Education Commons^™

Essential Or Optional? Effects Of Creative Writing On Expository Skills And Attitude In Middle School Students, Nicole Samuelson

Honors Program Projects

Creative writing's effectiveness has not been clearly established through research, especially in regards to expository writing skills. However, other benefits of creative writing have been shown such as emotional benefits and general writing improvement. This study was conducted with two groups of middle school students. One group received ten creative writing interventions over a month and the other group continued with normal instruction. The goal was to discover if these interventions would improve students' expository writing skills as well as their attitude towards and confidence in writing. Surprisingly, while the experimental group did not improve significantly in either area, the …

Why Social Studies Matters: Historical Thinking In The Classroom & Beyond, Margaret Houts, Sabrina Bogart

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Presentation Location: Warming House, Olivet Nazarene University

Abstract

Social studies education is vital to helping students develop critical thinking skills that they will use both in and out of the classroom. As the world becomes increasingly complex and diverse, students must be given the tools they need to interpret and engage with it. The skills that students develop in the social studies classroom prepare them to be critical thinkers and engaged citizens in the 21st century. This presentation will summarize and interpret the body of research pertaining to teaching historical thinking skills. The presenters will share how they have …