The effect of the teacher's instructions on the academic achievement of high school students in learning with e-textbooks

• Main Authors: Anja Poznič, Sonja Pečjak
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Slovenian Psychologists' Association 2017-12-01
• Series: Psihološka Obzorja
• Subjects: electronic textbooks; teacher’s instructions; students; academic achievement
• Online Access: http://psiholoska-obzorja.si/arhiv_clanki/2017/poznic_pecjak.pdf
• ISSN: 2350-5141; 2350-5141

E-education, e-learning and e-textbooks are concepts associated with modern education. Interactive e-textbooks represent a learning resource from which students can learn effectively. Even though contemporary students are skilful with technology in general, that does not mean they are skilful with technology based learning and may need guidance with such learning activities. In our research, we conducted an experiment in order to test the impact of teacher’s instructions on the academic achievements of high school students in learning with interactive e-textbooks. The study involved 83 high school students in their first year. There were 45 students in the experimental group (EG) and 38 students in the control group (CG). The students from the EG who have received teacher’s instructions on how to use multimedia and interactive elements of the e-textbook were more successful at learning than the students from the CG who did not get such instructions. Students of the EG perceived themselves as more competent and they used multimedia and interactive elements of a textbook more often than their peers from the CG. The results showed that students’ independent learning from e-textbooks can be more successful if the teacher provides clear instructions on how to use them.