The Effects of Movement Expressiveness in Story Content and Learning Context on the Analogical Reasoning Performance of African American Children.
2001; Howard University; Volume: 70; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2167-6437
AutoresA. Wade Boykin, Rodney T. Cunningham,
Tópico(s)Diverse Education Studies and Reforms
ResumoThe Effects of Movement Expressiveness in Story Content and Learning Context on the Analogical Reasoning Performance of African American Children* This study examined the effects on performance of incorporating cultural factors into the presentation and content of task materials. Sixty-four low-income African American children listened to stories read under two different contextual conditions. One context allowed for high movement expression (HME) and the other context afforded children little movement opportunity (LME). Additionally, the story content contained either high movement examples (HMT) such as dancing, running, and jumping, or low movement themes (LMT) such as walking and standing. Children displayed better story knowledge under the HME than LME learning context, and with the HMT as opposed to the LMT story content. Highest performance was demonstrated when the HME context was coupled with the HMT story content. The results and educational implications are discussed in relation to future research questions. Over the years, the academic performance of children placed educationally at risk has spawned widespread discussion and scientific debate (Delpit, 1988; Hollins, King, & Hayman, 1994; Rossi, 1994). The educational perils of African American children are often at the center of these dialogues (Au & Mason, 1983; Boykin, 1983; Delpit, 1988; Erickson, 1987). African American children are overrepresented in special education cohorts and they continue to lag behind their White counterparts on several standardized tests of achievement (Biles, 1991). Within these discussions, recently a growing number of researchers have supported the position that low-income African American children can and will learn at high levels if certain cultural factors are incorporated in their learning and performance environments (Allen & Boykin, 1992; Boykin, 1994). This line of reasoning has been central to the Talent Development approach to schooling promoted at the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At-Risk (CRESPAR) (Boykin, 2000). The Talent Development approach argues that schools should be designed to place all children at academic promise rather than to classify, sort, and evaluate them inappropriately (Boykin, 1994). One way to demonstrate the Talent Development perspective is to enhance children's academic and cognitive performance by capitalizing on the culturally manifested assets children bring to the formal learning environment (Boutte, 1999; Boykin, 2000). Children can accrue such assets in the form of interests, emerging competencies, and behavioral displays through participation in their every day routines outside of school. These routines regularly occur in contexts for which certain cultural themes are salient (Boykin & Allen, 2000). It is argued that the presence of such themes in any learning environment will allow greater manifestation of such assets. In recent years, CRESPAR researchers have undertaken both basic and applied studies to test the Talent Development approach. One cultural theme identified by CRESPAR associates to be particularly salient in the lives of low-income African American children is called movement expressiveness (Allen & Boykin, 1992). Indeed, work of CRESPAR associates on movement expressiveness has provided conceptual and empirical substantiation for the claims of this approach (Allen, Cunningham, Mungai, & Boykin, 1996). Movement expressiveness denotes a preference for the interwoven mosaic of music, movement, and percussive dance. Movement expressiveness entails the employment of large and varied movement repertoires and a preference for polyrhythmic syncopation. Indeed, a community of scholars agree upon the significance of movement expressiveness in the cultural experiences of African American people (Abrahams & Szwed, 1984; Akbar, 1976; Richards, 1990; Thompson, 1984; Young, 1970, 1974), and empirical work has shown that incorporating polyrhythmic, syncopated music and opportunities for movement expression into learning contexts facilitates low-income African American children's performance on tasks (Allen & Boykin, 1991; Allen & Butler; 1996; Boykin & Allen, 1988). …
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