Louisiana Heritage Education Program and Heritage in the Classroom: Children's Attitudes toward Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Heritage in the Classroom consisted of workshops designed to assist teachers in developing lesson plans that use Louisiana cultural resources as content to address curriculum standards. Teachers created lesson plans and activities that were piloted during the 2001-02 school year. The Cultural Heritage Attitude Survey measured students' attitudes toward cultural resources before and after these lessons. This measure was administered to 373 4^th and 8^th grade students at pretest: 226 who received the lessons and 147 controls. Two hundred and eighty were also available at posttest: 169 who received lessons and 111 controls. Those who received Heritage in the Classroom lessons maintained high positive attitudes towards cultural resources while controls did not.