Improved spelling performance on weekly tests and the ability to generalize through daily testing, rote memory practice, and writing words in context

This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of variations of spelling instruction in the elementary school classroom. A review of the behavior, educational, and psychological literature revealed a lack of cohesive information on spelling. A behavior incentive program was implemented in the form of daily testing with both groups. The control group continued with ten minutes of the traditional rote memory work while the treatment group, participated in a writing exercise using the words from the spelling list in creative stories. The treatment conditions lasted four weeks after which there were four and eight week followup measures to assess retention. Two dependent measures were used: (a) sentence form--the words were contained within simple sentences, and (b) list form--the words were written in the traditional list form. The results indicated no significant difference between the conditions but a significant effect over time. In both conditions there was a significant drop in retention from treatment to the first follow up but no significant difference between the follow up weeks. This indicated that after the initial decline of learning, retention seemed to be maintained. There was no difference between the two dependent measures. The results indicate several possibilities. First, the behavioral incentive program was too strong and overly influenced both groups. Second, the treatments were not distinctive enough. The writing group should not have been involved in any rote memory activities and the rote memory group should have written the words. Finally, classroom research is always full of potentially confounding factors. This study has several implications: (1) Behavioral incentive programs overshadow cognitive strategies for learning. (2) List testing of spelling words seems to be as accurate a measure of spelling as is writing words in context. (3) There is loss of retention after learning but it seems to stabilize after the initial decrease