Date of Award
Summer 1971
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Education
First Advisor
Nordberg, Robert B.
Second Advisor
Hellman, Hugo E.
Third Advisor
Ivanoff, John M.
Abstract
The need for guidance in the elementary school coupled with the shortage of guidance specialists places a responsibility upon the classroom teacher to participate in guidance. An important function of the guidance program in the elementary school is to help the pupil to develop the attitudes necessary for his personal and social effectiveness. Since this objective deals largely with the affective development of the pupil, it demands skills that every classroom teacher does not necessarily possess in a high degree. The problem, then, is to assist the classroom teacher to be as effective as possible in this area. This gives rise to the question, "Can instructional television supplement tho guidance function in the elementary school?" To seek an answer, this study used as a basis a series of ten guidance lessons entitled, The Time of Your Life. Using three different methods of teaching, the course was presented to three experimental groups of fifth and sixth grade pupils from a typical middle-class school. The first group received the course content from the teacher using conventional teaching methods. The second group received the course content from television alone, while the third group received the course content from television With teacher reinforcement. A fourth group served as a control group. The groups wore selected by random sampling. Two measuring instruments were used. An author constructed attitude inventory based on the concepts presented in the The Time of Your Life series was administered at the inception and at the conclusion of the study. The Scholastic Testing Service Junior Inventory, Form G, was administered as a supplementary post-test. Using the analysis of variance, the null hypotheses that there were no significant differences among the four groups as measured by the pre-test attitude inventory, the post-test attitude inventory, that there were no significant male-female differences as measured by the post-test attitude inventory, and that there were no significant differences in self-concept as measured by the Scholastic Testing Service Junior Inventory, could not be rejected. A significant difference was indicated between the results of the pre- and post-test attitude inventory of the group that used television with teacher reinforcement. The null hypothesis in this last case, therefore, was rejected. The results of this study reveal a consistent tendency towards a positive change in the teacher only group and more so, in the television with teacher reinforcement group. A replication of the study, with lesson material extending over a longer time span, and a re-fining of measuring instruments, could well lead to more definitive results in the measuring of attitudes.