A COMPARISON OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE PROJECT AND COOPERATIVE METHODS OF INSTRUCTION ON SELECTED COMPETENCIES IN DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION AT THE SECONDARY LEVEL. RESEARCH REPORT NO. 4.

A COMPARISON OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PROJECT AND COOPERATIVE METHODS OF TEACHING HIGH SCHOOL DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION IN THE COMPETENCY AREAS OF ECONOMIC UNDERSTANDING AND SALES COMPREHENSION USED (1) 251 GRADE 11 STUDENTS IN DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION PROJECT METHOD CLASSES, (2) 299 GRADE 11 STUDENTS IN SCIENCE OR ENGLISH CLASSES, (3) 216 GRADE 12 STUDENTS IN DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION COOPERATIVE METHOD CLASSES, AND (4) 221 GRADE 12 STUDENTS IN SCIENCE OR ENGLISH CLASSES IN 16 SCHOOLS. EACH OF THE DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION CLASSES MET A SINGLE PERIOD FIVE DAYS A WEEK, BUT THE GRADE 12 COOPERATIVE METHOD CLASSES ALSO HAD ON-THE-JOB TRAINING AT LEAST 15 HOURS PER WEEK. DATA WERE COLLECTED ON--(1) SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS, (2) STUDENT PRIOR ACHIEVEMENT BASED ON STANDARDIZED TESTS OF READING, (3) STUDENT SCORES ON STANDARDIZED TESTS OF ECONOMIC UNDERSTANDING, SALES COMPREHENSION, AND SALES TERMS, (4) STUDENT AND TEACHER PERSONAL DATA, AND (5) DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION TEACHER SCORES ON A TEACHER ATTITUDE INVENTORY. MAJOR FINDINGS WERE--(1) THERE WAS NO SIGNIFICANT CORRELATION BETWEEN THE VARIABLES OF STUDENT SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS, AGE, SEX, AND TEACHER ATTITUDE AND STUDENT SCORES ON READING COMPREHENSION, ECONOMIC UNDERSTANDING, AND SALES COMPREHENSION, (2) THE ACHIEVEMENT OF COOPERATIVE METHOD CLASSES WAS SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER ON TESTS OF SALES COMPREHENSION THAN THAT OF THE PROJECT CLASSES, (3) THERE WAS NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SCORES OF THE PROJECT AND COOPERATIVE METHOD GROUPS ON THE TEST OF ECONOMIC UNDERSTANDING, (4) THERE WAS A POSITIVE CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS' PRIOR ACHIEVEMENT AND SCORES ON THE ACHIEVEMENT TESTS OF ECONOMIC UNDERSTANDING AND SALES COMPREHENSION, AND (5) THE CONTROL GROUPS DID AS WELL OR BETTER THAN DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION GROUPS ON ECONOMIC AND SALES COMPREHENSION TESTS. (MM)