Graduate Research Papers

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Open Access Graduate Research Paper

Abstract

In recent years, instructional time for elementary science has taken a back seat to the teaching of reading in the Spirit Lake School District. Because of the emphasis placed on ITBS (Iowa Tests of Basic Skills) scores, the administration advocated teaching reading twice a day, therefore, promoting the idea that students need to be able to read well to do other subjects. It was implied that students would "pick up" science incidentally and there would be time to study the subject m depth after mastering reading in the early grades. Teachers were eager to accept this new philosophy because of reasons not unlike those revealed by The National Assessment of Educational Progress Survey (1988). This survey involved thousands of teachers who felt the obstacles to teaching science were a lack of confidence in their skills to teach science effectively, equipment to do the job, and time for planning and instruction. This new thrust towards reading made extra time available for teachers to teach language arts-- a subject for which they felt more qualified and one for which they didn't need extra equipment to do the job.

Year of Submission

1993

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Education

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

First Advisor

Marvin Heller

Comments

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Date Original

1992

Object Description

1 PDF file (35 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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