THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEARNER-CENTEREDNESS AND SELF-ESTEEM IN TWO MIDDLE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENTS
Open Access
- Author:
- Moore, Malena Katrina
- Graduate Program:
- Instructional Systems
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 13, 2002
- Committee Members:
- Kyle Leonard Peck, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Roger C Shouse, Committee Member
Alison Alene Carr Chellman, Committee Member
William Dryden Milheim, Committee Member - Keywords:
- charter school
self-esteem
adolescence
middle school
learner-centeredness - Abstract:
- Time has taken the concept of self-esteem, which was originally seen as a vastly important psychological need and transformed it to a “supremely important economical need” (Branden, 1994, p. 12). Despite the expressed importance of self-esteem, many traditional middle schools are ignoring the affective domain. Research continually shows a drop in self-esteem through the transition from elementary school to middle school (Rosenberg, 1965; Harter, 1981; Eccles, Midgley et al., 1984; Wigfield and Eccles, 1994). Such a drop is attributed to the stark difference in the middle school learning environment. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between learner-centeredness, as perceived by students, and self-esteem of students in two middle schools, a charter school and a non-charter public school. Self-esteem was measured through the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory administered in October and again in January. Students’ perceptions of learner-centeredness were measured by the Assessment of Learner-Centered Practices (ALCP) (McCombs & Lauer, 1997) in January. The ALCP measured learner-centeredness across four domains of classroom practice: (1) creating a positive classroom climate and relationships with students, (2) honoring student voice and providing individual learning challenges, (3) encouraging higher order thinking and learning skills, and (4) adapting to a variety of individual developmental differences (McCombs, 2001). The results of this study suggest that a learning environment that is perceived as being more highly learner-centered and approaches the nurturing of self-esteem systemically will result in higher self-esteem scores.