The development of an instructional unit for elementary social studies entitled "The Beothucks"

The purpose of this project was to develop a unit of curriculum and instruction about the Beothuck Indians. The instructional package would be suitable for Grade Five students and contain a student handbook, a teacher guide, and a slide-tape presentation. -- The content was derived from original his...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Scott, Herbert Calvin
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 1978
Subjects:
Online Access:https://research.library.mun.ca/4378/
https://research.library.mun.ca/4378/1/Scott_HerbertCalvin.pdf
https://research.library.mun.ca/4378/3/Scott_HerbertCalvin.pdf
Description
Summary:The purpose of this project was to develop a unit of curriculum and instruction about the Beothuck Indians. The instructional package would be suitable for Grade Five students and contain a student handbook, a teacher guide, and a slide-tape presentation. -- The content was derived from original historical documents written about the Beothucks. The material was rewritten and restructured to suit the abilities of average Grade Five students. -- When the unit was developed specialists, from social studies, curriculum and development, and audiovisual education, assessed it for content validity, structure, presenttation, and representation. Revisions were made after these assessments, and also based on results of students' and teachers' evaluation forms. Following this the instructional package was submitted to the classroom for student - teacher assessment. Two elementary school classes consisting of 54 students and their teachers, under the Terra Nova Integrated School Board, participated in these classroom trials which took place in May and September 1977. -- Evaluation was provided by the results of students responses on the pretest knowledge scale instrument, posttest knowledge scale instrument, preprofile scores and postprofile scores on the semantic differential attitude form. -- The conclusions are that the objectives of the unit were met and that the unit is a successful instructional package. There was significant growth in positive attitudes towards the Beothucks. Grade Five students are able to learn and understand large amounts of factual materials presented in a multi-media approach.