relation: http://eprints.iab.edu.my/v2/733/
title: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING NATIONAL MERIT FINALISTS' READING INTERESTS AND ATTITUDES
creator: Joan Mary, Shiring
subject: L Education (General)
description: The purpose of this study was to determine what factors influenced National Merit Finalists as developing readers during childhood (from birth to age 12) and during adolescence (from age 13 to 18). To obtain this information, the researcher wiled questionnaires containing open-ended questions and Likert scales to the 570 National Merit Finalists enrolled at The University of Texas at Austin during the spring of 1985. In all, 227 questionnaires were returned. Because the students wrote quite lengthy responses to the open-ended quest.ions, the sample was limited to 100 subjects (62 males, 38 females) by means of stratified-random sampling. To analyze the Finalists' responses to the open-ended questions, the researcher used Glaser and Strauss' "constant-comparative" method to establish categories for the students' myriad comments. She analyzed the Liken-scale responses using (1) descriptive statistics to establish rankings among different fates at tour age levels, (2) a t-test to check for possible Sex differences, and (3) an ANOVA test to look for possible main effects c subjects' academic majors on responses. Because the study was exploratory, the level of probability was set low: p < .10.   Results of the analysis show that the factors that influenced the Finalists during childhood and their junior-high years were slightly   different from those important during their senior-high years. The subjects considered "parents," "boots already read," and "teachers" to have been the most it factors from birth to age 14. Finalists viewed "instructional methods" and "required-reading materials" as having been somewhat influential during this period; "siblings," "librarians: and "friends/ peers" were fairly weak influences. During the senior-high years, Finalists believed that "books already read," "required-reading materials," and "teachers" were the most important influences. They considered "instructional methods," "friends/peers," and "parents" to have been somewhat influential. The subjects ranked "siblings" and "librarians" as fairly weak influences during late adolescence. Results of the t-test show that during the elementary, junior-high, and senior-high years, female Finalists were more inclined to be positively influenced by "parents," "siblings," and "librarians" than males were. Academic majors appear to have had no significant main effects on Finalists' Likert-scale responses.
date: 1986-12
type: Thesis
type: NonPeerReviewed
format: application/pdf
language: en
identifier: http://eprints.iab.edu.my/v2/733/1/shiring%2Cjoan%20mary.pdf
identifier:   Joan Mary, Shiring  (1986) AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING NATIONAL MERIT FINALISTS' READING INTERESTS AND ATTITUDES.  ["eprint_fieldopt_thesis_type_phd" not defined] thesis, The University of Texas at Austin.