Poetry as a learning task

POETRY AS A LEARNING TASK RESULTS OF A LONGITUDINAL INTERVENTION STUDY

JAROSLAV VALA

OLOMOUC 2016

PalackĂ˝ University Olomouc Faculty of Education

Poetry as a learning task Results of a longitudinal intervention study

Jaroslav Vala

Olomouc 2016

Reviewers: doc. PhDr. Ondřej Hník, Ph.D. doc. PhDr. Vlasta Řeřichová, CSc.

Unauthorized use of the work is a breach of copyright and may be subject to civil, administrative or criminal liability.

First English Edition Translated and revised by Václav Řeřicha and David Livingstone. © Jaroslav Vala, 2016 © Palacký University Olomouc, 2016 DOI 10.5507/pdf.16.24448770 ISBN 978-80-244-4878-7 (e-book) ISBN 978-80-244-4877-0 (print)

CONTENTS Introduction.............................................................................5 1 The concept of subject matter from the perspective of the didactics of literary education ............................................... 7 1.1 Characteristics of the educational field of Czech Language and Literature ................................................................................................ 7 1.2 Specifics of educational communication in literary education .... 10 1.3 The artistic literary text, reading, reception, interpretation ........ 12 2 Poetry as a learning task ..................................................... 16 2.1 Specifics of lyric poetry as a learning task.................................... 16 2.2 Poetry and its concepts for young students ................................. 20 2.3 An overview of poetry surveys on the reception of poetry and the effectiveness of teaching methods ........................................................ 22 3 Methodology of the longitudinal intervention study .......... 28 3.1 Research objectives and hypotheses ............................................ 28 3.2 The research sample..................................................................... 29 3.3 Methods and research process ..................................................... 31 3.3.1 Quantitative research phase ..........................................................................31 3.3.2 Qualitative research phase ........................................................................... 34

4 The results of a longitudinal intervention study in the individual classes ................................................................36 4.1 Red Class ...................................................................................... 39 4.1.1 The results of the quantitative research phase in the Red Class .................. 39 4.1.2 Teaching in the experimental Red Class – activities and reflections .......... 45

4.2 Orange Class................................................................................. 50 4.2.1 The results of the quantitative research in the Orange Class ...................... 50 4.2.2 Teaching in the experimental Orange Class – activities and reflections .... 57

4.3 Green Class................................................................................... 64 4.3.1 The results of the quantitative research in the Green Class ........................ 64 4.3.2 Teaching in the experimental Green Class – activities and reflections ...... 69

4.4 The Blue class ............................................................................... 76 4.4.1 The results of the quantitative research in the Blue Class ........................... 76 4.4.2 Teaching in the experimental Blue Class – activities and reflections ......... 82

4.5 Yellow Class.................................................................................. 86 4.5.1 The results of the quantitative research in the Yellow Class ....................... 86 4.5.2 Teaching in the experimental Yellow Class – activities and reflections ..... 92

5 Overall results of the longitudinal intervention study ......... 97 5.1 Attitude changes in the experimental classes .............................. 97 5.2 Attitude change in respondents of experimental classes vs. the characteristics of respondents .............................................................101

5.3 The overall differences between the results of the experimental and control classes.............................................................................. 103 5.4 Summary of the results of the longitudinal intervention study and discussion ........................................................................................... 108 Conclusion......................................................................... 116 Bibliography ...................................................................... 118 Summary ........................................................................... 122

Introduction The current publication presents the results of a three-year research project entitled Reception of Poetry amongst Pubescent and Adolescent Readers. It was implemented at the Faculty Education of Palacky University in 2011–2013 with the support of the Czech Science Foundation (Vala, 2013). In our research, we analyzed how respondents aged 12-20 read and perceive different kinds of poems and how they are able to interpret them without substantial assistance on the part of a teacher. We also examined how students' relationship to poetry can be influenced by the choice of appropriate teaching methods in a longitudinal line of inquiry.

In the chapter The concept of the subject matter from the perspective of the didactics of literary education, we focused in detail on literary education didactics. We mention here that within the framework of literary education, students at the lower secondary level of primary schools should gradually develop their reading habits and capacity for creative interpretation and production of a literary text. Using these activities they arrive at findings and experiences that can positively influence their life attitudes, value orientation and enrich their spiritual life. The aforementioned argument is only valid, however, if literary education is genuinely based on reading and interpretation of texts relevant to the age group of readers and are able to elicit the emotional experience of young students. Above all, this approach has to enable young students to learn about themselves and the outside world through fiction and poetry.

In the chapter entitled Poetry as a learning task, we move from the didactics of literary education to the reception and interpretation of literary texts which represent a specific type of learning task. We argue that fiction and poetry, in particular poetry, work with a specific language, which combines condensed forms and imagination. Making an acquaintance with poetry and its conceptualization of language has the potential to develop the communication and writing skills of young students, expand their vocabulary, facilitate reception of an artistic text, etc. Poetic conception of language both confuses and provokes the reader with words acquiring unusual connotations. This leads the reader to a weakening of the rigid conception of the meaning of words and to greater intellectual openness, in other words, to aspects which are a necessary prerequisite for genuine learning. It is also valid that poems are the most 5

difficult type of artistic text for many teachers and students. In this particular chapter, we examine the specifics of poetry, present its young learner concepts and summarize the research which has been carried out aimed at the reception of poetry and the effectiveness of teaching methods.

We dedicated the empirical part of the publication to longitudinal research which represented the most challenging and organizationally complex part of the research project. The main objective was to verify the effectiveness of teaching poetry in experimental classes in comparison with control classes. We wanted to analyze in this way the relationship of young learners to poetry and how its teaching may influence the choice of appropriate teaching methods based on experiential learning, developing creativity and a sensitive approach to individual interpretations of young learners. We investigated the differences in relation to poetry and its teaching among young learners of the experimental and control classes and the influence of experimental learning on the respondents. We verified what kind of young students would be affected the most by experimental teaching and how it was perceived by the participating teachers. We combined the two research approaches (longitudinal research and experimental design) and used longitudinal intervention design (Gustafsson, 2010).

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1 The concept of subject matter from the perspective of the didactics of literary education This chapter focuses on the specifics of the educational field of Czech Language and Literature, the need for transformation of pedagogical communication in literary education and related discussion on the quality of teaching.

1.1 Characteristics of the educational field of Czech Language and Literature The educational field of Czech Language and Literature is the Framework Educational Programme for Basic Education (FEP BE) included in the educational field of language and language communication. This subject is specific as it develops a knowledge of the mother tongue and communication skills among young students. The skills acquired in the educational field of Czech Language and Literature are a prerequisite for quality education in other (school and extracurricular) areas. The use of Czech as a mother tongue in an oral and written form allows young students to know and understand the social and cultural development of human society. Preconditions for effective interpersonal communication are created in the given educational field.

The educational field of Czech Language and Literature is divided for clarity into three components: communication and stylistic education, language education and literary education. Teaching has a complex character, however, and the educational content of the individual components is mutually intertwined. We will consequently primarily focus on literary education in the following text.

According to FEP BE, young students make an acquaintance with basic literary styles, learn to perceive their specific features, perceive the artistic intentions of the author and formulate their own opinions about the work they have read thanks to literary education by means of reading.

Young students at the lower secondary level of primary school thus gradually develop their reading habits and the capacity for creative reception, interpretation and production of a literary text. Using these activities they arrive at findings and experiences which can positively influence their life attitudes, value orientation and enrich their spiritual 7

life. The aforementioned argument is only valid, however, if literary education is genuinely based on the reading and interpretation of texts appropriate to the age group of readers which are able to elicit an emotional experience among young students. This approach will enable young students to above all learn about themselves and the outside world through fiction and poetry. The opposite approach is the frontal interpretation based on the accumulation of facts about the authors and works and where direct contact with the text is minimal or merely formal. A hidden curriculum communicates that literature is mostly boring to young learners.

The current discussions about the quality of education are dominated by the fields of science and mathematics, often in connection with their low attractiveness for students. Alternatively, a focus is paid to language training (cf. Zlatníček, Ducháčková, Janík, 2010; Janík, Lokajíčková, Janko, 2012). So-called educational disciplines (literature, music, art, drama and physical education), the results of which are difficult to measure if a comprehensive form of the fields and objectives of these disciplines are to be covered, are not in the primary focus of this interest. Tests can be constructed examining the quality of education even in these fields but such tests are usually focused on knowledge or performance (physical education). It is difficult to capture what constitutes, for example, their essence: developing aesthetic perception, experience; introducing cultural and social values; forming personal values and life attitudes. Educational fields can be one of the accelerators of personal maturation. Similar features are difficult to capture, however, and are in conflict with the efforts of the educational system for homogenization and standardization through screening (Boughton, 2004).

The educational system should increase its focus on spiritual values and ethical and aesthetic issues. According to Spousta (2008), contemporary society is primarily focused on utilitarian values and spiritual values are disappearing. At present, so-called moral relativism, the proponents of which argue that the answers to the questions of values are determined by subjective arbitrariness or the current cultural or social situation, has made headway. Quality education should therefore not lose sight of ethical, spiritual and intellectual dimensions. It should sensitively contribute to the development of the personal spirituality of

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young students. Literary education and adequate artistic texts provide teachers with a significant space in this area.

When examining the quality of teaching in general, there is first a need to clearly define the term itself and make it usable in efforts to improve teaching in school classes. As indicated by Janík, Lokajíčková and Janko (2012), the quality of teaching cannot be described by simply listing the characteristics, in other words, that teaching should be clear, structured, activating, etc. It should specify what the listed adjectives should specifically be concerned with. Certain components of teaching and certain characteristics related to them are gradually specified within this thought process. Within the concept of the above-mentioned authors, the quality of education primarily constitutes a field-didactic problem because teaching should lead to the fact that students learn something while the question of the appropriateness and feasibility of the ways leading to it plays its role as well (ibid. p.28). The authors divide the components and characteristics of good teaching into four areas: • organization and classroom management – the use of time, a reasonable pace, structuredness; • mediation of aims and contents – clarity, structuredness, coherence; • learning tasks – cognitive activation; • a supportive learning climate – constructive work with mistakes, adaptability of teaching processes.

The authors also point out, however, that their surveillance study is primarily related to math and science education and emphasize that subject to the impact of orientation of a field on the quality of teaching, the conclusions presented cannot be automatically adopted by the humanities, social or artistic teaching disciplines and subjects. We are, nevertheless, of the opinion that their findings may serve as inspiration for the aforementioned humanities. We specifically strongly accentuate the role of a supportive educational climate in the longitudinal intervention study (including recordings of interpretations within focus groups).

Learning tasks in the general sense encourage active learning activities with young students. They are based on the field and are aimed 9

at the learning objective. They create an educational situation and condition its form, organization and process (SlavĂ­k, DytrtovĂĄ, FulkovĂĄ, 2010). Teaching would actually lose its own content without learning tasks. We therefore rank them among the basic components of teaching by the means of which the content of teaching is implemented directly and its aims are thus achieved. The role of learning tasks in literary education is primarily played by texts of fiction and poetry.

1.2 Specifics of educational communication in literary education Selecting appropriate teaching methods, similarly as the choice of appropriate literary texts intended for didactic interpretation, has a substantial impact on the degree of effectiveness of the given teaching.

Deeper insight into the reception process of an artistic text and identification of the specific reading preferences allows for the choice of more appropriate teaching methods. The most frequent methods used in literary education when interpreting a literary text (explanation, working with a text, etc.) are aimed at examining the formal aspects of a poem and suppressing subjective experience rather than discouraging the majority of young students from poetry. Teachers' awareness of the reading preferences of their young students in the area of poetry allows them to choose the appropriate poetic texts for different categories of respondents and encourages them to give the young students space for their independent interpretation. Pike (2000a) refers to this approach as "responsive teaching", which is based on the fact that interpretation begins at the level the students are actually at. The teacher should therefore not overwhelm young students with his/ her own point of view of the text but should provide them with the opportunity to express themselves to avoid situations where the students only repeat the teacher's opinions and do not assume their own evaluating position. This danger is particularly present when working with older poetry. Teachers dispose of a sum of additional information which they tend to pass on to young students in order to enable them to gain a better understanding of the text. The concept of truly dialogic teaching within the interpretation of a text does not have a clearly determined result, the result arises in a dialogue in which the teacher represents only one of the opinions. This approach is not all that widespread, however, since current educational 10

communication is strongly dominated by the teacher and the structure of communication is clearly predefined (Šeďová, Švaříček, Šalamounová, 2012). The findings of these authors can also be applied (and in some respects very significantly) to lessons in literary education: • the teacher uses three quarters of the time for verbal activities; young students do come into play quite often but their replicas are extremely short; • the vast majority of communication begins with a question by the teacher, continues with an answer by the young student and ends with feedback from the teacher; • the students who indicate that they understand the subject matter in a different way than their teacher encounter negative reactions on the part of teachers; • teachers predominantly ask young students closed questions of low cognitive demand and ask the young students to acquire particular facts; • feedback to young students' replies is extremely poor in evaluating information; the answers to teachers' closed questions are only graded as right and wrong; evaluation of answers to open questions is missing completely; • the teachers declare their interest in developing a dialogue with young students, they consider it a means of increasing teaching effectiveness; • dialogic forms appearing in teaching suffer from a lack of emphasis on rational argumentation.

With regard to the particularities of communication in literary education, we would like to emphasize from the above-mentioned list the negative reaction of teachers to statements by students who perceive the subject matter in a different way than their teachers. Reception and interpretation of artistic texts are inherently highly individualized, yet some teachers respond to a young student's perception of the text in a negative way because it makes them feel insecure and they feel a threat to their authority. The individuality of reception is related to the teacher's assessment of young students' replies. Unlike subjects in the natural sciences, involving tasks which often tend to have only one solution, a poem allows for different interpretations. The teacher should therefore not require young students to perceive the text in terms of the same 11

details he/she does. Evaluation by the teacher should be aimed at appreciation and encouragement of students who try to interpret the text (each one according to his/her individual dispositions). Such a stimulating environment where students can talk openly about their reading impressions leads to natural development of the dialogue, in which the teacher can play specifically the role of a moderator.

There is a preference for constructivist and communicative conceptions in the teaching of literature, emphasizing the social dimension of education and the symmetrical communication model. It is appropriate to create situations where young students themselves can enter the role similarly to the role of an expert in the field. We consequently understand teaching as a social situation in which young students bring their personal experience, memories and associations and based on these interpret the text.

1.3 The artistic interpretation

literary

text,

reading,

reception,

When interpreting a literary text in literary education, teachers are often faced with the task of responding to the views of young students, which may differ rather significantly from their own perspective on the text. More generally, this situation can be applied to all works of art (not only literature) and art theoreticians are not the only ones in dispute as to whether the artwork is only one (and people only perceive it differently), or whether there are as many works of art as the perceivers.

As stated by Kulka, “the work of art is an aesthetically communicated artifact, more precisely, a set of all the options of particular realizations of an artistic project and its receptions". From this follows that "the work of art exists in the social awareness as a set of communication options (continuously open), which are always implemented socially, historically and individually psychologically" (Kulka, 1991, p.23–24).

Each period can, therefore, project its own thoughts into art, interpret it and actualize it in another way. The work of art overcomes the time of its creation, it is still alive and topical (sometimes with certain fluctuations), even though various generations in different social conditions may always take something different out of it. Differences in the perception of the work, however, do not only have to appear at the 12