The trouble with education research is that the research is burdened with trouble before it begins. Working as a poststructural education researcher and engaged in a recent research project that sought to engage with questions of teacher identity, I employed an alternative data elicitation method of literary response groups--similar to that of…

This article argues that fictional writing has the potential to make a distinctive contribution to educational scholarship but brings challenges to conventional ways in which educational research is judged. It focuses on the discipline required by fictional writing and on the interplay between reader and text. It is argued that the rigour and…

Indicates some of the problems students encounter in interpreting poetry and cites the reasons that students express for liking or disliking poetry. (RB)

Response to literature is the reader's response to the particular function of each element in a work; he is, or becomes, consciously aware of the ways in which aspects of the work interact to form the whole. Thus, response to narrative techniques--setting and exposition, dramatic moments, characterization, point of view, pattern and design, and…

The tendency to think of a literary work as an object or entity existing apart from author and reader has been the greatest stumbling block in literary criticism and the teaching of literature. The transaction between a reader and a text involves the reader in a highly complex, ongoing process of selection and organization. Keeping the reader's…

Designed to assess the level of thematic profundity of a reader's response to short stories, the Literary Profundity Test consists of four very short stories, each with four endings representing one of the five levels in the Literary Profundity Scale: physical, mental, moral, psychological, and philosophical. Nine experts have agreed that each…

Designed to measure maturity of reading interests, the Sophistication of Reading Interests Scale consists of 29 pairs of fictitious story synopses, one of the pair more sophisticated than the other. Three indicators of level of maturity, defined in order of sophistication, are the importance of plot, the importance of characters, and the…

To honor the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Louise M. Rosenblatt's book "Literature as Exploration," this book offers 12 essays that demonstrate the extraordinary influence of Rosenblatt's work on the teaching of literature, on literary theory, and on educational research in all English-speaking countries. Further, it evinces…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a hierarchically-ordered questioning technique employed by beginning English teachers on their students' written responses to short stories. The subjects were 84 tenth grade students in three teachers' classes at two Lincoln (Nebraska) high schools. It was concluded that when presented with a…

Describes a week-long minicourse on poetry (with 14 science professors as participants) held to determine what central features of literary study cause unease for science students. Finds five areas of concern including writers' intentions, significant omissions, faulty interpretations, confused values, and misuse of phrases. Discusses the…

Designed to assess the extent of adolescents' literary awareness of detail and of characterization, and their sense of the purpose and continuity in written responses to story selections, the Literary Appreciation of Adolescents measure was constructed. Three scales measure those three factors, with each scale being scored on a five-point basis…

Summarizes the essential research on the interrelationships of reading, response to literature, and composition. Shows that readers and writers are both creators of meaning. Discusses a plan by which students develop--and appreciate--their responses to literature and integrate the acts of reading and writing. (RL)

A partial report of research on high school student response to literature, using Alan Purves's categories of engagement, perception, interpretation, evaluation, and miscellaneous. (RL)

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…

An alternative approach to the teaching of literature views the reading of a poem, short story, novel, or other literary work as an opportunity for a person to create his or her own immediate response. The approach suggests that there is no constant, objective meaning for a piece of literature, only individual responses reflecting the…