The purpose of this study was to design and implement a media production program to determine its effectiveness in building self-esteem and improving academic behavior and reading achievement in at-risk sixth grade students. The sample population attend a middle school in Dougherty County and was randomly selected from students considered to be at-risk based on reading criteria established by the school. / The Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventories-2 measured self-esteem, the Teacher's Report Form determined behavioral changes and the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills measured reading skills. Teacher-made tests determined any changes in reading scores. / A pretest-posttest control group design was used in this investigation. Fifty-nine at-risk sixth grade students, between 11 and 14 years of age, participated in the twelve week study that began in January 1993 and was completed in April 1993. Thirty-one students formed the experimental group and twenty-eight comprised the control group. / An independent t-test was run to determine if a significant difference existed between pre and posttests for both groups on reading skills, academic self-esteem, school behavior and reading scores from teacher-made tests. There was no significant difference on reading skills, self-esteem or reading scores for either group. / A significant difference was indicated on the pretest for academic behavior. The experimental group averaged 45.39 compared to 38.43 for the control group. This difference was significant at less than the.01 level of error. A significant difference was also observed at the posttest on academic behavior. The experimental group averaged 41.32 compared to 46.21 for the control group. This difference between the two groups at the posttest was significant at less than a 1 percent probability of error. / A correlated t-test was employed to determine the changes taking place on self-esteem, academic behavior and on teacher-made tests for the experimental and control group between pre and posttests. Neither group changed significantly in self-esteem or on teacher-made tests. The experimental group improved significantly on academic behavior, while the control group changed significantly in the opposite direction. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-04, Section: A, page: 0782. / Major Professor: Thomas L. Hart. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77129 |
| Contributors | Dandy, Cora Phelps., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 101 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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