*Assistant Professor, Department of Education, Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University, Patan, Gujarat. E-mail: sudheer_tandel@gmail.co
** Senior Lecturer, District Institute of Education and Training, Patan, Gujarat. E-mail: peenalgoradiya@yahoo.co.in
A meta-analysis was performed to synthesise existing research comparing the effectiveness of the computer-aided instruction (CAI) method with the lecture method on students’ achievement and retention. This study was conducted to know the overall effectiveness of the CAI method compared with the lecture method. Thirty-five studies were located from the library of the Education Department of the Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University, Patan, and their quantitative data were transformed into effect size (ES) using the formula by Glass et al. (1981) and modified by others (e.g., Hunter et al., 1982). The overall corrected grand mean of the study-weighted ES for all thirty-five studies was 0.73. The results suggest that the CAI method was more effective than the lecture method both on achievement and retention and that there was no difference in effectiveness of the CAI method on males and females with reference to achievement and retention. In addition, eight variables selected for the study (i.e., sex, year of publication, grade level, subject area, sample size, population group, place of study, number of periods) had no statistically significant impact on the mean ES. The implication for the study is that teachers should use more of the CAI method than the lecture method, and all subject teachers should use this method because it is effective across all subjects and across all grades.
Meta-Analysis, CAI Method, Lecture Method, Effectiveness
