Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Social sciences--Study and teaching (Elementary);

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two organizational strategies (outlining and mapping) in sixth grade social studies. Furthermore, the study sought to determine if the effectiveness of these strategies was dependent upon student learning preference; sequential or global. The effectiveness of the two organizational strategies was determined by comparing differences in group mean scores, using a 2 x 2 factorial ANOVA repeated over one factor (organizational strategy used). The study was replicated a second time. Students were asked to read and study information on the Canadian province, Nova Scotia, using the strategy: outlining and mapping, that complemented their learning preference: sequential or global. After a two-week study period, students completed a multiple choice, short answer posttest. Students were then asked to read and study information on the Canadian province, Prince Edward Island, using the alternative strategy: outlining or mapping. After a two week study period, students completed a multiple choice, short answer posttest.

Study 1

This study supported the hypothesis that learning preference will modify the effectiveness of an organizational strategy. Students who were identified as having global learning preferences did better with mapping in agreement with the hypothesized relationship. However, the results do not support the idea of matching sequential learning preferences with outlining because sequential students performed equally well under both organizational strategies.

Study 2

Study 2 failed to support the hypothesis that learning preference would modify the effect of an organizational strategy. Both sequential and global students performed equally well under both organizational strategies. The findings do suggest that under outlining conditions, sequential students scored more homogeneously as compared to global students. The lack of significance could be associated with differences in the variability of scores for both groups. Global students varied to a greater extent (SD = 14.46) than sequential students (SD = 9.94). Conversely, this lack of significance found in the simple main effect analysis could reflect a Type I Error in the decision to reject the null hypotheses regarding the interaction between learning preference and organizational strategy.

Year of Submission

1994

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Education

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

First Advisor

Sharon Smaldino

Second Advisor

Carmen Montecinos

Third Advisor

William Waack

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

1994

Object Description

1 PDF file (59 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Share

COinS