Term

Summer 7-12-2016

Capstone

Thesis

Degree Name

MALED

Primary Advisor/Dissertation Chair

Karen Moroz

Secondary Advisor/Reader One

Sherry Knutt

Peer-Reviewer/Reader Two

Nicole Cahill

Abstract

The research question addressed in this project was, how can text­based debates increase empathy in upper elementary students? It explores research around critical literacy, social­emotional learning, and debates with a specific focus on alternative perspectives and empathy development. The researcher combines research around different forms of debate, argumentation and collaborative reasoning, to create a text­based debate protocol. The action research studies the impact on students’ empathy development for characters found in read aloud texts through participation in weekly text­based debates and written reflections. Students debated two opposing perspectives regarding a character’s personality and wrote reflections in which they explained both perspectives and if or how their thinking had changed as a result of their debate. Reflections were scored using a rubric and pre­ and post­assessments were compared to determine growth. The findings demonstrate that exploring alternative perspectives through text­based debates can increase the empathy students have for the characters in read aloud texts.

Research Methodology

Action Research

Keywords

Character Education, Literacy, Debate

Publisher

Hamline University

Source

School of Education Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations at Hamline University

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