Date of Award

1980

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the status of law-relatedEducation in the Indiana elementary schools. In order to do this, eleven questions were posed: (1) To what extent are Indiana elementary teachers familiar with the term "law-relatedEducation"? (2) To what extent have Indiana elementary teachers had courses that would help them to teach law-related topics? (3) To what extent do Indiana elementary teachers have access to materials which are specifically designed for law-relatedEducation? (4) To what extent has the law-relatedEducation movement affected the teaching of Indiana elementary teachers? (5) To what extent do Indiana elementary teachers use certain law-related resources, teaching strategies, and resource people? (6) To what extent do Indiana elementary teachers value the use of certain law-related resources, teaching strategies, and resource people? (7) To what extent do Indiana elementary teachers spend time teaching law-related topics? (8) To what extent do Indiana elementary teachers believe that certain law-related concepts are necessary for them to know? (9) To what extent do Indiana elementary teachers believe that law-relatedEducation should be a required part of the pre-service program in elementaryEducation? (10) To what extent do Indiana elementary teachers believe that law-relatedEducation should be a required part of the elementary school curriculum? (11) To what extent are Indiana elementary teachers willing to participate in a workshop on law-relatedEducation? In order to provide data which would answer these eleven questions. This questionnaire was completed by 309 elementary teachers who were teaching grades kindergarten through six in twenty-two public elementary schools throughout the State of Indiana. Two elementary schools were randomly selected from each of the eleven Congressional districts in the state. In seventeen of these schools the questionnaire was administered to all the teachers in each school at one time. In five of these schools the questionnaires were either mailed or delivered to the principal, who made sure that they were completed and returned. All of the questionnaires were completed between the dates of March 6 and April 17, 1980. The data obtained by the survey instrument indicate most Indiana elementary teachers are not familiar with the law-relatedEducation movement, have no training in this area, have no access to law-related instructional materials, do not feel that it has affected their teaching, and are not using law-related resources, teaching strategies, or resource people, However, the data also indicate that Indiana elementary teachers do believe that the use of law-related resources, teaching strategies, and resource people is valuable, do spend some time teaching certain law-related topics, do believe that certain law-related concepts are necessary for elementary teachers to know, do believe that law-relatedEducation should be a required part of the pre-service program in elementaryEducation and of the elementary school curriculum, and would like to have more training in this area. The findings of this study indicate that there is a definite need for both pre-service and in-service teacher training in law-relatedEducation, and it was recommended that colleges and universities in Indiana should provide this training in their teacherEducation programs.

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