Listening to Stories May Change Children's Social Attitudes.

Abstract

RESEARCH on how children are influenced or changed by books is a recent phenomenon, and the few findings available have been inconclusive. While most studies agree that literature is potentially important in the child's value development, the extent of that learning and its permanence have yet to be determined (Waples, Berelson and Bradshaw 1958). Since the few studies that do exist have centered primarily on pr? adolescent and adolescent readers, our knowledge about young children is mostly a result of generalizing from what has been found with older readers. This may be totally un warranted, as large differences may exist in how children of different ages respond to literature. For instance, Loban (1954) found that mere exposure to stories read aloud to adolescents did not bring about any apparent attitude change. He found discussion techniques were necessary if the students were to achieve the insights in social sensitivity that the study intended. However, this finding seems likely to be dependent on a number of factors, such as difficulty of the material and values expressed in the literature, as well as age of subject. Particularly with preschoolers, whose major if not sole contact with literature is hearing stories read aloud, it seems likely that substantial attitude change can be effected through the mere passive listening process. Of course, this is not to deny that discussion does not strengthen or intensify attitude change. Rather, it is suggested that attitude change is a function of the values expressed in the literature as well as active discus sion of these values. The present study was an attempt

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