http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
the impact of teachers and literature on the development of student values
This investigation examined the impact of teachers and literature on the development of student values. The sample consisted of six high school English teachers and twenty-four high school students, evenly divided across grades 10, 11, and 12. All the teachers and students were interviewed, then observed in their classroom while a literary piece was being taught and discussed. Each literary piece was later analyzed to identify values inherent in its content, and then the results of the analyses of the texts, the interviews of teachers and students, and the classroom observations were compared. The teachers and students were interviewed according to a specific protocol, and the classroom observation and literature analysis data were collected on an instrument designed to focus on value-laden terms and concepts. Because the findings from every data source could be triangulated against two or three alternate sources, it was possible to confirm the accuracy of each data set with considerable confidence. The results of the study revealed that the teachers and students were all aware of the moral import of literature and the potential for moral education through literature. Moreover, the teachers employed strategies which focused on the moral component in literature and provided numerous opportunities for discussion of value-laden topics occurring in the literature studied. The classroom observations showed that morals and values were a major focus of classroom discussion regarding literature, and the literature assessments provided concrete evidence of the moral content of the literature studied. There was a high level of consistency within grade levels regarding specific values articulated in classroom discussions, and the articulated values were many times also identified in the literature assessment. However, each observed classroom also generated entirely unique and legitimate data regarding the same literary piece, data which did not match with the other classroom records or the formal assessment figures. Thus, while a high level of congruency existed among and across the data sets, the data also revealed a diversity of response that attests to the power of literature to evoke from readers, simultaneously, reactions that reflect a normative, as well as a highly individual, perception of the text. Furthermore, the data seems to indicate that the probability of a literary text being used in these classrooms for purposes of politicizing or indoctrinating is remote.
"Major subject: Curriculum and Instruction."