Graduate Research Papers

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Open Access Graduate Research Paper

Abstract

This study was concerned with how the media specialist could meet the leisure reading needs of gifted students. The specific purpose of the study was to find out what categories of fiction academically gifted students grades four through six choose to read. It was this writer's hypothesis that academically gifted students read all types of fiction on an equal basis, and there would be no variation among the types of categories that these students choose to read.

To test the hypothesis, each student with an I.Q. of 130 or above at Westridge Elementary School in Waterloo, Iowa, was given a questionaire to fill out in regard to their interests. Students were given nine categories from which they could indicate if they choose to read the category often, sometimes, or seldom. Points were assigned each response and totals added up for each category. In order for the hypothesis to be accepted, there could not be more than a 20% variation between the most popular fiction category and the least popular category.

The researcher used the formula of dividing the most preferred category (mpc) by the least preferred category (lpc) to find the percentage of the difference. The percent the least preferred category was of the most preferred category was 40. Hence there was a 60% difference between the two. The hypothesis that there would be no more than a 20% variation between the two was rejected.

Students revealed definite likes and dislikes favoring humor and disfavoring poetry and folktales. Even though the hypothesis was rejected the study serves as a model for media specialists in accessing fiction reading interests of individual students. By using the questionaire, a media specialist can determine trends or preferences, and assist each student through reading guidance on an individual basis. There was not enough students in the study to make generalizations as pertaining to grade level, age, or sex.

Year of Submission

1977

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Library Science

First Advisor

Elizabeth Martin

Comments

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Date Original

1977

Object Description

1 PDF file (iii, 35 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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