Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Practicum
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Keywords
annual review program, alternative hypothesis, Broward County, course completion, dependent variable, education requirement, employee education, employees, hypothesis testing, independent samples, independent variables, instructional format, instructional method, lecture-discussion, mandatory education, mean grade, objective test, population sample, recommendations, regulatory agency, research hypothesis, research question, safety and sanitation, School Board of Broward County, self-study, self-study modular instruction, September 2002, significant difference, statistical significance, t-test, teaching strategies, test scores, traditional teaching and learning techniques, two independent sample means, workplace training
Abstract
Employees not meeting the regulatory agency education requirement for safety and sanitation challenged the School Board of Broward County to provide an alternate instruction method. The purpose of the study was to compare the mean grade of employees who completed the safety and sanitation course at the School Board of Broward County, receiving two different teaching strategies.
The research question was, "Will there be a difference in the mean grade using the self-study modular instruction when compared to the mean grade using the traditional teaching and learning techniques of lecture-discussion?" The research hypothesis was: Employees utilizing the self-study modular instructional format for their safety and sanitation course will demonstrate increases in mean grade when measured in terms of an objective test, compared to those employees taking the same program using the lecture-discussion method of instruction. The dependent variable was the mean grade; the independent variables were the teaching strategies.
Two samples were selected from the population that encompassed all employees enrolled in the annual review program during September 2002. One sample consisted of employees who attended the program, the other those who received the self-study modular instruction. A 1-test for two independent sample means was used to compare test scores.
The calculated t value of 5. 77 indicated the differences between the means were significant at the . 05 level. Therefore, the data supported the alternative hypothesis that employees using self-study for safety and sanitation will demonstrate a significant increase in mean grade.
It was concluded that self-study instruction improved safety and sanitation test scores and effectively provided mandatory education. Recommendations were to utilize self-study as the preferred instructional method, establish an ongoing committee to provide research at six-month intervals, and offer self-study for other courses.