent tutee with different prompting<br />

strategies. Because no significant difference between groups was observed in the pre-test, the subsequent data<br />

analysis did not need a covariate. An overall performance comparison among the three groups on relevant concepts,<br />

relevant propositions, expert concepts and expert propositions is shown in Figure 5.<br />

ANOVA tests show that there were significant differences among the three groups as to relevant concepts (F (2, 26)<br />

= 29.264, p < .05), relevant propositions (F (2, 26) = 11.082, p < .05) , and expert concepts (F (2, 26) = 14.358, p <<br />

.05). The post-hoc tests of Gabriel’s procedure show that there are significant differences between the NP group and<br />

the SP group on relevant concepts (MD = 2.70, p < .05), relevant propositions (MD = 2.00, p < .05), and expert<br />

concepts (MD = 2.10, p < .05). There are also significant differences between the NP group and the GP group on<br />

relevant concepts (MD = 2.04, p < .05), relevant propositions (MD = 1.57, p < .05), expert concepts (MD = 1.18, p <<br />

.05). These results reveal the differences within the three groups. Both of the SP and GP groups showed higher<br />

performance than the NP group by working out significantly more relevant concepts, relevant propositions and<br />

expert concepts. However, the difference between the GP group and the SP group was not significant.<br />

Figure 6. Average <strong>Number</strong> of Relevant/Expert Concepts/Links in Transfer Test<br />

347

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