Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Education, Elementary--Curricula--Iowa; Articulation (Education); Education, Elementary--Curricula; Iowa;
Abstract
This study was concerned with finding out what perceptions K-6 classroom teachers would express about K-6 articulation within their districts. The study was also concerned with finding out what difference, if any, existed between the perceptions of teachers from districts with fulltime K-6 curriculum directors and the perceptions of teachers in districts with full-time K-12 curriculum directors.
It was expected that teachers in both groups of school districts would express the need for more K-6 articulation awareness and activities within their districts, but that teachers in districts employing a K-6 curriculum director would indicate that their districts were doing more than would K-6 classroom teachers in districts employing a K-12 curriculum director.
The population for the study consisted of five large Iowa school districts that employed full-time K-6 curriculum directors, and five Iowa school districts of similar size that employed full-time K-12 curriculum directors. Questionnaires were sent to twenty percent of the K-6 classroom teachers, selected at random, from each district.
The study results supported the expectation that most teachers would express a need for greater district involvement in improving K-6 articulation. It was found that 135 out of the 160 teachers thought that their districts should give K-6 articulation higher priority than was currently being given. There was some indication that there was a wider disparity between actual and desired district priority expressed by teachers from school districts with K-12 curriculum directors than by teachers from districts with K-6 curriculum directors.
Over thirty percent of both groups of teachers indicated that their districts were involved in no activity of importance or in no activity at all that was designed to promote K-6 articulation. 11 Briefings or memos from the curriculum director" was checked as being used in districts by slightly over forty percent of both groups of teachers.
Teachers in both types of districts often experienced frustration at not having time to work on improving articulation. and also believed that teachers in grades or levels above them were unrealistic about what could be expected of students entering their classes.
When teachers were given an opportunity to express what they would like to see accomplished first to improve K-6 articulation, there was a difference between the suggestions made by teachers in districts with K-6 curriculum directors and the suggestions made by teachers in districts with K-12 curriculum directors. Teachers in the first group mentioned most often the need for coordinating units, materials, and curriculum kindergarten through twelfth grade. Teachers in the latter group expressed a need for more definite standards for skills or knowledge at each grade level along with a better pupil progress reporting system.
Year of Submission
1975
Degree Name
Specialist in Education
Department
Department of Educational Leadership and Postsecondary Education
Department
Department of School Administration and Personnel Services
First Advisor
Norman McCumsey
Date Original
1975
Object Description
1 PDF file (67 pages)
Copyright
©1975 Dorothy Kessler Engstrom
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Engstrom, Dorothy Kessler, "Iowa Teacher Perceptions of K-6 Articulation in Large School Districts Employing K-6 or K-12 Curriculum Directors" (1975). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 1511.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/1511
Comments
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