The effect of a unit of study on the political socialization of a selected sample of grade five school children in western Newfoundland

Penney, Stephen Bruce (1990) The effect of a unit of study on the political socialization of a selected sample of grade five school children in western Newfoundland. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a Unit of Study, The Green Slime Affair, taken from Politics and You, by Botting et al. (1985), on Grade Five school children in Western Newfoundland, using as criteria various indices of political socialization and taking into consideration selected mediating factors. The specific indices of political socialization that this study investigated were as follows: political efficacy, general attitude toward politicians, political cynicism, view of citizenship, political participation, and political conflict. The mediating factors used were sex of the student and intelligence quotient levels. -- The study involved four Grade Five classes within the Bay of Islands-St. George's School Board. All the students were administered an intelligence quotient test; scores were computed and each student for the purpose of statistical analysis was assigned to one of the three I.Q. groupings: below average, average, and above average. -- The two classes which comprised the Experimental Group participated in the Unit of Study, The Green Slime Affair. No specific program of study was administered to the two classes which made up the Control Group. -- The measuring instrument for this study was a questionnaire designed to assess relevant political attitudes. The questionnaire included 46 Liekert Format items with four response choices. A pretest and posttest were administered to both groups. -- Analysis of Variance with a significance level of 0.05 was used to evaluate the data. The results of the study indicate that the Unit of Study had a significant effect on the responses of students on Political Efficacy and Political Participation scales. These effects, however, were all expressed in a negative direction and were significantly greater for males and for the below-average group. With regard to political cynicism, general attitude toward politicians, view of citizenship, and political conflict, no significant effect was noted.

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