Title: The Effects of the Use of Stories in High School World Geography Classrooms on Feelings of Restlessness and Levels of Student Interest in the Subject Matter
1The Effects of the Use of Stories in High School
World Geography Classrooms on Feelings of
Restlessness and Levels of Student Interest in
the Subject Matter
- A research project conducted by Kelly Edward
Garner - March 2008
2Summary of the Study
- This study was conducted to better understand the
way that students feel about the use of stories
in their world geography classroom. - I wanted to know if students find stories helpful
and to determine if there is a connection between
the use of stories and student interest in the
subject. - Additionally, I wanted to find out if there is a
connection between the use of stories and student
feelings of restlessness during class.
3How I Decided on this Topic
- This study emerged from my frustration with the
way that the current world geography curriculum
is structured. - The material that we are required to teach seems
to lack a connecting theme which provides 9th
grade students with an adequate schema to
interpret current events.
4Topic (continued)
- At first, I wanted to rearrange the sequence in
which the world regions are taught, to begin with
Europe and then to connect each world region to
the theme of colonialism as we studied colonial
expansion around the globe, then to compare their
improvement with students taught the curriculum
in the traditional way.
5Topic (continued)
- I wanted to do this for two reasons.
- -- It was my intuition, based on
learning from my graduate studies, that students
would retain more information if they had a
narrative framework to connect their new learning
to. - -- I perceived colonialist expansion
as an adequate framework for interpreting current
events.
6Topic (continued)
- I abandoned this approach for two reasons.
- Firstly, I discovered that I was not allowed to
deviate from the proscribed sequence of the
curriculum pacing guide due to standardized
quarterly assessments. - Secondly, while colonialism provides a useful
framework for understanding the cultural
distribution of the modern world, the narratives
associated with globalization provide one of
critical import to the decisions and policies
affecting all nations and international
alliances, and should therefore be taught along
side, if not in lieu of, the narrative of
colonialism. - Which brings us to the current study.
7Topic (continued)
- The affective domain seemed more accessible due
to the restrictions and limitations of the
district mandated curriculum pacing. - The compromise was to design a study which would
determine student and teacher perceptions of the
frequency and efficacy of the use of narratives
to teach world geography. While this study would
not show me if using stories works, it was my
hope was that it would show me if students and
teachers perceive stories to be helpful and if
there are any significant correlations with their
use and levels of interest or restlessness.
8Topic (conclusion)
- It is my hope that this study will provide a
basis for conducting further study into the
usefulness of narrative frameworks for teaching
world geography.
9Procedures
- After deciding on a topic, I reviewed the
existing literature on the subject, stated my
research questions, and consulted the school
principal to determine the feasibility of the
study. After obtaining the necessary approval, I
designed a survey to administer to students and
to teachers which would help me to obtain the
needed data. I decided on mostly closed-ended
questions with a few open-ended questions for the
students. For the teachers, I created several
open-ended questions. The information for these
initial steps is found in chapters one, two, and
three of my research paper. -
10Procedures
- After sending out permission letters to parents,
I administered 159 surveys to students divided
into 7 world geography classes taught by 4
different geography teachers. The teachers were
sent an email with the open-ended questions.
11Procedures
- The data from the student surveys was entered in
to the Statistical Package for the Social Studies
(SPSS) program and then analyzed using a variety
of tests which will be explained in more detail
in the next section. This data was presented in
chapter four of my research paper.
12Procedures
- The open ended questions were grouped and
categorized according to the student responses
and were taken into consideration while
interpreting the results of the statistical
analysis but were not entered into the SPSS
program.
13Procedures
- I then analyzed the results of the tests
performed as they related to my research
questions, interpreted the significance of the
tests that I performed, discussed how my study
contributed to the base of knowledge, and
reflected on changes that I would make for
conducting further study. The results of these
procedures can be found in chapter five of my
research paper.
14Tests Performed
- Using the SPSS program I analyzed the data to
determine relationships between variables.
15Tests Performed
- The test that I used most frequently was the test
to determine bi-variate correlations. This
allowed me to see how, if at all, two variables
change in relation to one another. I found this
test extremely useful because I could compare
many variables with each other and the output was
in table form which was ideal for comparing
variables.
16Tests Performed
- The independent sample t- test helped me to
determine if there was a statistically
significant relationship between two variables. A
particularly useful part of this analysis was
that it would analyze the level of variance among
responses. This is called Levenes test of level
of variance. If the variance was too great then
the results would not be considered statistically
significant. This helped me to compare the data
between males and females and to understand that
there was a wide range of responses within each
group.
17Tests Performed
- I also utilized the graphing features to compare
information in a visual format. I made bar graphs
and in the preparation stage I also used line
graphs. I did not find the output of these tests
as useful as the output that was in table form
because the tables would indicate if a
statistically significant correlation existed.
18Significant Results
- Q11 Does a teachers usage of stories to teach
correlate with student feelings of restlessness? - Yes. The data indicates a negative correlation
between students feelings of restlessness in
class and their claim that their teacher uses
stories to teach the subject. The results
indicate a -.186 Pearson correlation which is
significant at the 0.05 level. - This means that as students perceive teachers to
be using stories to teach there is a decrease in
their feelings of restlessness.
19Significant Results
- Q8 Does a teachers usage of stories correlate
with student interest in world geography? - Yes, significantly for average students, slightly
less so for honors students. - Tests indicate that a positive Pearson
correlation of .356, with significance at the
0.01 level, exists between teachers use of big
stories to teach and average level students
finding world geography interesting. - Tests indicate that a positive Pearson
correlation of .345, with significance at the
0.01 level, exists between student perception
that stories help them to learn and honors
students finding world geography interesting - Finally, tests indicates that a positive Pearson
correlation of .311, with significance at the
0.01 level, exists between student perception
that stories help them to learn and students
finding world geography interesting.
20Significant Results
- Q16 Does student ethnicity correlate with how
helpful they find teachers use of stories to
teach? - Yes, Black students (especially in the honors
level classes) showed statistically significant
correlations with a decrease in feelings of
restlessness and an increase in interest when
they perceived that their teacher used stories to
teach the material. - White, Latino, and Asian students also showed
some correlations but the results were most
significant for Black students.
21Significant Results
- Students perceive stories to be helpful.
- Tests also indicate that a positive Pearson
correlation of .464, with significance at the
0.01 level, exists between teachers use of big
stories to teach and students perception that
stories help them learn.
22Significant Results
- One last side note, this studys results indicate
that among the various preferred learning styles
surveyed that students who prefer listening to
explanations found stories least helpful and that
students who preferred doing experiments found
stories most helpful. This connection between
story telling and interpretation, and active and
passive learning, should be explored in more
detail
23How has this study added to the bank of knowledge
in this field?
- Many research studies have investigated the
effects of background knowledge on student
comprehension, reading, and writing but this
study narrows the focus to examine how world
geography students and teachers feel about one
method that students use to develop a context for
learning, namely stories.
24How has this study added to the bank of knowledge
in this field?
- I was unable to find any research from Virginia
about the use of stories in teaching the Virginia
SOL curriculum framework or on student and
teacher perceptions of the use of stories. This
study may serve as a gateway to other teacher
researchers seeking to improve their knowledge of
this topic and as a reference to those who
continue to investigate this topic.
25Changes to expand the value of the study
- In future versions of this study I would create
several questions for the teachers and the
students which probe the extent to which they
practice connecting events in the news to the
information that they are studying in class. This
would help with analyzing the data and
potentially work towards a rationale for
including more emphasis on this practice in the
classroom.
26Changes to expand the value of the study
- I would also create more questions about
students preferred learning styles. I would
expand it to include reading about a subject,
writing about a subject, reading independently,
and using computers. This is important to note
because the use of narrative frameworks can be
applied to a variety of learning modalities. .
27Changes to expand the value of the study
- I would also like to compare student responses
with their actual performance in the class. I
would have them identify their grade on their
last report card, interim, and test to see how
this compares with their stated preferences.
28Changes to expand the value of the study
- Finally, It might also be useful to have the
students try to communicate their understanding
of several narratives by relating current events
to one of several different themes. This could be
compared with the way that teachers are
presenting the information and provide a way for
us to see how they may use these stories in the
future.
29Future implications of this study
- This study may serve as a basis for putting more
thought into how stories are used to teach world
geography. This study shows that black students
show an increase in interest in the subject and a
decrease in restlessness when their teacher uses
stories to teach the material. Utilizing this
interest in stories could help to decrease the
achievement gap and improve the quality of world
geography instruction for all students.
30Future implications of this study
- Additionally, since many Virginia students will
not receive any higher level training in social
studies, enhanced world geography instruction
could be an important factor in increasing
interest in civic responsibility and activity. If
people are given adequate training to make sense
of social issues then they will be less dependent
on other to make informed decisions about the
issues that affect them.
31Future implications of this study
- Lastly, the results of this study, and future
studies on this topic, could be applied to other
fields of study, such as science or mathematics.
While these fields require that students learn
specific kinds of non-narrative processes,
stories could help to provide a context that
students can relate to which would serve as an
organizational schema for incorporating new
information. Many students complain that they do
not see how math and science are useful to them
in their everyday life. Stories have the ability,
known as mythopoeia, to construct worlds. If
students can practice by finding their value
within this constructed world then they may be
able to find some connection to the way that
these fields of study apply to the world as they
perceive it.