Describes results of a questionnaire concerning such questions as where is the first keyboarding/typing class taught, length of this class, what equipment is utilized, and what students in kindergarten through eighth grade are doing with microcomputers. The author then makes suggestions for improving the curriculum for keyboarding in elementary…

Results of a study of 1,025 high school students enrolled in an introductory keyboarding class suggest that teachers must be creative in identifying individualized skill-building/reinforcement activities. Business education teachers should emphasize basic English skills in the keyboarding classroom. (JOW)

Of 1,243 secondary students randomly assigned to treatments, the experimental group received keyboarding instruction plus basic English instruction 3 times per week for 8 weeks. They showed statistically significant achievement in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization when theory and practice were integrated. Keyboarding speed and…

Eighteen learning-disabled high school students who were provided with seven hours of instruction in keyboarding skills made significant gains in keyboarding speed. There were no differential effects between drill-and-practice and game formats on skill acquisition and attitudes, but the game format had a detrimental effect on continuing…

Research has shown that relaxation exercises produce physical changes in students. After relaxation exercises, students appear calmer, have reduced levels of anxiety, and are more responsive to instruction. In order to determine if relaxation exercises would improve the rate at which students learn keyboarding, a study was conducted in a South…

The purpose of this study was to determine the value of business education at the secondary school level as perceived by three groups of people who have great impact on course offerings, student advisement, and teacher hiring decisions. Specifically, high school counselors, high school principals, and local board of education presidents in a…

A study compared the typing speeds attained by students who learned to type on typewriters with the speeds attained by students who learned on computers in order to determine whether the medium of instruction has any effect on achievement. Data were gathered on the speeds of 585 students from west central Indiana high school business teachers. Of…

In 18 beginning computer classes of middle and high school students, 409 pre- and postsemester keyboarding timings were taken. Significant differences in grades were related to developmental phase (those in cognitive or overlap phases had lower grades than those in associative phase--over 25 words per minute). Students showed significant progress…

One group of secondary keyboarding students was taught on typewriters and switched to microcomputers after six weeks, the other used microcomputers first, then typewriters. Using computers, students showed faster completion times and fewer typographical errors. Transfer from computers to typewriters slowed times and increased errors. Overall,…

A 1980 survey of 9,000 high school sophomores with 3 follow-ups over 6 years revealed that high school typing courses led to greater employability and earnings for non-college-bound students and was of equal benefit to students of lower socioeconomic levels. One course sufficed for white males; white females benefited more from more than one…

A survey of all students enrolled in computer courses at a Colorado high school during fall 1997 revealed positive perceptions of the courses' value. Students enrolled in desktop publishing and word processing courses were more satisfied with these courses than were those enrolled in literacy lab, vocational education, and keyboarding classes.…

This report describes a program for improving the on-task behavior of at-risk students to increase their academic achievement. The targeted population consisted of high-school students in a growing middle-class community located in a rural area of a midwestern state. The problems of academic under-achievement were documented through data including…

This observational study examined student and teacher verbal and nonverbal behaviors in microcomputer classrooms in a high school where most of the students are Black, Hispanic, or Asian, and almost half of them are classified as economically disadvantaged. A total of 125 students in grades 9 to 12 were observed, with 47 students in marketing, 18…

State employment service managers in the Pacific Northwest, secondary principals in the Pacific Northwest, chief state school officers throughout the United States, and state directors of employment and training throughout the United States were asked to rate students on a list of 15 attributes seen as key to performance on the job. Their…

The Vocational Competency Achievement Tracking System (VoCATS) in North Carolina is a competency-based instructional management system that allows the collection of data on student performance achievement before, during, and after instruction. A preliminary pilot study was conducted to evaluate the implementation of the VoCATS program with…