The purpose of this study was to compare the academic achievement of students in looping programs from school systems in East Tennessee to their peers in traditional one-year instructional programs. Looping is defined as any program design that perpetuates a cohesive student group with the same teacher for more than one year. The study included all students who had completed fourth grade in 2001 at every school in East Tennessee that implemented a third/fourth grade looping design. Student scores reported for 1999, 2000, and 2001 on the TerraNova Standardized Achievement Test were obtained from individual student records. Comparisons were made on the Total Reading, Total Language, Total Math, and Total Battery scores. Differences between program design groups (looping and traditional) on "pre-looping" second grade (1999) scores were assessed using t-tests for two independent groups. Two-way Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), was used to examine the main effects of program design and student gender on 2000 and 2001 test scores, along with program design x gender interactions, while controlling for prior test score differences. The findings suggested that students in looping classrooms benefited academically by remaining with the same teacher and classmates for two successive years. Significant main effects were detected for program design in first year comparisons, as indicated by significantly higher scores on all four subtests. Scores for those in the looping classrooms remained significantly higher in second year comparisons on each subtest, except Total Language, even after controlling for third grade (2000) test scores. Significant main effects for gender were detected after the first year of participation in each design. This included significantly higher Total Language and Total Battery scores for female participants. No significant differences by gender were detected when scores were compared on the four subtests at the end of the two-year cycle. A program design x gender interaction was detected at the end of the first year. This interaction showed that female participants in looping classrooms showed higher Total Math achievement. A program design x gender interaction also occurred after the second year where male participants in the looping classrooms obtained higher Total Language scores.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:36:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MarciaMAD.pdf: 2080307 bytes, checksum: 2dccbd6c5dd57617ed099d4fb271b7b2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-15 / Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte / The issue of multi-classes in schools from the field and methodology for these classes is controversial and contentious, both in terms of teaching, monitoring and organizational, is the perspective of values, training and systematization of public policy. Why the strategy Methodological Active School facing those classes appeared as a significant and exciting topic of research. Thus, it was aimed to apprehend the social representations of active school by teachers (s) to understand the extent to which these representations influence the acceptance and use of the program strategies. Perceiving and analyzing also the various factors related to the management, monitoring and training needs of (the) teachers as alternatives to make this meaningful action. The study focused 112 teachers (s), which for over a year, worked in the program in six municipalities in the micro-region of Rio Grande do Norte / RN - Areia Branca, Bara?na, Grossos, Mossor?, Serra do Mel and Tibau. From this perspective relied on Social Representation Theory and the Theory of the Central Core, attending to the subjectivity of the object searched, inserted in the psychosocial field of knowledge, we opted for multi-methodological approach, using quantitative and qualitative techniques. However, the highlight was a projective technique Free Association of Words from the term Active School is .... The words were systematized by EVOC program, and also applied semi-structured interviews, focusing specific issues that led to trace the socio-demographic profile of (the) participants and wider issues about the object of study. The evocations, justifications and interviews provided the basis for the analysis of the content that followed the steps: formation of the corpus, the composition of the analysis and categorization. The results show the representations an attitude of acceptance and positive appraisal of the participants to the Active School Program. At the core, these representations are objectified around the words "action", "learning", "autonomy" and "interaction". Based on the premise that the representations have a duty to guide the practices and behavior, one can see that the positive attitude of the group favors a systematic methodology and acceptance of the program, but we must look at the changes in management, training, monitoring of (the) teachers (s) and support to schools. / A quest?o das turmas multianuais nas escolas do campo e proposta metodol?gica para essas turmas ? pol?mica e controversa, seja no ponto de vista did?tico, acompanhamento e organizacional, seja na perspectiva de valores, forma??o e sistematiza??o de pol?ticas p?blicas. Motivo que a Estrat?gia Metodol?gica Escola Ativa voltada para aquelas turmas se configurou como uma tem?tica significativa e instigante de pesquisa. Assim, objetivou-se apreender as representa??es sociais de Escola Ativa por professoras(es) para compreender em que medida essas representa??es influenciam na aceita??o e utiliza??o das estrat?gias do programa. Percebendo e analisando, tamb?m, os diversos fatores relacionados ? gest?o, acompanhamento e necessidades formativas dos(as) docentes como alternativas para tornar tal a??o significativa. O estudo privilegiou 112 professoras(es), que h? mais de um ano, atuavam no programa nos seis munic?pios da Microrregi?o de Mossor?/RN Areia Branca, Bara?na, Grossos, Mossor?, Serra do Mel e Tibau. Nessa perspectiva recorreu a Teoria das Representa??es Sociais e na Teoria do N?cleo Central, buscando atender ? subjetividade do objeto pesquisado, inserido no campo psicossocial do conhecimento, optou-se pela abordagem plurimetodol?gica, utilizando-se t?cnicas quantitativas e qualitativas. No entanto, o destaque foi para a t?cnica projetiva Associa??o Livre de Palavras a partir do termo indutor Escola Ativa ?... As evoca??es foram sistematizadas pelo programa EVOC e, tamb?m, se aplicou entrevistas semi-estruturadas, privilegiando quest?es espec?ficas que permitiram tra?ar o perfil sociodemogr?fico das(os) part?cipes e quest?es mais abrangentes sobre o objeto de estudo. As evoca??es, justificativas e as entrevistas serviram de base para a an?lise do conte?do que seguiu as etapas: constitui??o do corpus, composi??o das unidades de an?lise e a categoriza??o. Os resultados revelam nas representa??es uma atitude de aceita??o e valoriza??o positiva dos part?cipes ao Programa Escola Ativa. No n?cleo central, essas representa??es est?o objetivadas em torno das palavras a??o , aprendizagem , autonomia e intera??o . Baseando-se na premissa de que as representa??es t?m como fun??o guiar as pr?ticas e condutas, percebe-se que a atitude positiva do grupo favorece a sistematiza??o e aceita??o da metodologia do programa, mas ? preciso mudan?as no olhar da gest?o, na forma??o, acompanhamento das(os) professoras(es) e no ap?io ?s escolas.