Date Approved

6-25-2002

Embargo Period

5-11-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S. in Teaching

Department

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Education

College

College of Education

Advisor

Jorgensen, Donna W.

Subject(s)

English language--Rhetoric--Study and teaching (Secondary); Tenth grade (Education)

Disciplines

Secondary Education and Teaching

Abstract

The first goal of this study was to identify any preexisting differences in the levels of writing apprehension between males and females in a sample of 85 10th grade high school students enrolled in English classes available during a spring 2002 student teaching placement. An adapted form of John A. Daly and Michael D. Miller's (1975) Likert-scaled Writing Apprehension Measure was used to assess the participants' levels of apprehension. Results of the first survey revealed that male participants did display a higher level of writing apprehension but the difference did not reach a level of statistical significance (p < .05). The second phase of the study involved a 4-month treatment period that included teacher intervention, role modeling, and a gender-balanced bulletin board design in an attempt to make a positive change in the male students' levels of writing apprehension. The same survey was administered to 36 males and 36 females following treatment to determine if any change occurred. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed there was no statistically significant effect of treatment on either the male or female participants (p < .05); however, a decrease in the levels of writing apprehension was seen in the means of the scores across all groups.

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