Date of Award

2001

Degree Name

M.S. in Education

Abstract

The effect of integrating children's literature into the science curriculum on student understanding of science concepts was investigated. The study involved 354 third-grade students from 14 classrooms. Students in the traditional textbook group read and discussed the textbook on a certain science topic, performed a hands-on science activity or experiment on the topic, and were tested for understanding of that topic. Students in the literature group followed the same procedure but the textbook was substituted with science trade books. Student understanding was determined by collecting scores on district Performance Objective Assessments. Results were analyzed with a multivariate analysis using the participants' 2nd grade scores on the science Terra-Nova tests and classroom science teacher as covariates for all statistical comparisons of individual tests and overall results. Results show that students in the literature group scored significantly higher (p < 0.10) than the traditional textbook group on three of the five P .0. tests. Overall results showed that students in the literature group scored significantly higher (p < 0.03) than the traditional textbook group by 3 percent of the mean normalized score for all five tests (79.6 vs. 76.6). A teacher-made survey revealed that students prefer the literature-based science instruction to the textbook-based science instruction. These results imply that the integration of children's literature can increase student understanding and enjoyment in science class.

Keywords

Children's literature, American Study and teaching (Elementary), Science Study and teaching (Elementary)

Rights Statement

Copyright © 2001, author

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