The Relationship Between Grouping Format Used For Reading Instruction and Fourth Grade Students' Attitudes Toward Reading

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the reading attitude scores of fourth-grade students who are grouped homogeneously for reading instruction to those who are grouped heterogeneously. The null hypothesis stated that there would be no statistically significant differences between the mean reading attitude scores of students from the homogeneous or heterogeneous groups on the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey. The subjects were ninety-six fourth grade students from two different suburban area school districts located in western New York. Heterogeneous grouping was used for reading instruction in one school district while homogeneous grouping was used in the other district. Both school districts had been previously using their current instructional programs for reading, K-4 grades. During the beginning of the third quarter of the 1997-1998 school year, teachers of each classroom administered the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey to their students in accordance with the directions for administration given by the survey developers. These surveys were anonymously completed by the students and returned to the researcher by each teacher. Students were told that only the researcher would see their surveys. The researcher used a t test of independent means to analyze and compare results of the homogeneous reading group and of the heterogeneous reading group. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean reading attitude scores of the homogeneous group and the mean attitude scores of the heterogeneous group. The null hypothesis for this study had been rejected.