The effects of a critical listening skills program on the ability of sixth graders to detect and analyze propaganda

Includes bibliographical references (pages 58-61)The general purpose of this study was to explore the possibility of the existence of critical listening abilities as part of general listening ability. The specific purpose of the study was to measure the ability of sixth grade students to analyze and judge verbally presented materials dealing with propaganda.\ud A Pretest-Posttest Control Group design was employed. There were two experimental groups and two control groups. One experimental group received lessons in critical listening skills and the other experimental group received lessons in general listening skills. The control groups were only pretested and posttested.\ud A one way analysis of variance was applied to test each of the two hypotheses. When the obtained F ratio was found significant for a given hypothesis, the Scheffe post hoc multiple comparison method was applied to test the difference between all pairs of means.\ud The findings of the present study indicated that sixth graders who experienced a critical listening skills program significantly improved in their ability to detect and analyze verbal material dealing with propaganda. Posttest results indicated that the difference between the percentage means of Group 1, the experimental group that received lessons in critical listening skills, and Group 2, the experimental group that received lessons in general listening skills, were significant at the .05 level. The difference between the percentage means between Groups 2 and 3 was not significant. No comparisons were made between Group 4 and any of the other groups