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A descriptive and observational study of curricular change in English: Teacher perceptions and student attitudes and behaviors
Abstract
The purpose of this participant-observational study was to describe and understand the process and effects of curricular change within the context of a particular classroom from the perspective of the teacher and students who experienced the change. The study focused on a seventh grade English teacher who voluntarily and independently changed her entire curriculum and approach to instruction. After ten years of using a very traditional approach to English instruction, the teacher implemented a process-oriented, workshop approach, as described by Nancie Atwell in her book In the Middle: Writing, Reading, and Learning with Adolescents. The researcher was a participant-observer in the classroom throughout the year of implementation. Ethnographic techniques were the primary methods used and included participant-observation, interviews, and use of documents. The results of the study indicate that students developed more positive attitudes toward and increased skill in reading and writing during the year of implementation. Four factors appeared to be crucial to the development of positive attitudes toward and skill in both reading and writing: extended periods of time for uninterrupted reading and writing, student autonomy and choice, freedom from time limits and quotas imposed by the teacher, and interaction among peers. The teacher expressed concerns related to a perceived need to prove the effectiveness of the innovation, the need for approval and support from colleagues and the principal, conflicts between the innovation and the total context of the school, and feelings of isolation from other English teachers in the school district. The teacher's ability to implement the innovation successfully despite local obstacles appeared to be related to three factors: the teacher's personal commitment to the innovation, the teacher's sense of a profound difference between the innovation and the traditional approach, which helped her identify crucial components of the innovation and caused her to take an "all or nothing" approach to implementation, and the teacher's awareness of the positive effects of the innovation on students.
Subject Area
Language arts|Literacy|Reading instruction
Recommended Citation
Roebke, Jenny Mueller, "A descriptive and observational study of curricular change in English: Teacher perceptions and student attitudes and behaviors" (1990). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9118473.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9118473