One hundred seventy-five first-year community college students enrolled in a course called "Developmental Writing 090" participated in this study. Some students were enrolled in an experimental group which was divided into two subgroups: one group was involved in independent study and the other in small group instruction. Other students in the…

This dissertation documents the different ways in which specialists approach science fiction. Descriptions of courses are presented for four universities, two four-year colleges, and one two-year community college. At all the schools, science fiction is a medium for social criticism. Otherwise the courses differ in content, format, and the methods…

The purpose of this investigation was to analyze the preferences of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade urban black children with regard to characters, type of setting and story in books and the relationship between these preferences and grade level, sex, and socioeconomic status. Three hundred seven black students were read to from 15 books of five…

This study examined the written product in several literary forms by boys and girls of junior high school age. Approximately 875 written items from 238 student authors were collected and examined. It was found that there was more variation in creativity in writing among the boys than among the girls. No significant differences between the sexes in…

This study tested the effects of two distinct methods of instruction on the self-concept and English/language arts achievement of seventh and eighth graders divided into two experimental and one control group. The first instructional method was devoid of certain traditional constraints--grades, tests, homogeneous grouping, grade-level grouping,…

The following four areas relating to black literature courses were explored in this study: course content, methods of instruction, instructor background and effectiveness, and effect of the course on the students. Instructors and students involved in black literature courses offered at institutions of higher education in New York State during…

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was any significant difference in the improvement of basic communicative skills between students enrolled in the second semester of freshman college English taught by the traditional classroom approach and students in the learning laboratory who received individualized instruction involving the…

An interdisciplinary approach to teaching English and religion can eliminate some of the educational problems posed by each subject. Part one of this thesis presents a philosophy of education which suggests that confluent and student-centered methods of teaching can best develop creativity and, thus, lead to greater humanization of students. Part…

This report describes the procedures used by a New Jersey high school English department of 15 teachers to improve the critical thinking skills of their students and thus allow the students to assume greater autonomy in their learning. Emphasis was placed on improving critical thinking skills of the students through literature and writing…

An action research project described a program for expanding multiple intelligences to increase reading comprehension in both English and math. The targeted population consisted of ninth, tenth, and eleventh grade students located in a south suburb of Chicago, Illinois. The problem of reading comprehension was documented through data revealing…

The purpose of this study was to determine if developmental junior-college students' overall achievement in composition skills could be increased, and their self-concepts improved, by the use of individual teacher/student conferences. The sample used for the study consisted of 62 junior-college students enrolled in a developmental English course.…

English as a Second Language (ESL) composition textbooks were compared with freshman composition textbooks through a national survey of U.S. universities. A detailed content analysis of nine ESL and eighteen English composition texts was conducted. A questionnaire was sent to selected universities asking the faculty to answer textbook-related…

Historically, the English curriculum offered by public secondary schools has given little attention to literature written by black Americans. In order to investigate and describe the status of Afro-American literature in the North Carolina public secondary schools, a questionnaire was sent to 358 English department chairs and 328 teachers of…

The purpose of this project was to initiate a classroom journal-writing program that would provide children with an opportunity to express themselves freely, and that would offer useful information for improving relationships within the classroom. Both students and teacher kept daily journals for a year. Four simple rules governed the procedure,…

The purpose of this study was to change preservice teachers' attitudes toward black English in a positive way. The students were shown that the deep structure of black English and standard English is the same; it is only the surface structures of the two dialects that exhibit variations. Pre-test data garnered from the control group and the…