الملخص الإنجليزي
This study aimed to find out the effects of using a computer program on the development of map understanding skills on fifth grade basic education female students, To answer the research questions, the first unit of the Social Studies (Book A) text book for grade five was analyzed. The researcher also prepared a test for the map understanding skills in this unit. This test was proved to be valid by submitting it to an 18 member jury judgment, and it was proved to be reliable by applying it on a sample of 30 students other than the study sample where the value of Chronbach's alpha was 0.89. The test was administered directly after the end of the experiment and another time after eight weeks to measure the long term learning effects of those skills. As well as that, a computer program for map understanding skills was designed which was validated by presenting it to 12 judges. The program was initially tested on a sample of 15 students other than the study sample after which appropriate modifications were taken. The study instruments were administered on three classes of fifth grade basic education female students in Dhofar region. There were 90 students divided into three groups, two of which where experimental (30 students each) and the third group was the control group. The major results of the study were: Specifying a list of the map understanding skills available in the Social Studies (Book A) text book for grade five Basic Education. A statistically significant difference at the 0.05 level between the mean scores of the students of each experimental group and the control group in the post-test in favour of the two experimental groups who used the computer program. The researcher recommended the importance of promoting map understanding skills for students by developing units in map understanding skills with logical sequence from the elementary level until the secondary level and programming these on the computer because of the effect it has on the improvement of achievement of students.
