Date of Award
1981
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between selected reading skills of students in regular third grade classes and selected variables including observable classroom behavior, sex, race and socioeconomic background. The study took place in ten elementary schools in Baton Rouge, Louisiana during the 1980-81 school session. Statement of the Problem. The following null hypothesis was tested using the .05 level of significance: There was no significant relationship between selected reading skills of students in regular third grade classes and selected variables including observable classroom behavior, sex, race and socioeconomic background. Procedure. This study was confined to 86 third grade students in ten randomly chosen schools. The Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test was administered to all students in each chosen classroom. Once scoring was completed, this researcher was given 10 separate lists of students to be observed designated by individual schools and teachers. The names on each of the individual lists were those of students whose composite raw scores placed them in a range either below 160 or above 201 on the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test. Classroom observations using a checklist based on a modified version of the Devereux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scale were conducted during the reading instructional period for five consecutive days. Total observation time was 60 minutes per student. Any student with less than 54 minutes of observational time was eliminated from the study. Students obtained a behavior score based on the classroom observations. Analysis of Data. In order to adequately test the hypothesis, the students were divided into the following subgroups: race (Black and Non-Black), sex (boys and girls) and socioeconomic background (higher and lower). The five reading subtests of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test were: auditory vocabulary, auditory discrimination, phonetic analysis, word reading and comprehension. Statistical data using raw scores of the individual subtests was compiled to obtain the Pearson product moment coefficient of correlation between the behavior scores of the students and the five individual subtests of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test. Findings. (1) There were significant correlations between four of the five reading subtests and the behavior scores for all students tested. (2) There were significant correlations between all of the reading subtests and the behavior scores for girls. There were no significant correlations for boys. (3) There were significant correlations between all of the reading subtests and the behavior scores for higher socioeconomic background students. There were no significant correlations for lower socioeconomic background students. (4) There were significant correlations between all of the reading subtests and the behavior scores for Non-Black students. There were no significant correlations for Black students. Recommendations. (1) Research should be conducted to study the effects of classroom behavior of high achieving students. (2) More research should be conducted to determine why there were more significant negative correlations between behavior and reading skills for girls than for boys. (3) Conduct research to determine the effects of classroom behavior upon the reading skills of high and low socioeconomic background students. (4) Future studies are needed to determine why the reading skill of phonetic analysis is affected in more instances than other reading skills among the various subgroups.
Recommended Citation
Jones, Mary Louise spand, "A Study of Reading Skills of Third Grade Students in Terms of Observable Classroom Behavior and Other Variables." (1981). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 3641.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/3641
Pages
99
DOI
10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.3641