Luận văn về Tác động của Đơn vị Chủ đề và Tích hợp đến Thành tích Học sinh trong Khoa học Xã hội

University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations Spring 2019 The Impact of a Thematic Unit and Integration on Students’ Achievement in Social Studies Holness Samuels Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.edu/etd Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons Recommended Citation Samuels, H. The Impact of a Thematic Unit and Integration on Students’ Achievement in Social Studies. Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.edu/etd/5211 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons.

For more information, please contact digres@mailbox. THE IMPACT OF A THEMATIC UNIT AND INTEGRATION ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN SOCIAL STUDIES by Holness Samuels Bachelor of Science Liberal Arts College of Jamaica, 2002 Master of Science Central Connecticut State University, 2004 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Education in Curriculum and Instruction College of Education University of South Carolina 2019 Accepted by: Suha Tamim, Major Professor Leigh D’Amico, Committee Member Yasha Becton, Committee Member Diane Deford, Committee Member Cheryl L. Addy, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School © Copyright by Holness Samuels, 2019 All Rights Reserved. ii DEDICATION This action research is dedicated to my beautiful, caring, supportive, and understanding wife Carline, my wonderful daughters Kathrina, Shani, and Kara, and to my son Kevaun for understanding the many times that I could not play catch or watch cartoon with him because I was so busy reading, writing, typing, and preparing this dissertation.

I know that I have a lot of catching up to do. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people who have in one way or another contributed to the completion and success of the dissertation. A big thank you to my family who has been with me from the beginning of my doctoral program. Thank you for the patience and understanding you demonstrated through the many days and nights of me giving divided attention as I worked on this project.

Suha Tamim taught me several of the courses that I needed to bring me to this point in my doctoral program and has been with me throughout the dissertation preparation process. Her knowledge, expertise, and thoughtful insights have contributed greatly to my success. The many revisions that she insisted on served to ensure that this dissertation is of the highest quality. Thanks to my superintendent, Mrs.

Barbara Champagne for her approval with my data collection in the school and for her support and encouragement throughout the process. My colleague, Mr. Terrence Scott, was gracious to allow me to adjust the curriculum pacing guide to facilitate the thematic unit on World War 1. Thank you for consenting to me administering the unit to your class.

Thanks to the seventh-grade students of Green Branch Middle School for your cooperation, participation, and honesty during the implementation of the thematic unit. Finally, thanks to my professors at the University of South Carolina who taught the different courses that made my journey through this doctoral program the enriching and rewarding experience it has been. iv ABSTRACT This action research study focused on a problem of practice observed in a Title 1 middle school in rural South Carolina, where seventh-grade students show low academic achievement levels in social studies, evidenced by low scores on teacher-made tests, district benchmarks, and the state standardized test. To address this problem of practice, research questions were formulated: What is the impact of implementing a thematic unit on World War One, an integrated approach, on students' motivation to learn social studies? What impact will the implementation of a thematic unit on World War One have on students’ perception of social studies? and, What impact will the implementation of a thematic unit on World War One have students’ academic achievement on a social studies unit test? A program of study employing the use of a thematic unit on World War One was administered to address the research questions.

The research was conducted within a six to eight-week period. Grounded in action research methodology and using a convergent mixed-method design, the study used a convenience sampling technique, involving two school- determined intact classes which formed a control group and a treatment group. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed. The findings revealed that thematic teaching is an effective method of instruction but did not produce any significant difference in students’ performance when compared to the traditional approaches to teaching social studies.

An action plan was thus devised to include ways to incorporate thematic teaching as an alternative strategy to teaching social studies. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication. v List of Tables. ix List of Abbreviations.

xi Chapter 1: Introduction. 1 Problem of Practice. 4 Purpose of Study. 5 Significance of the Study.

18 Summary and Organization of the dissertation. 19 Glossary of Terms. 21 Chapter 2: Literature Review. 24 Statement of Problem of Practice.

25 Purpose and Methodology of the Literature Review. 26 vi The Nature of Social Studies. 27 Factors Affecting Students’ Achievement in Social Studies. 31 Thematic Units and Integration.

61 Key Words/Glossary. 64 Design of the Study. 83 Results of Survey of Students’ Subject Preference -Control Group (Before Intervention). 85 Results of Survey of Students’ Subject Preference -Treatment Group (Before and After Intervention).

89 Results of Likert Scale of Students’ Attitude Towards Social Studies-Control Group (Before Intervention). 96 Results of Likert Scale of Students’ Attitude Towards Social Studies- Treatment Group (Before and After Intervention). 99 Results of Pre-test and Post-test - Control Group. 104 Results of Pre-test and Post-test – Treatment Group.

110 Comparison of Post-test Scores for Control and Treatment Groups. 116 Results of Semi-structured Interviews. 118 Analysis of observations. 124 Triangulation of Findings.

130 vii Chapter 5: Implications and Recommendations. 131 Statement of the Problem. 136 Implications for Practice. 141 Implications for Further Research.

147 Appendix A: Survey of Students’ Subject Preference. 164 Appendix B: Likert Scale of Students’ Attitude Towards Social Studies. 165 Appendix C: Pre-test/Post-test. 166 Appendix D: Semi-structured Interview Protocol.

177 Appendix E: 10-point Grading Scale. 178 Appendix F: Assent Form for Participation in the Study. 179 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1 Alignment of Lessons to SC Social Studies Standards.2 Thematic Unit on World War One .1 Alignment of Lessons to SC Social Studies Standard .2 Thematic Unit on World War One .3 Alignment of Data Collection Instrument to Research Question .1 Favorite Subjects for Students in Control Group .2 Least Favorite Subject for Students in Control Group .3 Students’ Reasons for Choosing Favorite Subject – Control Group .4 Students’ Reasons for Choosing Least Favorite Subject- Control Group .5 Favorite Subject for Students in Treatment Group.6 Least Favorite Subject for Students in Treatment Group .7 Students’ Reason s for Choosing Social Studies as Favorite Subject –Treatment Group .8 Students’ Reason for Choosing Social Studies as Least Favorite Subject –Treatment Group .9 Likert Scale of Students’ Attitude Towards Social Studies – Control Group. Comparison of Likert Scale of Students’ Attitude Towards Social Studies –Treatment Group.

Item Analysis of Pre-test and Post-test - Treatment Group. Item Analysis of Pre-test and Post-test - Treatment Group. 112 x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ELA……………………………………………….………………English Language Arts ELL……………………………………………………………. English Language Learner GBMS…………………………………………………….

Green Branch Middle School IEP………………………………………………. Individualized Education Plan LGBTQ………………………………Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgender, and Queer MKO……………………………………………………. More Knowledgeable Other NCSS…………………………………………….National Council for the Social Studies PBIS………………………………………………Positive Behavior Intervention services RTI…………………………………………………………. Response to Intervention SCDE ………………………………………….South Carolina Department of Education SC PASS…………………………South Carolina Palmetto assessment of State Standards SCSSAS…………………………….South Carolina Social Studies Academic Standards ZPD……………………………………………………… Zone of Proximal Development xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Dewey (1938), in contrasting traditional education with progressive education, posits that traditional education imposes adult standards upon the young and immature, and are beyond the reach of the experience of young learners.

While the teacher in Dewey’s era was largely seen as perpetrator of this imposition, it is seldom recognized that the teacher was a victim as well. According to Mertler (2017) “traditional research in education is typically conducted by researchers who are somewhat removed from the environment they are studying” (p. Consequently, there is the tendency to impose abstract research findings on schools and teachers with little or no attention paid to the local situation and adaptations that are required (Mertler, 2017). Dewey (1938) contended that teachers will even disguise the impositions of these findings under the tenets of good teaching practices.

According to Mertler (2017), there is a growing trend in research as more and more studies are being conducted by practitioners - people whose primary education and training is not in research methodology. He sees this as “action research” which he defines as research that is done by teachers for themselves. Action research offers a form of systematic inquiry that is usually appealing to teachers as it enables them to focus on areas of their own practice that they consider worth investigating. This kind of research aims to make an impact on students’ learning and to deepen teachers’ understanding of issues in their classrooms that may be puzzling, problematic, or intriguing (Burns, 2010).

1 The idea of a teacher as a researcher might appear novel, based on the traditional mindset of viewing the teacher as a technician who implements the research findings of ‘outside’ experts (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2014). It is, however, the elements of documenting, reflecting, and publishing, which are now formalized, and which are used as tools to plan, drive, evaluate instruction, and expand the body of educational literature, that appear to be novel. For teachers who have been used to considering themselves first and foremost as classroom practitioners, embarking on any kind of research is a challenging undertaking. While the goals of traditional educational research and action research are similar (to improve the quality of teaching and learning) they differ in approach and sometimes methodology (McMillan & Wergin, 1998; Adu, 2017).

For one, action research is more practical than philosophical in its application and is done by teachers in their natural classroom setting (Mertler, 2017). According to Mertler (2017) the main goal of action research is to address local-level problems with the anticipation of finding immediate solutions. Dana and Yendol-Hoppey (2014) seem to concur, observing that action research should bring about change of some kind, usually with a social justice focus. This action research endeavored to depart from the imposition of adult standards on students, to create more relevant and meaningful learning experiences that students are interested in and can relate to (Dewey, 1938).

The action research explored the overarching research question of how the use of a thematic unit and an integrated approach to teaching social studies could increase students’ motivation to learn social studies, retention of social studies content, and their academic achievement as expressed by higher scores on teacher-made and standardized tests. Thematic units and integration 2 are student-centered approaches that align with the Learner-Centered ideology of curriculum pedagogy (Schiro, 2013). They are well compatible with differentiated instruction and students are appropriately challenged, resulting in less boredom or feelings of overwhelming difficulty (Anderson & Cook, 2014). Loughran (2005) defines thematic teaching as “a process of integrating and linking multiple elements of a curriculum in an ongoing exploration of many different aspects of a topic or subject” (p.

The hope was that the treatment would enrich students’ learning experiences, provided motivation for them to learn social studies content, and improved their academic achievement in social studies through higher test scores. The action research is grounded in the theoretical framework of self-efficacy theory and change theory. According to Akhtar (2008) self-efficacy, or confidence, is the optimistic self-belief in one’s competence or chances of successfully accomplishing a task and producing a favorable outcome. The originator of the theory, Albert Bandura (2008) names four sources of efficacy beliefs: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and emotional and psychological states.