The development of a student study unit on the social history of the Ferryland area 1900-1915

O'Keefe, Joan Marie Condon (1974) The development of a student study unit on the social history of the Ferryland area 1900-1915. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

It is a readily observed phenomena that Newfoundland elementary and high school students manifest a pathetic lack of awareness of the social history of their region of the province. Even students fairly well versed in knowledge of the early periods of colonization and warfare, tend to be quite ignorant of their heritage from more recent years - the beginning years of the present century being an example. -- An obvious and prime reason for this state of affairs lies in the tendency by personnel charged with the development of courses of study to either de-emphasize both the more recent and the more regional history or to leave the option to the discretion of the individual teacher, who in turn, often lacking the necessary direction and guidance or indeed the interest perpetuate the same neglect. -- Because of the writer's concern for this situation, that is, students' lack of knowledge of their local history and because of the perceived need to develop a suitable study unit to alleviate this problem, a project was carried out that had a dual aim: first, to develop a specific study unit for the social history of a defined area of the province of Newfoundland and second, to test its effectiveness as a learning tool for a selected student group representing the same defined area. -- It was assumed that by means of an adequately prepared and well presented multi-media study unit, the students would manifest a marked increase in their knowledge of their area's social history. -- Subsequently, a social history study unit of the defined area of Ferryland during the pre-World War 1 years of the present century (or the period 1900-1915) was developed and presented to the sole Grade eight class in the Senior Elementary school serving the area of concern. The unit presented over a three week period dealt with the regions's social history in five topical areas, namely, customs, recreation, dress, industry and transportation. -- By means of a pre-test post-test analysis, it was found that every student involved in the project increased his knowledge of and interest in the social history of his region of the province. The range of increase in student scores from the pre-test to the post-test extended from 29 to 75. -- The implications of the study are very clear. First, the widespread dearth of knowledge of their region's history (and by projection, its geography, economy and folklore) by Newfoundland students reflects a lack of adequate study units dealing with such topics and second, such topics properly developed and presented can prove successful in the eradication of this problem.

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