Faculty of Education - Theses

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Children's understanding of literature

Bunbury, Rhonda M. ( 1977)

Sixty primary school children aged seven, nine and eleven years listened to and read a selection of six pieces of literature at three different difficulty levels. Children were interviewed individually about the literature. In interview, a flexible individualized approach was combined with some standardization to the extent that each child was asked seven key questions: two were literal questions, the remaining five were different types of inference as listed in the Barrett taxonomy. Responses were scored according to Piagetian stages of cognitive growth indicated on a scale developed by Hallam (1966, 1967). Data were analyzed in a mixed model design, with two factors on the subjects - age and sex, and three factors in the repeated measures - difficulty level, mode and cognitive demand. A multivariate analysis approach to the repeated measures was utilized (Finn, 1972). That there is a progression of cognitive growth in response to literature was established both statistically and descriptively. For literal and inferential cognitive demand a significant interaction was found. Mode of presentation of the literature was found not to be significant for inferential cognitive demand but was significant at the level of literal demand. No significant sex differences were established. Educational implications of the results are discussed.