Organized to share the perspective of the classroom teacher, this study represents an investigation of looping, an educational plan in which the same teacher and students remain together as an instructional unit for a minimum of two years. Offered as an alternative to traditional grade organization and standard progression through the grades, looping is explored as an option for restructuring to better serve American students. The premise behind this plan is that the teacher will come to know his/her students as learners better over time; a knowledge that will improve the teaching/learning dynamic within the classroom. As looping is more prevalent at the elementary level, the participants in this study are elementary classroom teachers with experience in looping. Using a mixed-methods design, the study involved two parallel phases: focused interviews of teachers from four local communities and a geographically wider sampling of teachers through distribution of a questionnaire. Potential participants were selected through a snowball technique. Secondary means of data collection involved on-site observations and examination of related school documents. From the interviews, common themes emerged regarding many issues related to the implementation of looping. These views of classroom teachers were upheld by questionnaire responses. As reported by teachers, major findings of this study include the following: Looping builds a strong sense of a community of learners. The home-school link is strengthened. Students who loop show numerous gains within the affective domain, with additional benefit to those identified as being at-risk, and with a lessening of "summer anxiety." Teachers found that time was saved in transitioning between grades, allowing for increased time-on-task and opportunities to expand the curriculum. Research conclusion: Based on the perceptions of teachers in this study, looping holds significant promise as a program of persistence in group to offer a reasonable alternative for reorganizing elementary schools to maximize the teaching/learning dynamic.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-1635 |
| Date | 01 January 1998 |
| Creators | Denault, Linda Ellen |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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