Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Thorough understanding of social science subject matter is dependent upon attainment of the numerous abstract concepts which compose the lexicon of social science exposition. Systematic designs for promoting concept attainment are basic to social science instruction. The instructional materials which present explication of the body of knowledge constituting social science school subjects should support concept attainment aims. There is a dearth of attention to this crucial issue in social science instructional research. Whereas some evaluation of the effectiveness of concept textual structuring has received little notice. The purpose of this study is to determine if structuring social science text in accordance with a deductive concept presentation strategy affects students’ concept attainment.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Cohen

(1977). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. New York: Academic Press.

Estes

T.H.

(1972). Reading in the social studies: A review of research since 1950. In Laffey

J.L.

(Ed.), Reading in the content areas. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.

Frayer

D.A.

, Frederick

W.C.

, & Kalusmeier

H.J.

(1969). A schema for testing the level of concept mastery (Working Paper No. 16). Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Research and Development Center for Cognitive Learning.

Fry

(1968). A readability formula that saves time. Journal of Reading. 11, 513–516, 575–578.

Gillespie

J.A.

, & Patrick

J.J.

(1974). Comparing political experiences: Unit three, political activities. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Social Studies Development Center.

Kintsch

(1982). Text representations. In Otto

, & White

(Eds.), Reading expository material. New York: Academic Press.

Kirk

R.E.

(1968). Experimental design: Procedures for the behavioral sciences. Belmont, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.

Lunstrum

J.P.

(1976). Reading in the social studies: A preliminary analysis of recent research. Social Education. 40, 10–18.

MacGinitie

W.H.

(1978). Gates–MacGinitie reading tests: Level E. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

10.

Martorella

P.H.

(1972). Concept learning; Designs for Instruction. San Francisco: Intext Educational Publishers.

11.

McClenaghan

W.A.

(1977). Magruder's American government. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

12.

McKinney

C.W.

, Larkins

A.G.

, Ford

M.J.

, & Davis

J.C.

(1983). The effectiveness of three methods of teaching social studies concepts to fourth–grade students: An aptitude–treatment interaction study. American Educational Research Journal, 20, 663–670.

13.

Mehlinger

H.D.

, & Patrick

J.J.

(1971). American political behavior. Lexington, MA: Ginn and Company.

14.

Peters

C.W.

(1975-76). The effect of systematic restructuring of material upon the comprehension process. Reading Research Quarterly. 11, 87–111.

15.

Reyes

D.J.

, & Smith

R.B.

(1983). The role of concept learning in social studies textbook comprehension: A brief analysis. The Social Studies. 74, 85–88.

16.

Tennyson

R.D.

, & Park

(1980). The teaching of concepts: A review of instructional design research literature. Review of Educational Research, 50, 55–70.

Using Text Structure to Improve Social Science Concept Attainment

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References