Date Approved

5-2-1995

Embargo Period

9-13-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in School Psychology

Department

Educational Services and Leadership

College

College of Education

Advisor

Klanderman, John

Subject(s)

Creative writing (Elementary education); Language arts (Elementary); Senses and sensation

Disciplines

Educational Psychology

Abstract

Written expression is becoming more and more important in the language arts classrooms of America. Research has shown that sensory stimulation can help students access previously encoded experiences. These encoded representations are viable material to be used in the creative writing process. Fifth grade level 11 readers from Lower Township Elementary School District were employed in this study to determine the role of sensory experience in the language classroom. Students were read a selection and then received either visual stimulation, audio stimulation, audiovisual stimulation, or a control treatment. Hypotheses were that students who received stimulation would preform significantly better on a writing task as measured on a creative checklist and that the audiovisual group would outperform the other groups. A one way ANOVA and Scheffé yielded statistics at the p<.01 level which warranted the acceptance of both research hypotheses. This supports previous research which shows that sensory stimulation can help students access background knowledge and experience to be used as material on writing tasks. Consistent results such as these indicate that there is justification for providing teachers with materials and methodology to use sensory stimulation in the language arts classroom.

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