Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Reading; Reading comprehension;
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to produce a preliminary explanation of why certain types of main idea instruction exist in classrooms. Semistructured interviews were the focal point of this study. Six teachers participated in the study. Two taught third grade, 2 taught fourth grade, and 2 taught fifth grade. Each teacher was interviewed twice as the basis of this study. In the first round of interviews, open-ended questions were asked of the teachers after they had read a short vignette on teaching main idea. In the second round of interviews, the teachers were asked to elaborate on previous responses and to comment on the preliminary findings of the researcher from the first round of interviews. This study produced six findings of why brief, uninformative, and product-oriented main idea instruction exists in classrooms. The first finding was students should discover answers on their own in order to remember them. Second, a student should think critically in order to transfer the finding of main idea to content area reading. Third, some teachers do not feel adequately prepared to teach main idea. Fourth, time plays a big part in teaching this skill. Fifth, a teacher relies heavily on the basal to teach main idea. Finally, main idea is a difficult task for teachers to have students grasp.
Year of Submission
1988
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Education
Department
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
First Advisor
David W. Moore
Second Advisor
Sharon Arthur Moore
Third Advisor
James L. Doud
Date Original
1988
Object Description
1 PDF file (72 leaves)
Copyright
©1988 Judy Harms
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Harms, Judy, "Teachers’ Perceptions of Main Idea Instruction" (1988). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2858.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2858
Comments
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