Running Head: JOB PERFORMANCE SKILLS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do Keyboarding Skills Help Job Performance?

 

Marilynn Hawkins

 

Southeastern Louisiana University

 

Chapter One: Introduction

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a person's ability or non-ability to type properly has played a roll in the productiveness of their vocational careers.

Hypothesis

          It is hypothesized that students who have proper keyboarding skills will be more productive in school and the workplace.

Study Description

Participants will be given one minute timed writings using proper techniques at the keyboard and then, one minute timed writing using improper techniques at the keyboard. Participants will measure the Gross Words A Minute (GWAM) in each timed writing and will compare the difference between the two. The participants will determine which method is the more productive method. They will then complete a survey of questions regarding their keyboarding ability.

The study should indicate that those who use the proper techniques in keyboarding are better typists and thus, are more productive in their everyday lives at home, at school and on the job.

 

Description of Special Terms

1.  GWAM- gross words a minute.  The number of words that are typed during a one minute timed writing.

2.  Proper techniques- to sit in a chair with back straight against the back of the chair; feet placed flat on the floor; fingers curved over the home row keys; wrists level without touching the keyboard or desk; eyes on copy being typed.

3.  Improper techniques- sitting in chair with back curved; slouched down with legs crossed; using two index fingers to type; eyes on keyboard and fingers.

4.   Vocational Careers- work at school in the classroom and the jobs that students and parents might have while working in the community.

·   Leadership Role - This study will allow me to convince my students, parents, and administrators that Keyboarding skills are important on the High School level.  Yes, many students come to us in the 9th grade already having used computers at home and in their Elementary School labs.  However, the new course coming next school year, Introduction to Business Computer Applications, with an important component of touch typing skills will be an asset to our Business Department curriculum.  This class will also allow me to prepare students for the industry certification tests that are offered to them.  I have taken two of these industry certification tests to become certified in Microsoft Office Word 2000 Core and IC3.  I plan to go further and get other certifications in Word Expert, Excel, and possibly A+ and Networking.

·   School Description - This study will be done at the school where I teach.  It is a public high school mostly with a student body of rural and small city students.  The school has approximately 1600 students and consists of grades 9th - 12th.  The strength of the school is the vocational courses that are offered to students.  About 45% of our students go to college and many go on to jobs in the workplace or the military.

·   Student Needs – Keyboarding classes are being phased out and a new course is coming into the Business Department next year, 2004-2005.  The name of the course is Introduction to Business Computer Applications.  All 9th grade students will be required to take this class.  Touch-typing will be a large part of the curriculum for this new course.  This study should demonstrate that Keyboarding is still a necessary skill to learn on the high school level.  With the percentage of college prep students being so low, the students at this school need vocational skills to enter the workplace.

·   School Goal –"Covington High School Students Will Be Life-Long Learners And Productive Citizens In The Global Community." 

     The students will be able to operate a keyboard with correct keyboarding   techniques and be more productive in their high school classes and on the job when they are required to produce jobs on the computer.  This will in turn make the students more productive on their jobs in the workplace.

School Ecology and School Climate Covington High School is a public high school of approximately 1600 students.  It is coed and has about 16% African American, 83% Caucasian, and 1% Hispanic and other nationalities.  About 45% of these students go on to a four-year college program after graduation.  There is approximately a 30% dropout rate from those who begin in their 9th grade year until they are seniors and graduating.  There is a large need for vocational and technical subjects to be taught.  Therefore, keyboarding skills are a very important part of the curriculum.  The barriers that exist at this school are the thinking that most who of the students have operated a computer either at home or in the earlier grades and feel that they already know how to type and do not need further skills training on the computer keyboard.

·   Paradigm shift –The paradigm shift that must occur at Covington High School is that 9th grade students must realize the importance of correct keyboarding skills for their future jobs, college, and careers.

·   Risks –The risks involved in implementing this plan of action is trying to prove to 9th grade students that they do in fact need to develop proper keyboarding skills.  Touch-typing will already be a part of the new course-Introduction to Business Computer Applications.  All 9th grade students will be required to take this course for graduation.  There will be approximately 6 to 8 weeks of beginning touch-typing for every student participating.  Many parents and 9th graders will think they do not need the course and therefore, will want to opt out of the course.  I'm hoping this study will convince many of the needs for proper keyboarding skills in order for each student to be more productive.

 

 

Chapter 2:  Review of Related Literature

Do Keyboarding Skills Help Job Performance?

          It is believed by many educators today that keyboarding skills should be taught formally at a younger age. In most high schools there has been a class called Typing or Keyboarding. In this class the method of touch-typing has been taught to teenage children, mainly around the age of 14 or 15 years old. Since computers have entered the schools today, from Kindergarten through high school, there has been a debate about teaching keyboarding to younger children.

          Kindergarten aged children do have the ability to use a computer by using specially designed software for them. They can use a mouse, the spacebar, the enter key, and can even save files that they have used. However, kindergarten children do not have the ability to learn touch-typing because their hands and fingers are not fully developed. These children, around the age of five, can open and close programs, can use the basic Windows program--Paint, and certain commercial programs such as TechWorks, but, they will be limited in their ability to type words in a word processing program such as Word or WordPerfect (Brooks, 1999).

          So, if Kindergarten is not the right time to begin learning the touch-typing method of keyboarding, then when is the right time? One author says that the best age to begin keyboard instruction is by third or fourth grade (Minkel, 2003). When children are at this grade level they are around eight or nine years old. Some early level teachers and parents may think that it is cute when their children are hunting and pecking with their index fingers, but this is going to develop into a very bad habit that is extremely hard to break in their older age. Because of this problem, some students will never be able to learn how to use the proper techniques at the keyboard that will enable them to be more productive in their writings.

          Some third and fourth grade teachers believe that this age is not appropriate for learning keyboarding because of the other demands that are placed on them. This age child must learn how to write and construct sentences and paragraphs before they can emerge into the world of keyboarding. It is believed, however, that student's writing is more meaningful to them if they can type and read what they've written from the computer screen. But, even seventh graders have great difficulty in learning touch-typing if they haven't first learned how to write or been involved in a good writing program. Keyboarding class that has been taught on the high school level is coming to an end. 

"The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) requires that students be able to apply basic keyboarding techniques by the end of the fifth grade" (Minkel, 2003). This is subject to interpretation by each state and so far only 30 have adopted the guidelines. The Louisiana State Department of Education has just this year, 2004, changed Keyboarding class on the high school level to a class called Introduction to Business Computer Applications. Touch typing and proper techniques in using the keyboard are still going to be taught in this class, however. 

It is important to teach proper keyboarding techniques to students regardless of what age they may be.  If the techniques are learned properly, the students will be able to be more productive in their work.  It is thought that by third grade students should be able to type 20 words per minute.  After all, the goal for teaching keyboarding to third grade students should exceed the average speed for handwriting, which is 15 words per minute. Students need to practice keyboarding without looking at their fingers and by keeping their eyes on the written copy. At this early age many techniques have been used to keep students from looking at the keyboard.  Some teachers are using stickers to cover the letters on the keys or by covering the keyboard with a cloth, paper, or bag. The students should have just enough room to hold their hands correctly over they keys with their fingers curved over the home row (Lindroth, 2002).

Proper techniques that have been taught in Keyboarding classes are to sit properly in the chair with back straight against the chair and feet flat on the floor.  This posture is to insure that one doesn't put any stress or strain on the spine.  Eyes should be on the textbook copy or written copy that one is typing from.  It is a very bad habit and slows ones' speed down if they are looking at the words to be typed and then glancing down at the keys or fingers.  Correct fingering of the keys need to be learned.  The fingers should be curved over the home row keys and wrists level but not touching the keyboard or desk that the keyboard is placed on.  All fingers must be used except for the left thumb that must be held near the left palm of the hand.  A reasonable rhythm must be used in keeping the keys moving.  This was especially true in the past in learning typing on a manual typewriter.  It is still true in learning on a computer in order to keep a steady flow of words being produced.  Eliminating correcting at first is best until students have learned how to do it correctly.  Students find this hard to do because of their frustration with knowing they have made an error.  And, tapping keys with no mashing is allowed.  Keys should be tapped lightly so that the fingers do all of the work without moving the hand around the keyboard or having the arms move up and down. If students are allowed to continue with their hunting and pecking instead of using proper keyboarding techniques, then they will find that it takes them three or four times longer than the students who are using proper techniques (Ellsworth, 2000).

This phenomenon must carry over into job performance in the classroom and outside the classroom. Studies have shown that students who use word processing did have an overall improvement in the quality of their compositions in the writing process. (Cochran-Smith, 1991).   Some people thought that the inability to type would create a problem for those who are composing their thoughts into a word processing composition.  Problems with the mechanics of the developing the paper would interfere.  However, the keyboarding ability the student possesses does make the writing task less burdensome.  Word processing gives the student additional help by using the spell check and grammar check features. The students' ability to type solves the problem of messy handwritings. Word processing makes the printed composition neat, with all errors corrected. Having the ability to edit and make frequent revisions helps the student in the recopying process. But the main impact of computers on the quality of students' productiveness in writing depends on the teacher and the social organization of the classroom (MacArthur, 1999).

The goal in teaching any skill should be for students to master the goal efficiently.  Children are not able to operate the keyboard correctly until around the age of ten.  At this time in a child's life they are generally in fifth grade and are frequently going to computer lab and doing projects that require keyboarding skills.  If children attempt to master keyboarding before this age, they are still going to have to have a review later (Healy 1998).    Even high school students in ninth grade have not sufficiently mastered the skill and need much more practice.  Many of these high school students are still requiring help in typing papers for academic classes unless they have had a course in touch-typing.

Educators have also found a need to work on their skills in technology use.  Some of the categories that they listed were multimedia presentations, e-mail with their students, computer based interactive software, and the Internet (Inman and Mayes 1998).  Each one of these areas requires the proper use of the keyboard.  Without those skills, these others couldn't be mastered in today's computer lab.

In the U.S. construction industry there has been a study of the relationship between the use of technology and wages. (Berndt et al., 1992)  There has been a positive relationship between use of information technology and the increase of the skill level of the construction worker.  This is especially true of the supervisory workers such as engineers, technicians, and administrative assistants. However, the non-supervisory workers who used computers at work were found to be paid higher wages at work also. It was discovered that the higher paid individuals were also on the average five years older than their counterparts.  So it was not known if the difference in wages was due to computer usage or age. The study showed that information processing had a significant relationship with wages but computer usage did not (Goodrum, 2002).

In the nursing profession another study was done that linked improvement in workplace practices to a basic skills program that included the participant's ability to use computers to process information (Lazar, 1998).  The nurses were trained to increase their abilities to get data and maintain files.  Included in this study were their abilities to interpret, communicate, and understand technological systems.  They were required to monitor correct performance of the equipment, to troubleshoot, maintain and apply technology to specific tasks (Lazar, 1998). Even though this study was not specifically about keyboarding skills, the nurse's ability to use computers to do their jobs was targeted. 

Keyboarding, or touch-typing is a necessary skill for all students to have before they graduate from high school and enter college and/or the workforce.  Because of the use of computers in the lower grades of school, these children need to begin using proper techniques of the touch-typing method especially around 5th grade.  If they are taught correctly, they will develop mastery of the keyboard and be able to type much faster than their counterparts who have not been taught correctly.  This skill is so important for high school students to be able to type their own research papers, book reports, lab reports, poetry, science fair and social studies projects.  They will and do become more productive in their other classes because of their ability to type. 

This productiveness does not stop on the high school level.  Parents of these students who have had keyboarding and have learned the skill properly are finding that they are more productive in the workplace.  Some have been promoted at their place of employment or simply have gotten the job over someone else who does not have proper keyboarding skills.  Some have even said that the computer has changed their lives. (Hawkins, 2004)  The ability to operate different kinds of hardware and software has opened avenues in the workplace to many and their productiveness is unchallenged.

Works Cited

Berndt, E., Morrison, C. and Rosenblum, L. (1992).  "High-tech capital formation and labour composition in US manufacturing industries:  an exploratory analysis."  NBER Working Paper No. 4010.

Brooks, Susan. (1999). "Computers in kindergarten." Today's Catholic Teacher. 32 (4), 12-14.

Cochran-Smith, M. (1991).  "Word processing and writing in elementary classrooms:  A critical review of related literature."  Review of Educational Research, 61, 107-155.

Ellsworth, Barbara. (2000). "A business teacher shares: How to teach keyboarding correctly to elementary students." Texas Technology Connection. 7 (1/2), 36-37.

Goodrum, P.M. and Manish Gangwar. (2004). "The relationship between changes in equipment technology and wages in the U.S. construction industry." Construction Management and Economics. 22 (3), 291-301.

Hawkins, Marilynn. (2004). "Student and Parent Survey of Skills."  http://pangea.tec.selu.edu/~mhawkins/research/results/parentsurvey.doc

Healy, Jane M.  (1998). Failure to connect how computers affect our children's minds--and what we can do about it. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster.

Inman, Elliot and Larry Mayes. (1998). "Educational technology: A survey of faculty use and need." New Forums Press, Inc. 16 (1), 15-20.

Lazar, Meryl K., et. al.  (1998).  "Linking the success of a basic skills program to workplace practices and productivity:  An evaluation."  Journal of adolescent & adult literacy.  41 (5), 352-362.

Lindroth, Linda. (2002). "How to... implement keyboarding." Teaching re K-8. 33 (2), 16-18.

Macarthur, C. A. (1999). "Overcoming barriers to writing: compute support for basic writing skills." Reading and writing quarterly. 15 (2), 169-192.

Minkel, Walter. (2003). "Keys to the future." School Library Journal. 49 (5), 34-36.

Chapter Three:  Methodology

Introduction

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a person's ability or non-ability to type properly has played a roll in the productiveness of their vocational careers.  A convenience sample using four Keyboarding Application classes that consist of approximately 25 9th-12th grade males and females around the ages of 14-17 will participate in the study.  They will be surveyed along with their parents--both Mother and Father or Guardian, asking questions about their experiences using proper techniques in Keyboarding class and how this skill has helped them in their other classes, at home, or at work.  Other questions will be asked about their use of different kinds of software, computer hardware, Internet, e-mail, instant messaging, and web design.  Each will be asked their approximate Gross Words A Minute (GWAM) that they type at the computer using proper techniques and then using improper techniques.  A simple typing test will be administered using timed writing software--Microtype.

Hypothesis

          It is hypothesized that students who have proper keyboarding skills will be more productive in school and the workplace.

·   Forms of Inquiry and Collaboration –Permission from the Principal of Covington High School and the Assistant Superintendent of St. Tammany Parish has been obtained.  Since the data collection is part of regular classroom instruction, there is no other collaboration needed except that the results will be shared with the other business teachers in the business department.  The students will get the survey signed so that permission can be given from parents for their children to participate.

·   Sense of Community –The Keyboarding students who will be tested and their parent's participation will be shared among the classes.  The students will administer the survey and typing test to their parents or guardians.  The results will be reported to them and the parents by visiting the surveyor's portfolio on the Internet.  The results of the action research project will be shared with the other teachers in the Business Department and with the Administration at the school.

·   Resources--One minute timed writings will be give in the Keyboarding Application classes with the software Microtype first using proper techniques and then using improper techniques.  The survey that has been developed entitled "Student and Parent Survey of Skills" will be given to four classes of Keyboarding Applications students and will be taken home by each student to have each parent--Mother and Father or Guardian, take the survey.  The students will administer the survey to their parents and a website for timed writings found at http://www.typingtest.com will be used from the Internet if they so choose to do so. The students will return the parent's survey to class by the end of the week.  Data will be collected and compiled by the end of the Spring 2004 semester at SLU.

·   Measurement of Incremental Progress – The overall school goal is for "Covington High School Students To Be Life-Long Learners And Productive Citizens In The Global Community."   By implementing the results of this survey on keyboarding skills, each student should become aware of how important these skills are in making them productive citizens in school and in their jobs in the community.

·   Proposed Assessment Activities 

• Survey entitled "Student and Parent Survey of Skills"
• Microtype software one minute timed writings done in class using proper techniques and then improper techniques.
• Parent timed writings on Internet site   http://www.typingtest.com

 

·   Plan of Action:

Steps	Who is Responsible	Timetable
1.  Introduction of Project to 4 Keyboarding classes	Teacher	April 21, 2004
2.  One minute timed writings give using proper techniques at the keyboard	Teacher	April 21, 2004
3.  One minute timed writings given using improper techniques at the keyboard.	Teacher	April 21, 2004
4.  Each timed writing will be printed and compared	Teacher	April 21, 2004
5.  Each student in Keyboarding Applications classes will take two surveys home for each parent to fill out.	Keyboarding Applications students	April 21, 2004
6.  Each student will administer the survey to their parents at home using the website for taking timed writings-- http://www.typingtest.com	Keyboarding Applications students	April 21, 2004
7.  Each student will return the survey instrument to their Keyboarding class by the end of the week.	Keyboarding Applications students	April 23, 2004
8.  Data will be collected, compared, and reported	Teacher	April 26-30

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 4:  Results

 

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a person's ability or non-ability to type properly has played a roll in the productiveness of their vocational careers.

Hypothesis

          It is hypothesized that students who have proper keyboarding skills will be more productive in school and the workplace.

Study Description

          In four Keyboarding Applications classes each student completed a survey on their use of proper keyboarding techniques.  Each student was asked to measure on a scale of 1 to 4 (with 4 being the greatest) their use of proper keyboarding techniques when taking 1-minute timed writing tests on the computer.  The students were then given three 1-minute timed writings using proper techniques and three 1-minute timed writings using improper techniques.  The results were printed for measurement.  The students, then, took the same survey home for each of their parents to complete.

The students were also asked in what capacity they use the proper keyboarding techniques at home and at school in other classes.  The results were 79% of the students use Wordprocessing programs, 88 % use Internet, 74% use Instant Messenger, 80% use E-mail, 27% use Data-base software, 26% use Spreadsheet software, 47% use Multimedia presentations, 24% use Web Page Design, 0% use Grade Book software, and  66% use Recreational Games.  Others were listed such as "Job Applications, Flash, Calendars and Bookkeeping."

The results of the parent survey showed that 66% of the parents use Wordprocessing programs, 86 % use Internet, 39% use Instant Messenger, 80% use E-mail, 35% use Data-base software, 45% use Spreadsheet software, 20% use Multimedia presentations, 14% use Web Page Design, 2% use Grade Book software, and 35% use Recreational Games. 

The students were also asked what experience they had with technology hardware.  The greatest results were that 40 % had no experience using manual typewriters, 35% had no experience using electric typewriters, 74% did use IBM compatible computers all of the time, and 37% used McIntosh computers some of the time.  Some of the students listed others such as Apple IIe and Laptop computers.

The parents were also asked what experience they had with technology hardware.  The greatest results were that 34 % had some experience using manual typewriters, 36% had some experience using electric typewriters, 54% did use IBM compatible computers all of the time, and 41% never used a McIntosh computer. 

 

1-Minute Timed Writing Results for Students

The results of the 1-minute timed writings produced some interesting results.  It was found that in all four Keyboarding Applications classes those students produced more words per minute (GWAM) while using proper keyboarding techniques than they did while using improper keyboarding techniques.  The results also showed that 3 of the 4 classes had fewer errors while using proper keyboarding techniques compared to improper techniques.  Approximately 72 students took the three 1-minute timed writings.

There were very few parents who knew how many words they typed per minute.  They were given the opportunity to take a timed writing on the Internet by going to http://www.typingtest.com. 

The data for the students timed writing are in the tables below:

Chart Results of 1-minute Timed Writings

Given to Four Keyboarding Applications Classes

 

 

 

http://pangea.tec.selu.edu/~mhawkins/research/book1.xls

Student-Parent Survey:

Approximately 95 students filled out the survey with 35 males, 52 females, and 8 unidentified.  In the section of the survey on the use of proper techniques 39% of the students said they use proper techniques all of the time, 35% some of the time, 15% almost not at all, and 11% never use proper techniques while Keyboarding.

Approximately 56 parents filled out the survey with 23 males, 33 females.  In the section of the survey on the use of proper techniques 42% of the parents said they use proper techniques all of the time, 31% some of the time, 8% almost not at all, and 19% never use proper techniques while Keyboarding.

Finally, a comments section was given for the students and parents to put in their own words their experiences using keyboarding techniques in general.  The following are the percentages along with the questions that were asked:

 

 

Comments from Surveys

 

Conclusions / Recommendations

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a person's ability or non-ability to type properly has played a roll in the productiveness of their vocational careers.

Hypothesis

          It is hypothesized that students who have proper keyboarding skills will be more productive in school and the workplace.

Conclusions

          It is evident by the 1-minute timed writings that the students are more productive when using proper techniques than when using improper techniques.  The parents who use proper keyboarding techniques said that it helps them do their job more efficiently and they are able to accomplish more work.

          The statistics reported on the usage of certain Applications by the students as compared to the parents reported that 79% of students use Wordprocessing programs as compared to 66% of their parents.  The use of the Internet was near the same with 88% of students compared to 86% of parents.  The use of E-mail was exactly the same with 88% for each.  However, the use of Instant Messenger by the students was 74% and the parents were only 39%. 

          The results also showed that student use of Multimedia presentations was higher than their parents; 47% as compared to 20%.  However, the parent's use of Data Base and Spreadsheet was greater with 35% and 45% usage as compared to the student's 27% and 26% usage.  It was predicted that 0% of the students used Grade book software as compared to 2% of the parents and that 66% of the students use Recreational Games as compared to 35% of the parents.  The student's use of Web Design was 24% and the parent's use was only 14%.

          The statistics concerning the use of certain kinds of technology hardware was predictable because both the students and the parents listed the IBM compatible computer being the equipment used all of the time.  However, it was found that 36% of the parents had some experience using electric typewriters, but 35% of the students had no experience.  The statistics also showed that more parents than students have used a manual typewriter. 

          When asked in the survey if they learned how to type outside of the classroom, 54% of the students said "yes" and 54% of the parents said "no."  Also, when asked if they used keyboarding skills in some way, 74% of the students said "yes" as compared to only 57% of the parents.  It was very interesting that when asked if they learned to use the computer before taking Keyboarding, 69% of the students said "yes" and 70% of the parents said "no."  This, of course, is because computers weren't around when the parents took Keyboarding.

Recommendations

Keyboarding skills are important to have in our age of computers.  Parents and students are saying that having these skills does make them more productive.  Many students are using the skills learned in Keyboarding class in other classes and at home. 

The student use of proper keyboarding skills has helped them while using e-mail and instant messenger.  Many of them said that having proper keyboarding skills has made them faster in communicating with instant messenger.  They also said it helps them when using the Internet.  This is going to be very helpful to them in the future workplace because we are moving toward a paperless society. 

Perhaps proper keyboarding skills should be taught to students as early as 5th grade because of their early use of computers.  However, high school students should revisit this skill to fine tune it so they can be sure to develop their skill in order to do more advanced projects like science labs, social study projects, English papers, and prepare them for college and the workplace.

The fact that a large number of students are not using typewriters might show that this equipment training needs to be brought back to the classroom.  Typewriters are still being used for certain jobs in the workforce and the skill of using them is being lost. 

Finally, acquiring keyboarding skills is a definite "school to work" opportunity that many find or will find will make them more productive.  If these skills are not gained in high school, then, like one student said--"I'll just pay my good pal Bobby $20 to type it for me."  Later on in life, that student might find that he will have to pay Bobby to do the work for him.