Concern has been expressed about teaching English to the fifth- and
the sixth graders in the public schools of Japan. There appears to be an
insufficiency of materials as well as anxiety among teachers who must
instruct these grades. Story telling may be an important step for
developing English competence. The current study replicated the work of
Trostle and Hicks (1998) which investigated vocabulary gains and
comprehension using story telling modes including Character Imagery (CI)
and Simple Reading (SR) in an LI setting. Significantly, however, this
study was conducted in an L2 situation. The effects of CI and SR on
comprehension and vocabulary development were compared using a sample of
120 Japanese primary school students ranging in age from 10 to 12 years.
In a two-phase procedure, students listened to stories told using CI by
the researcher, and a second group listened to stories told by SR. While
both modes were effective. CI was found to be significantly greater in
improving both comprehension and vocabulary development. Story telling
appears to be beneficial for students developing English proficiency.
This study provides evidence that teachers should employ suitable
stories told using character imagery in L2 classrooms.
Background of this study
English will be a compulsory subject for the fifth-and
sixth-graders in public primary schools from the 2011 academic year in
Japan. However, the problem seems to lay in a lack of suitable English
materials for the grades and a deficit of classroom teachers'
confidence to implement activities in English. The communicative
approach can be useful for developing students English listening and
speaking ability. Past 10 years, a native English speaking person as an
Assistant Language Teacher (hereafter referred to by the acronym, ALT)
has been working with a classroom teacher to teach natural English.
However, classroom teachers' anxiety has skyrocketed because of
their limited communication skills in English, and moreover, their duty
which they have to form syllabus and a teaching plan. In fact, classroom
teachers rely on an ALT who mainly plan English activities. Most
activities have been performed by singing, dancing and playing games
which are boring for pre-teens who are eager to gain new knowledge and
carry out logical operations (Pinter, 2006). As pre-teens can establish
their thoughts systematically and holistically according to Piaget
(Lightbown & Spada, 2006), it is natural that pre-teens
"require very different materials, methods, and teaching
style" (Pinter, 2006, p7) different from younger students. What is
more effective way? How can classroom teachers approach them? One
positive reaction for pre-teens to English activities was reported on
the simple questionnaire performed in May 2008 by the researcher that
was to listen to a story. A short story read by an ALT was utterly
enchanted students. Especially, telling a story using dramatized action
by a native speaker attracted pre-teens. Stories bring a lot of benefits
including language development (Wright, 1997). Cameron (2001) has
insisted that "Stories present holistic approaches to language
teaching and learning that place a high premium on children's
involvement with rich, authentic uses of the foreign language" (p.
159). It is possible that pre-teens engage in English learning through
using stories as a language teaching material.
Research questions of this study
In the current study, The Character Imagery Storytelling Style
presented by Trostle & Hicks (1998), was administered, which
involves the story teller's dressing as the protagonist in the
story and vivid and dynamic speech and gestures of the protagonist and
the other characters in the story to "tell" the story in the
past tense. In Character Imagery, one actor, in fact,
"becomes" each significant character momentarily, by using a
combination of pantomime, body positioning, and different voice
intonations for each new character. However he/she returns to the
primary role of protagonist when not assuming another character's
role. (Trostle & Hicks, 1998, p129)
This research demonstrated that The Character Imagery Storytelling
Style (hereafter referred to by the acronym, CI) had great effects to
gain vocabulary and progress comprehension of the story in the first
language (L 1). If such is the case, the method might be useful for
young second language learners as well. CI is assumed to be effective
for language development for students (McWilliams, 1998). However, the
above study was been implemented in L 1 setting. Therefore, it is very
much valuable to examine this in second language (L2) setting. My
research questions were as follows:
1. Will students increase their vocabulary by story telling?
2. Will students hearing a story using Character Imagery
storytelling style (CI) gain higher vocabulary than students who have a
simple reading of the same story (SR)?
3. Will students hearing a story using Character Imagery
Storytelling style (CI) have higher comprehension than students who have
a simple reading of the same story (SR)?
The current study was investigated vocabulary gains and
comprehension comparing different modes, such as CI and a simple story
reading (hereafter referred to by the acronym, SR).
There has been a great discussion about the development of native
literacy skills by reading stories aloud. Studies on story reading aloud
and incidental vocabulary learning are reported with positive findings
(Elley, 1989; Trostle & Hicks, 1998).
Elley (1989) conducted two experiments to investigate whether or
not incidental vocabulary learning occurred through listening to
stories. The first study was performed with 168 seven-year-old students
from seven classrooms in seven schools in New Zealand. The book chosen
was Gumdrop at Sea which had an impressive story and many attractive
pictures. The result showed that percentage of children who acquired
knowledge of the target words in the post-vocabulary test was higher
than percentage of that in the pre-vocabulary test. Incidental
vocabulary learning using listening to stories was proven. In the second
experiment in which the procedures were replicated in the current study,
the purpose was to make sure whether or not incidental vocabulary
learning occurred in two different story books with 127 six classes of
eight year olds in New Zealand and 51 children of the similar age and
background from two schools for a control group. The experimental
children were divided into two groups (A and B). Two picture books,
Rapscallion Jones and The White Crane, were read aloud to three groups,
two experimental groups (with explanation and without explanation) and
one control group. The treatments were exchanged with each story between
the two experimental groups. The control group took all tests at the
same times as Group A and B, but did not hear any stories. The result
showed that the group with explanation had much vocabulary gain for the
Trostle and Hicks (1998) investigated through comparing the effects
of storytelling and story reading on comprehension and vocabulary
development with British primary school students. One approach was the
CI in which a storyteller who read aloud books dressed and took on the
role of protagonist. Another approach was SR in which a trained student
read stories aloud. Thirty two students aged seven to 11 years,
consisting of 16 boys and 16 girls, were divided into eight groups of
four students per group who were sub-grouped by age, gender and literacy
ability. Four groups had SR approach and the other four groups had CI
approach. Over a period of six weeks, students listened to four stories
includes Mop Top and Dandelion for young students and Strega Nona and
The Widow's Broom for the older groups. Four groups listened to
stories with CI by a researcher or a trained student teacher and other
four groups with SR by an investigator or a trained student teacher.
During reading/telling stories, pictures were shown to subjects. Results
showed that CI had a great effect on story comprehension and vocabulary
development. They concluded that CI approach could be more effective
than SR for students aged seven to 11, and story telling should be given
a place in reading programs and also literacy curriculums.
In the field of second language acquisition, the study of L2
language development using storybooks has been few empirical studies.
Brett, Rothlein & Hurley (1996) investigated whether students
with ethnic backgrounds such as white non-Hispanic, African-American,
Hispanic, and Asian, aged nine to 11 years can acquire unknown words
through listening to two stories, Bunnicula and The Reluctant Dragon
with different conditions. A total of 175 the fourth graders from six
classrooms in two elementary schools in Miami divided into three groups
such as (1) story-with-word-explanation group, (2)
story-without-word-explanation group, and (3) no exposure to the stories
or vocabulary (the control condition group). All three groups were given
pre-test and post-test for each story. Six weeks later, a delayed
post-test was administrated. Results showed that the
story-with-word-explanation group made significantly more progress the
pre-vocabulary test to the post-vocabulary tests than the other two
groups. They concluded that the fourth graders were able to acquire new
vocabulary from listening to stories with a brief explanation of the new
words which appeared in the stories.
Cabrera and Martinez (2001) investigated teachers' strategies
to make the input comprehensible in reading/telling stories in two
conditions with 60 Spanish ten year-old English second language users in
the Canary Islands. They found that the children were able to follow the
thread of the story told by a teacher only when children listened to the
story both linguistic and interactional adjustment. (1) Linguistic
adjustment (the first version) consists of short utterances, simple
syntactic structures (simple present, imperatives, comparatives, etc.)
and (2) interactional adjustments (the second version) in which
repetitions, questions, and comprehension checks were given in L2 and
paralinguistic cues were also given. The same male teacher told two
stories, The Long Nose and The Princess and the Pea, to the two groups
of children in two different classroom situations. Interestingly, the
reason children were able to follow the thread of the story told even if
without any visual supports is that body language, such as emphatic
gestures, physical appearance and actions, assisted children in their
comprehension. Cabrera and Martinez (2001) concluded that teacher talk,
such as repetition, questions, and comprehensions checks, are one of L2
resources in second language classrooms, and interactional adjustment
should be created more in L2 learning.
Huang (1991) investigated whether or not comprehensive oral input
using a multisensory approach scaffold understanding of real literature
reading with 129 sixth-graders, aged 11 year-olds, from a public school
using the stories, Ice Cream and Dragons and Giants. Students were
divided into three groups. The control group (CG) read the text-only
story without any illustrations or storytelling and
illustration-supplement group (IG) read the text with illustrations. The
study group (SG) used multi-sensory approach through the contexualized
storytelling, which is very similar to CI. SG group listened to the
story with the multi-sensory approach before reading the illustrated
text. To measure their word understanding, a word recall test was
conducted in which the half of the word list of the fifty words came
from the story and the rest of the words were distracting words.
Students checked the word which they thought came from the story. To
measure their comprehension of the reading text, a story retelling test
was conducted in English or Chinese. Evaluation elements of the
retelling test consisted of setting, characters, initiating events,
internal response, plans or attempts, direct consequence and ending. The
results showed that there were no significant differences among three
groups, that is, multi-sensory approach did not affect the word recall
test. However, in the retelling story test, the mean score of the
retelling test using multi-sensory approach was significant.
Character Imagery Storytelling Style (CI) might help comprehensible
input, raising students' awareness to linguistic features and
promoting understanding of storylines reducing the listener's
affective filter (Krashen & Terrell, 1983). CI is presented by
Trostle & Hicks (1998) for promoting L1 literacy skills and Cary
proposed contextualized storytelling for developing L2 listening
comprehension (Huang, 1991). Stories are told using the target language
without a mother tongue and, moreover, not only verbally but also
nonverbally. Students could infer the meaning of the words, where
"deep processing" (Cameron, 2001, p85) occurs and "high
mental effort" (Hulstijn, 1992, p.122) is needed. Image could be
created visually and aurally, and stored in his or her brain firmly.
1. Post-vocabulary scores will be significantly higher than
pre-vocabulary scores. This will be true for both grades, both modes of
telling, and for both stories.
2. Average positive scores of English vocabulary change will be
significantly higher for students told stories using Character Imagery
Style than for students who simply read stories.
3. Average scores of English comprehension will be significantly
higher for students told stories using the Character Imagery Style than
for students who read stories.
Participants were selected from the same L1 cultural and
educational background including L2 experiences. The major experiment
was conducted with 120 students in the fifth-and six-grade, aged 10 to
12 years-old in public primary school (coeducation) in Tokyo in July,
2009. Students were divided into two groups in order to control the
variables in the study. Both groups were exposed to English in previous
year and they had been doing English activities several times by an ALT
who provided games and singing. In 2009 academic year, three times
English activities were given by an ALT before the current study. A
pilot test was implemented in a different public primary school in Tokyo
with 34 fifth grade students with the story, One Eyed Jake.
120 students were divided into two groups. In phase 1, the book,
One Eyed Jake was read/told. Group 1 listened to the story using SR.
Group 2 listened to the story using CI. In phase 2, the book, Silly
Billy was read/told. Group 1 listened to the story using CI. Group 2
listened to the story using SR. The pre-and post-vocabulary tests and a
comprehensive test were conducted.
First of all, pre-vocabulary test was conducted with each whole
class for ten minutes. After ten minutes reading or telling the story by
the researcher, immediately a post-vocabulary test was conducted the
same way as was done in the pre-vocabulary test for ten minutes. After
post-vocabulary test sheets were collected, comprehension test was
immediately conducted for 15 minutes.
Vocabulary gain was measured by using a vocabulary test. The
pre-vocabulary test and the post-vocabulary test were the same. Fifteen
target words chosen were repeated at least twice and presented the key
words of story line. One correct answer was given one point, therefore,
15 points given was perfect in vocabulary test. Students were asked to
listen to a word provided by the researcher and to choose its meaning
from four alternatives that were written in Japanese. Students were
asked to choose the right answer from four alternatives pronounced by
the researcher. The alternatives consisted of one right answer and three
fillers on the answer sheet which was written in Japanese. The fillers
had three types of distracters. One type was a Japanese word that
resembled a target word pronunciation. The other filler was the word
which showed up in the same scene. The last type was the word which
students were able to imagine from the target words in their schema
Twelve comprehension questions for each story were used. For the
story, One Eyed Jake, a literal question was, "What was the
protagonist?" An interpretive level question was, "Why did the
protagonist throw three crews onto other ships?" An analytic
question was, "Why did Jim, the cabin boy throw the cabin key to
the protagonist?" A critical question was, "What would you
want to recommend to the protagonist?" A creative level question
was, "Can you tell me what comes next in the story?" The
presented order of questions both vocabulary and comprehension followed
the sequence of story. Students were asked his/her answers in Japanese
on the answer sheet. Regarding the rive literal questions, two
interpretive questions and two analytic questions, the way of multiple
choices was conducted and students were asked to read questions and to
choose the right answer from four alternatives which were written in
Japanese. The alternatives consisted of one right answer and three
fillers on the answer sheet. The three fillers consisted of the event
which students were able to associate with other events from the same
page, from whole pages and from students' general schema. Regarding
the two critical questions and one creative question, students wrote own
ideas or thoughts in Japanese. It was difficult to measure the score,
therefore, nine comprehension questions were measured and the right
answer was given one point. Therefore, a perfect score was nine points
in comprehension test. In addition, both vocabulary tests and the
comprehension test were marked by a researcher and checked by two
graduated university students.
To assess vocabulary gain, a two-way repeated-measures ANOVA on
each story was performed. The independent variables were mode and grade
while the dependent variable was the pre and post scores of the
vocabulary test. To assess differences in comprehension, a two-way ANOVA
was performed. The independent variables were again grade and mode of
reading/storytelling, and the dependent variable was the score of the
In the Story, One Eyed Jake, the mean score of the CI (2.72) for
the pre-vocabulary test increased to the score (6.26) of for the
post-vocabulary test. The mean score of SR (2.67) for the pre-vocabulary
test increased to the score (5.33) on the post-vocabulary test. In both
modes, vocabulary gain dramatically increased. It can be seen that the
total of story modes showed good evidence of vocabulary gains in initial
learning. A two-way repeated-measures ANOVA was performed as outlined in
the methodology section. Table 1 illustrates that there was significant
difference between vocabulary in pre-test and in post-tests with F (1,
117) = 203.385, p (.000) < .01. For mode, F-ratio was significant
with F (1,117) = 4.149, p (.044) < .05. No effect for grade or any
interaction of grade and mode were anticipated, and no significant
results were round for these two-tailed hypothesis.
In the story, Silly Billy, the mean score of the CI (5.30) for the
pre-vocabulary test increased to the score (9.57) of for the
post-vocabulary test. The mean score of SR (4.83) for the pre-vocabulary
test increased to the score (8.65) on the post-vocabulary test. In a
two-way repeated-measures ANOVA in the story, Silly Billy, Difference in
mode was somewhat directional with F(1,119)=0.958, p (.330)> .05.
A two-way ANOVA was performed as earlier outlined in the
methodology section. For One Eyed Jake, difference in mode was
significant with F (1, 117) = 9.059, p (.003) < .01 (Table 2).
Difference in mode was also significant for Silly Billy with F (1, 119)
= 4.216, p (.042) < .05 (Table 3). No significant effect for grade or
interaction between mode and grade was found. In addition, the mean
scores of both modes in the story, Silly Billy were higher than those in
the story, One Eyed Jake.
Figure 1 shows results of the difference between modes. The CI mean
scores, (5.25 for One Eyed Jake, 6.53 for Silly Billy) are higher than
the SR mean scores, (4.31 for One Eyed Jake, 5.75 for Silly Billy).
Discussion of findings
The answer, whether storytelling affected student's
vocabulary, appears to be positive. Using stories told with both CI and
SR in vocabulary learning could be greatly effective for young second
language learners. Studies on story reading/telling and incidental
vocabulary learning are again proven with positive findings. Vocabulary
learning using CI is effective. Students listening to stories using CI
had higher comprehension than students who listened to stories using SR.
Results were significant in a positive direction. The technique of
storytelling with CI, using sounds and gestures promoted understanding,
which may have also reduced student anxiety toward L2. Sounds give
meaning to a word and students not only identify sound units within
words but also perceive "emotion, involvement, and empathy"
(Harmer, 2001, p.28) by listening to sounds. Students encounter
pronunciation and individual phonemes in the word and also recognize
word meanings from pitch, intonation, and stress of the word. The pitch
range shows human tension. Low and slow tones represent fear and sadness
and a high and fast pitch shows happiness and cheerfulness. Intonation
conveys emotion and empathy. Intonation tone is exaggerated when we are
surprised or frightened. Harmer (2001) insists that "stress is
vitally important in conveying meaning in phrases and sentences"
(p.33). Therefore, the sounds through storytelling with CI are an
indispensable factor in order to understand meanings. So far, many
factors corroborated, such as visual aids, auditory aids and context
clues, to enhance guessing the new word's meaning.
Students giggled when they saw a storyteller who wore a
protagonist's costume, including a hat with bird feathers and a
black patch for one eye (for a pirate) and a big red ribbon (for Hazel).
They were admittedly relaxed. To convey the emotions, flamboyant
gestures and a range of facial expressions were used. Those props and a
storyteller's attitude drew students into real life situations and
students involved in the enthusiastic world. Students could extend their
knowledge beyond what they have at present and information is stored
emotionally and meaningfully. The storytelling using CI drew students
into the fantastic world and they could connect with the protagonist and
other characters there that enhanced his or her memory and could recall
the story line easily.
There are some limitations that should be acknowledged within this
study. The current study was conducted with approximately 120 subjects
who were randomly chosen in a public school in Tokyo, but not other the
fifth-and the sixth-graders in Japan. With respect to who read or told
stories, a storyteller might favor storytelling with CI, therefore,
story reading in SR might be disregarded. But when the same person read
and told stories, equal opportunities were given to subjects differing
from Brett, Rothlein and Hurley's study (1996), in which two
stories were read by six classroom teachers. They demonstrated the
limitation, that is, the way of instruction was different depending on
the classroom teacher, so that they were not able to "measure how
much the target vocabulary words were discussed in the
story-with-word-explanation group classroom" (Brett, Rothlein &
Hurley, 1996, p.420).
Storytelling not only provides language development to students but
also works as scaffolding for teachers. Storytelling or the story
reading technique could contribute to teacher education or teacher
training (Wright, 1995). If classroom teachers have some hesitation to
dress up as the protagonist, just reading stories aloud is also
beneficial. To memorize all story lines in a L2 is very tough for
non-native speaking teachers, but read stories aloud seems to be
There are some recommendations to extend the current research.
According to relation between vocabulary acquisition and academic
ability, Elley (1989) found that the lowest group gained target
vocabulary more than the higher group. If the result will be proven that
the lowest level students might increase their language ability, those
students could receive much benefit in language learning. In addition,
storytelling with CI in different genres without background knowledge
could be valuable.
Storytelling or reading aloud stories in L2 language classes
contain a lot of benefits so that teachers as long as possible take in
these techniques into their L2 language classrooms. If story
listening/telling is included in a curriculum steadily, students will
firmly make dramatic progress in English learning.
Brett, A., Rothlein, L., & Hurley, M. (1996). Vocabulary
acquisition from listening to stories and explanations of target words.
The elementary school Journal, 96(4), 415-421.
Cabrera, M. P., & Martinez, P. B. (2001). The effects of
repetition, comprehension checks, and gestures, on primary school
children in an EFL situation. ELT Journal, 55(3), 281-288.
Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching language to young learners. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Elley, W. B. (1989). Vocabulary acquisition from listening to
stories. Reading Research Quarterly, 26(2), 174-187.
Harmer, J. (2001). The practice of English language teaching.
Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
Huang, H. (1991). The effects of storytelling on EFL young
learners' reading comprehension and word recall. Retrieved December
5, 2009 from National Yunlin University of Science and Technology Web
site: http://campusweb.yuntech.edu.tw/~huange/p aper/paper.doc
Hulstijn, J. H. (1992).Retention of inferred and given word
meanings: Experiments in incidental vocabulary learning. In Arnaud, P.
J. L., & H. Bejoint (Eds.), Vocabulary and applied linguistics
(pp.113-125). London: MacMillan Academic and Professional Ltd.
Krashen, S. D., & Terrell, T. D. (1983). The natural approach,
language acquisition in the classroom. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2006). How languages are
learned. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McWilliams, B. (1998). Effective storytelling: A manual for
beginners. Largo: Indian Rocks Christian School. Retrieved August 16,
2009, from http://www.eldrbarry.net/roos/eest.htm.
Pinter, A. (2006). Teaching young language learners. Oxford: Oxford
Trostle, S., & Hicks, S. J. (1998). The effects of storytelling
versus story reading on comprehension and vocabulary knowledge of
British primary school children. Reading Improvement, 35(3), 127-136.
Wright, A. (1995). Storytelling with children. Oxford: Oxford
Wright, A. (1997). Creating stories with children. Oxford: Oxford
I would like to express my gratitude to supervisor Dr. Steven
Renshaw, Graduate School of Language Sciences Kanda University of
International Studies in Japan for his helpful comments, insights and
encouragement. His support, moral and academic, especially statistical
analysis has been invaluable throughout my master's course.
Takumi Uchiyama taught primary grade in public schools for 30 years
in Japan. She studied for her Master of Education and Master of TESOL
from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia and her Master of Arts
from Graduate School of Language Sciences Kanda University of
International Studies in Japan. Her special interests are to create
English activities for young second language learners and to form
syllabus includes a teaching plan. She is currently working as a teacher
trainer at public primary schools in Tokyo.
A Two-Way Repeated-Measures ANOVA in the Story, One Eyed Jake.
Sum of df Mean
Vocabulary Squares Square
Vocab Linear 564.704 1 564.704
Vocab * Grade Linear .610 1 .610
Vocab * Mode Linear 11.521 1 11.521
Vocab * Grade * Mode Linear 2.908 1 2.908
Error(vocab) Linear 316.524 114 316.524
Vocab 203.385 .000 *
Vocab * Grade 0.220 .640
Vocab * Mode 4.149 .044
Vocab * Grade * Mode 1.047 .308
A Two-Way ANOVA in Mode Effects in the Story, One Eyed Jake
Sum of df Mean F Sig.
Grade .306 1 .306 .107 .744
Mode 25.817 1 25.817 9.059 .003 *
Grade * Mode 8.541 1 8.541 2.997 .086
Error 324.896 114 2.850
A Two-Way ANOVA in Mode Effects in the Story, Silly Billy.
Sum of df Mean F Sig.
Grade 14.669 1 14.669 3.514 .063
Mode 17.599 1 17.599 4.216 .042 *
Grade * Mode 3.321 1 3.321 .796 .374
Error 484.201 116 484.201
Figure 1. Comprehension Test Scores in the different modes in the
story, One Eyed Jake & the story, Silly Billy
CI 5.25 6.53
SR 4.31 5.75
Note: Table made from line graph.


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In general, when you write an answer to an essay question you should follow the format you learned in Freshman English:
Some examples of good essay writing are provided by the Educational Testing Service, developer of the GRE-Writing Test.
1. Define educational psychology and discuss how it can help teachers and administrators to carry out their respective roles. Include in your discussion how the use of the scientific method and research have impacted the development of a knowledge base for educational psychology.
A. Define educational psychology
- Define and differentiate the following terms: psychology, education, educational psychology, schooling, learning, and teaching.
- Name and discuss the types of topics that might be of interest to educational psychologists.
- Name and discuss four different ways of knowing and validating truth.
B. Educational research
- Define and differentiate the following terms: science, paradigm, measurement, evaluation, research, reliability, and validity.
- Name and discuss 5 levels of scientific knowledge (fact, concept, principle, theory, law.) How do these terms relate to the concept of a scientific hypothesis?
- Define and differentiate 3 types of research studies used in educational psychology (descriptive, correlational, experimental.) How can we establish cause and effect relationships? What conditions must be met in order to have a true experimental study? Why is this difficult in educational psychology? How are these type of studies related to the 4 major methods of collecting data used in research and/or evaluation?
*2. Draw and discuss a model of the teaching-learning process. Name and define each of the categories of variables in your model and identify some of the research that has been used to build the model. (Be certain to identify the source of your model.)
Compare and contrast the categories of Context, Input, Classroom Processes, and Output. Which category is most important? Why? What are some of the most important variables within each category? Why do you believe these are the most important? What is the relationship among variables in these categories as they relate to variables in other categories, especially student achievement?
3. Provide an overview of the systems model of human development presented in class, describing how the humanistic, cognitive and behavioral learning/development theories address different factors in this model.
The ancient Greeks discussed human beings in terms of mind, body and spirit. What are the 3 components of mind and what are some topics of interest to educational psychologists associated with each? What are the two aspects of body discussed in the model? Would you include spirit in your model of human behavior? If so, how would you define it?
What are the 3 major categories of contextual influences on human behavior? Give examples of subcategories within each category with specific examples of an important variable for each subcategory. [Hint: Relate to information provided in the presentation on the systems model of the teaching/learning process.]
How does a scientific view of human behavior compare with other methods of establishing knowledge?
*4. Discuss at least 5 important factors that are presently influencing or are likely to influence education during the next 20 years. Include in your discussion the impact the transition to the information age is having on the required knowledge, attitudes, and skills required for successful living. Make recommendations on how professional educators should respond to changing conditions.
What is a paradigm? What is a trend? According to many futurists, what is the most important trend occuring today? Why is this important? What are 4 other trends you believe are important for educators to consider? How are these trends related to the most important trend and to each other? How should educators change their normal activities in order to help students be prepared for the impact these trends will have on their lives?
*5. Name and discuss the essential foundations and competencies needed to work effectively in the information age as developed by the (U.S. Department of Labor) Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS). Discuss Dr. Huitt's critique of the SCANS report in terms of important attitudes, knowledge, and skills for being successful in the information age? How do these compare to the concept "Becoming a Brilliant Star?" What evidence would you use to persuade students, parents, educators and community members that these are indeed important?
What is the SCANS report? Who prepared it and why is it important? What is the basis of Huitt's critique? How does this relate to the 9 dimensions of the Brilliant Star? (Be specific; select specific qualities or characteristics in the SCANS report and relate them to specific attributes that may or may not be in Huitt's critique or in the Brilliant Star. [Hint: Relate information reviewed in question #3 to specific attributes or qualities or skills in SCANS report.]
6. Discuss the research relating to the effects of teacher expectations and efficacy on student performance. What can teachers do to maximize the positive effects of teacher expectations?
Define teacher efficacy and differentiate it from teacher expectations. How does Proctor's model relate to the teaching/learning model discussed previously. What are some specific domains or topics that teachers should be concerned with if they want to improve their efficacy?
7. Compare and contrast four major behavioral theories of learning, giving examples of how each of these can be used in the teaching-learning process.
What is the function of the behavioral system in the systems model of human behavior? What is the primary assumption that underlies all behavioral theories? What are some major topics studied in educational psychology that relate to this system? Compare and contrast: 1) Contiguity theory, 2) Classical (Respondent) Conditioning, 3) Operant (Instrumental) Conditioning, and 4) Observational (Social Learning) Theory. Why is each of these important in the study of educational psychology?
*8. Define operant learning and give original examples of how consequences can be used to change behavior using this theory. Discuss how this theory can be applied to the teaching-learning process, including how the Premack principle can be used to determine reinforcers. Additionally, name and define each of the schedules of reinforcement, and give an example of each kind as it might be used in the classroom.
Why is operant conditioning so important to educator's today? How does it differ from classical conditioning?
Use the following terms to define and differentiate methods used in operant conditioning: increase, decrease, desired/pleasant, undesired/aversive, present, remove, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, response cost, extinction. What is the basis for differentiating schedules of reinforcement (i.e., continuous, fixed interval, fixed ratio, variable interval, variable ratio)?
9. Define and discuss the major viewpoints and theories related to the cognitive system in the systems model of human behavior.
What is the function of the cognitive system of the human mind. What are some major topics studied in educational psychology that relate to this system? Why is each of these important in the study of educational psychology?
*10. Define and differentiate the stage, levels-of-processing, parallel distributed processing, and connectionist models of information processing. Draw and discuss the information-processing model of memory and give an example of how it works. Discuss the kinds of stimuli likely to arouse the orienting response and describe how short-term memory and long-term memory operate. Discuss some principles for getting information into both types of memory. How might these principles be implemented to improve instruction?
Why are there different theories of information processing in human beings? Why are these approaches important for educators? Be specific when describing the model of memory, paying special attention to limits for each stage, if any. Be specific in terms of recommendations, discussing which aspect of memory might be affected.
11a. Describe each of the six levels of Bloom's taxonomy of the cognitive domain, providing an original example of actions students might take to demonstrate competency at each level.
What is the cognitive domain? How is it similar to and different from the affective and psychomotor domains? Why is the cognitive domain important in the information age? Is the taxonomy truly a hierarchy? If not, how should it be modified?
11b. What evidence exists, pro and con, for the use of higher-level and lower-level questions in classes? Based on this evidence what would your recommendations be concerning the use of each type in the classroom?
How does the issue of lower- and higher-level questions relate to Bloom's cognitive domain?
*12a. Give a definition of intelligence that you could defend, explaining why you believe you could defend it. Give examples of ways your definition of intelligence might be measured and skills people might have who would do well on those measures. Describe how would you differentiate measures of intelligence from measures of achievement?
What are the different approaches to defining intelligence (psychometric, learning, cognitive, triarchic, multiple)? What are some advantages and disadvantages of each approach? In general, which approach do you favor and why?
*12b. Suppose you were asked to give a talk to parents and educators on the topic "Can IQ scores be raised?" You are asked to discuss both the hereditarian and environmental aspects of the issue. What would your arguments be for both a strong hereditarian position and a strong environmentalist position? Be certain to give specific suggestions from an environmentalist perspective on how IQ could be raised.
How does the issue of IQ relate to the major approaches to the study of intelligence? Why are twins studies the major source of data related to the influence of heredity on intelligence? Why is the Tennessee example used by those who favor a nuturance approach to influencing intelligence? How are the characteristics of researchers related to their view of heredity and environment as influences on intelligence? Why is this issue of relevance to educators?
*13a. Describe intellectual development according to Piaget, including a discussion of both the process and the stages of development. Note behavioral characteristics of each stage, describing how assimilation and accommodation are exemplified for each stage of development. Describe specific actions that teachers can take to incorporate Piaget's theory into the classroom.
Who was Piaget and why is his theory of importance to educators? How did his early experiences influence his viewpoint on the development of intelligence?
What are the meanings of the following terms: schema, reflex, adaptation, equilibration, homeostasis, assimilation, accomodation, object permanence, conservation, operation? What produces energy to act in Piaget's theory? How is this similar to or different from Freud's, Maslow's, and Erikson's theories?
What is the evidence to support or refute Piaget's theory? Why is this issue important to educators today? [Hint: Be certain to describe both the PROCESSES and STAGES related to Piaget's theory.]
13b. Discuss what is meant by the statement that "the schemata one brings to learning might be the most important determiner of what is learned." How might this statement influence teacher behavior?
What is the difference between the terms schema and schemata? How do these terms relate to the topics of World View Paradigm, Values, Conation, and Information Processing discussed earlier?
14. Define critical thinking and discuss why it is an important topic to be addressed by today's educators. How is critical thinking similiar to and different from creativity?
How has the definition of critical thinking changed over the past two decades? Which definition of critical thinking do you prefer? How is critical thinking related to the topics of Values and Information Processing discussed earlier? Is critical thinking more important, equally important, or less important than creative thinking in the information age? Why?
15. Define metacognition and describe five ways to help students increase their metacognitive skills.
What does the the "meta" mean? How has this prefix been used earlier in this course? How does metacognition relate to the SCANS report? Why is this issue especially relevant in the information age?
16. What is the SQ3R/SQ4R/PQ4R method of study? What is the relationship of study habits and attitudes to achievement? What can you as a teacher do to improve these in students?
Be specific about what you as an educator can do to help students in each step of the study process.
17. Name and discuss the major viewpoints and theories related to the affective/emotional system in the systems model of human behavior.
What is the function of the affective system of the human mind. What are some major topics studied in educational psychology that relate to this system? Why is each of these important in the study of educational psychology?
*18a. Name and define five values you believe are especially important for students in the 21st century. Support your proposal with research, theory, and statements the requirements of being successful in an information age economy. How would recommend educators go about teaching those values?
What is a value? How does it relate to a belief? An attitude? A skill? What are some examples of values presented in the SCANS report? In Huitt's critique and subsequent summary of successful attributes for the information age? [Hint: Relate back to content on the information age and desired student outcomes.] Be specific about the approaches and methods you would use to teach each value.
18b. Describe each of the five levels of Krathwol's affective domain, providing an original example of actions students might take to demonstrate competency at each level.
What is the affective domain? How is it similar to and different from the cognitive and psychomotor domains? Why is the affective domain important in the information age?
*19. Name and describe Erikson's theory of psychosocial development. Note behaviors associated with each stage and the implications of the theory for classroom practice. Evaluate the theory--that is, what evidence exists for its validation or what evidence would lead you to reject it?
Be able to describe the overall purpose of the theory, the approximate ages for each stage and what educators can do to help children develop appropriately in each stage? Why is this theory important? How does this relate to Maslow's theory? To Piaget's theory?
20. Describe how optimism and enthusiasm might influence the teaching/learning process.
Differentiate opitmism and pessimism? Who are some major researchers in this area? Differentiate enthusiasm from apathy? Why are these two concepts especially important in the information age?
21. Name and discuss the major viewpoints and theories related to the regulatory system in the systems model of human behavior.
What is the function of the regulatory system of the human mind? What are some major topics studied in educational psychology that relate to this system? Why is each of these important in the study of educational psychology?
22. Define the terms self-concept and self-esteem and discuss how these might influence learning.
What is meant by the term "self?" What is self-concept? How does it relate to self-esteem? To self-determination? To self-control? How does self-concept relate to academic achievement? Is there a correlational or causal relationship? What can teachers do to improve students' academic self-concepts?
23. Name and discuss the stages in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. How does this theory relate to achieving excellence in the nine areas of life presented in the "Becoming a Brilliant Star" exercise discussed in class?
What is the difference between a deficiency need and a growth need? Where does need for academic achievement fall in this hierarchy? What are some implications of this for educators? What is the research support for this theory?
What are the nine different areas of the Brilliant Star? How does each area relate to the systems model of human behavior? To the SCANS report? To Maslow's theory? Why are these issues of importance to educators?
24. Name and discuss the major principles and objectives of humanistic education. Describe what a teacher might do in order to implement these principles. Summarize the findings from the meta-analyses examining the outcomes of open education discussed in your text. Include findings regarding both achievement and affective outcomes.
What is the evidence (if any) to support the principles and objectives of humanistic education? In general, have open education programs met the goals established for them? How does facilitative instruction differ from other humanistically-oriented educational programs? Does that method have different results in terms of attitudes and achievement?
*25. Discuss social learning theory and the social cognitive theory of learning. Define conation, describe how it works and how it might develop. How does goal-setting impact conation and learning? How does conation relate to self-regulation and self-control? What can educators do to help students develop conation?
What are some other terms for conation? How does conation relate to dreams, visions, goals and needs? What are some indicators of conation? How can educators help students develop conation?
*26. Define learning and compare and contrast the factors that behavioral, cognitive and humanistic, and behavioral theorists believe influence the learning process. Mention ways in which the theories are alike and ways in which they are different and how each can be used by educators to improve student learning.
Use the table provided to define and differentiate the 3 major theoretical approaches to learning (i.e., relatively permanent change in behavior or behavior potential as a result of experience or practice.) Present examples of how each approach can be used in the classroom. [Hint: Go back to previous discussions of these approaches and select specific, representative examples of classroom applications most appropriate for the information age.]
*27. Name and discuss at least 5 principles of learning that most learning theorists agree on, regardless of their theoretical orientation. Give specific examples of how these principles could be used in the classroom.
What is the basis for you selection of the 5 principles you want to discuss. Have you selected a "variety" of principles? Describe the source (theory or research) for each of the principles you selected.
28. Discuss how your view of humankind's spiritual nature might influence your interpretation of human growth and development literature as well as the teaching/learning process.
Do you believe this is an appropriate topic to be discussed in this course? Has this topic been discussed in other courses? Why or why not? How do you approach this topic with your students? Do you do so in an ethical, professional manner? Would you want someone with different beliefs to approach this topic in the same manner you do?
29. Describe the structure and functioning of the brain and other components of humankind's biological nature that might influence human growth and development as well as the teaching/learning process.
What do you find especially interesting about the human brain? What is your "brain lateralization" preference? How does the research on the human brain relate to the topics discussed related to the regulatory system (especially paradigm, self-concept and conation), the affective system (especially optimism and the unconscious), and the cognitive system (especially information processing and intelligence)?
*30. Define character and describe why it may be an important issue for today's educators. Describe three different approaches to impacting character development and relate these to theories and issues discussed in the course.
How does educating for character development relate to values education? What are some major influences on character development? What are some major outcome measures? How important is character development in the information age?
31. Name and discuss Kohlberg's stages of moral development. Is it possible to train people to make advances along these stages? Compare Kohlberg's theory to Gilligan's theory of female moral development.
How does Kohlberg's theory of moral development relate to Piaget's theory of cognitive development (be specific in terms of process and stages)? Why is Gilligan's research so important in this area? Discuss the research support for these two theories.
*32a. Define motivation and discuss why a concept like motivation is or is not necessary in a model of teaching and learning and human behavior. If it is necessary to what aspects of learning might it apply? Discuss how the concepts of underachievement and overachievement might be related to motivation.
How does motivation relate to intelligence or ability? How do the theories of learning discussed previously relate to the concept of motivation? Which approach do you prefer? Give specific examples of how you as a professional educator can use different approaches to motivation.
How can someone be an overachiever?
*32b. Discuss the differences between internal and external motivation. Describe the positions that behaviorists, cognitivists and humanists might take on this distinction. How might the three major theories of learning help you to decide what you can do as a teacher or administrator to influence student motivation?
How do theories of learning relate to internal verses external motivation? Which approaches seem to work best for you? Why?
*33. Name and define the major aspects of the systems model of human behavior presented in class. Be certain to distinguish between internal and external influences on development. Explain why context is such an important aspect of human behavior at this point in history. How can such a model help educators in their professional roles?
Your answer to this question will summarize what you have learned in this course. Your organization of the content as well as utilizing an appropriate level of detail is critically important. [Hint: Review the help to Objective 6.]
34. Discuss J. B. Carroll's model of school learning. Relate Carroll's model to Bloom's model of mastery learning and to the concept of Academic Learning Time.
Why is John Carroll's model so important in the history of educational psychology? How did it impact Ben Bloom's work? How did it impact educational research in the 1960s and 1970s? How does his model relate to the Systems Model of the Teaching/Learning Process discussed in this class?
*35. Define and discuss academic learning time and how it might be improved? (be specific about whether the proposed changes relate to the school or to the classroom; if to the classroom, whether they relate to instruction or management).
Define and differentiatate the following terms related to school time: school year, attendance year, school day, allocated time, engagement rate, engaged time, time on task, time on target, academic learning time? Which time variable is the best predictor of student achievement? Why?
How can educators improve academic learning time? Be specific about what state and local policy boards, principals and teachers can do. [Hint: Relate improvements to the Systems Model of the Teaching/Learning Process.]
36. Describe why planning is an important classroom activity. Name and define the major steps often used by educators in the planning process. Provide an original example of how you might use this process. Write an instructional objective for six different topics according to the standards set forth by either Mager or Gronlund.
Relate the concept of planning to having a target and a starting point before describing what you are going to do. When writing objectives, if you use Mager, be certain to have a student behavior, a condition statement and a criteria statement. If you use Gronlund, include enough representative specific statements to convey meaning to the general statement.
37. Name and discuss four different categories of models of instruction, relating each category to a specific goal and/or desired outcome as described in the systems model of human behavior.
How do these categories relate to the learning theories discussed above? How important are the outcomes advocated by instructional developers in each of these categories in the information age? Give specific examples of programs for each category.
*38. Name and describe at least three general categories of classroom management activities a teacher might use if implementing a behavioral approach to classroom management, giving original examples of each. State which of these principles would be especially important during the first week of school year, and why.
What are three different approaches to classroom management? [Hint: Relate each approach to an approach to learning.] Why might the behavioral approach demonstrate such effectiveness? How do the major categories of management events relate to the major categories of instructional events?
39. Summarize the findings of the 1982 follow-up study regarding the lasting educationally significant effects of early education compensatory education programs for low-income children. What recommendations would you make for continuing these types of programs?
How much does $1 invested properly in early education programs return to society? What seem to be the major benefits of these programs? Why do you think more money is not being invested in these programs?
40. Name and discuss how technology can be applied to instruction and give an example of how you might use different technologies as a professional educator.
Give some examples of important technologies that educators can and have used. How can computers be used most effectively in the school and/or classroom?
41. Define and contrast the following terms related to measurement and evaluation of educational outcomes, giving original examples of each:
a) reliability and validity;
b) formative and summative evaluation; and
c) criterion-referenced and norm-referenced tests.
Discuss how and when these concepts would be important in classroom assessment, evaluation, and grading practices relative to the important variables discussed in this course.
How are reliability and validity related? When would you use formative and summative evaluations? Criterion- and norm-referenced evaluations? Why are norm-referenced evaluations mainly advocated by non-educators?
What is the purpose of grades? Who is the major beneficiary(ies) of the current approach towards grading? What can you do to take into account the normal errors made in the process of assigning grades? What is the major difficulty in using authentic assessment?


Virginia Woolf 1882-1941
(Born Adeline Virginia Stephen) English novelist, critic, essayist, short story writer, diarist, autobiographer, and biographer.
The following entry provides an overview of Woolf's life and works of short fiction.
Recognized as one of the major figures of modern literature, Woolf is highly regarded both for her innovative fiction techniques and insightful contributions to literary criticism. In her short fiction, she explored such themes as the elusive nature of storytelling and character study, the nature of truth and reality, and the role of women in society. Like her novels, these highly individualized, stylistic works are noted for their subjective explorations and detailed poetic narratives that capture ordinary experience while depicting the workings and perceptions of the human mind. Written in an elliptical and impressionistic style, Woolf's brief, apparently plotless stories are considered to have significantly influenced the development of modern short fiction.
Woolf was born into a talented and distinguished literary family in London in 1882, the third of four children of Sir Leslie Stephen, a prominent literary scholar, and his second wife, Julia. Virginia's parents maintained friendships with figures of the Victorian intellectual aristocracy, often hosting visits from such eminent writers as Thomas Hardy, George Meredith, and Henry James. Virginia and her sister, Vanessa, did not receive a formal education, but access to their father's extensive library provided a rich source for their private learning. In 1895 the Stephens' comfortable existence was disrupted by the sudden, tragic death of their beloved mother, Julia. Virginia's subsequent mental breakdown was the first of several that troubled her throughout her life. After her father's death in 1904, Woolf, along with her sister, and two brothers, Thoby and Adrian, moved to the Bloomsbury district of London. It was there they met weekly with several of Thoby's Cambridge associates to discuss the arts and together formed what is now known as the Bloomsbury Group. Within this circle of friends that included, among others, John Maynard Keynes, Clive Bell, Vita Sackville-West, and Lytton Strachey, Woolf was exposed to a variety of modern theories on art and literature that deeply affected the development of her own ideas. Also during this time, she published her first essays and reviews, a practice she continued throughout her life. In 1912 she married Leonard Woolf, a writer and socialist political figure, also among the Bloomsbury circle, whose stabilizing influence on Virginia is considered to have nurtured her literary career. Nevertheless, in 1913, after completing her first novel, The Voyage Out (1915), she collapsed from mental exhaustion, and the ensuing breakdown, her most severe, lasted several years.
In 1917, following Virginia's recovery the proceeding year, she and Leonard founded the Hogarth Press—a business venture which was intended partly as a release from the anxiety she experienced when writing, and which subsequently kept her from having to send her work to an outside publisher. By 1924 Hogarth had grown into a successful and respected business, publishing all of Virginia's writings as well as the early works of such writers as Katherine Mansfield, T. S. Eliot, and Sigmund Freud. During the period 1922 to 1941, Virginia immersed herself in writing fiction, completing the critically acclaimed novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and The Waves (1931), which form the foundation of her literary reputation. In addition, her nonfiction works from this time, particularly A Room of One's Own (1929) and Three Guineas (1938), established her as an important contributor to modern critical and feminist writing. Yet, despite these successes, Woolf feared the onslaught of another breakdown—from which, she believed, it would be impossible to recover—and in 1941, she took her own life by drowning. The posthumous publication of many of Woolf's essays, short stories, journals, diaries, and letters attest to an abiding interest in her career.
Major Works of Short Fiction
In her short fiction Woolf typically focused on minute physical detail and experimented with stream-of-consciousness techniques, interior monologue, and symbolism to capture the subjective workings of human thought. “Kew Gardens” typifies her lyrical portrayal of varied narrative perspectives through the interior monologue of an omniscient narrator. In this seemingly plotless story, Woolf creates the atmosphere of an afternoon at London's Kew Gardens by fusing the shifting points of view of several people with those of a snail, insects, flowers, and even such inanimate objects as buses and airplanes. In “Mark on the Wall” she employs interior monologue to impart the musings of a narrator who, in speculating about a small detail on a wall, ponders a variety of topics, including personal reminiscence, history, and nature. Every rumination returns to the mark only to stray anew into reverie, as each of the narrator's seemingly meandering thoughts builds upon one another to create an intricate discourse on the nature of reality and truth. Themes in Woolf's short fiction are intrinsically fused with narrative form. Similar to Joyce's short stories, in which epiphany is frequently an essential element, Woolf's short fiction often depends on “moments of being” to delineate themes. Whereas Joyce's notion of epiphany focuses on the power of a single event to reveal truth, Woolf's “moments of being” encompass various incursions into time and place. In “Moments of Being: ‘Slater's Pins Have No Points,’” the protagonist, Fanny Wilmot, searches for a lost pin while she simultaneously attempts to gain insight into the personality of her elderly piano teacher, Julia Craye. In the brief time she searches for the pin, Fanny juxtaposes thoughts about Julia's past with the present and speculates on Julia's happiness. The narrative returns after each rumination about Julia's life to Fanny's search for the pin until, finally, at the instant when Fanny finds the pin, she experiences the revelation that Julia is indeed happy.
Woolf's fascination with the elusive nature of storytelling, as well as the inherent difficulty of knowing character, provided subject matter for several of her short stories. In “An Unwritten Novel” she explored this theme through the capricious mind of the narrator as she rides a train with a stranger, observing details of the unknown woman's appearance and behavior to construct a story surrounding her life. At the end of the tale the narrator is stunned to realize that her conclusions are utterly incorrect. In this and in several other stories, Woolf overturned conventional Edwardian precepts that relied on observable details to discern veracity and illustrated the unknowable nature of truth and character. In both her fiction and nonfiction Woolf was devoted to raising the social consciousness of readers. Her disarming and often humorous feminist works are informed with pointed criticism of sexism, as well as praise for neglected women writers. For example, “A Society” highlights ten years in the lives of a group of women who meet regularly to question conventions of art, literature, scholarship, law, and military achievement in a male-dominated society. One of the group's vows is to forego having children until they have resolved their questions. However, when one woman, Castilia, becomes pregnant, a new resolution is adopted to allow only the unchaste into their society, and Castilia is appointed president. The story's ironic stance, humor, and extensive use of allusion to the Bible and mythology serve, for several critics, to elevate it above the level of polemic.
Like her contemporary James Joyce, with whom she is often compared, critics argue that Woolf revolted against the traditional narrative methods of her time and experimented with stream-of-consciousness prose and interior monologue. They note that she first introduced many of these formal experiments in short stories that often present “moments of being”—instances of intense sensibility during which disparate thoughts and events culminate in a flash of insight. Recent critical studies of Woolf's short fiction have investigated the symbolism of mirrors and glass in her work, traced revisions of her stories, assessed the influence of Thomas Browne and Bertrand Russell on her fiction, and explored aspects of her alleged anti-Semitism. Commentators have discussed her as a lesbian writer, and have emphasized parallels between her lesbian-themed stories with those of Gertrude Stein. Most critics acknowledge that Woolf's short stories frequently served as experimental studies in which ideas for her longer works of fiction originated and developed. Yet many commentators have contended that Woolf's experiments with poetic style, her psychological focus, and her subjective point of view expanded the limits of time and perception within the framework of the short story, influencing and contributing significantly to the development of modern short fiction.
*The Mark on the Wall 1917
Kew Gardens 1919
Monday or Tuesday 1921
A Haunted House, and Other Short Stories 1944
Mrs. Dalloway's Party: A Short Story Sequence 1973
The Complete Shorter Fiction of Virginia Woolf 1985
The Voyage Out (novel) 1915
Night and Day (novel) 1919
Jacob's Room (novel) 1922
Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown (criticism) 1924
The Common Reader (criticism) 1925
Mrs. Dalloway (novel) 1925
To the Lighthouse (novel) 1927
Orlando: A Biography (novel) 1928
A Room of One's Own (essays) 1929
The Waves (novel) 1931
The Common Reader: Second Series (criticism) 1932
Flush: A Biography (biography) 1933
The Years (novel) 1937
Three Guineas (essays) 1938
Roger Fry: A Biography (biography) 1940
Between the Acts (novel) 1941
The Death of the Moth, and Other Essays (essays) 1942
The Moment, and Other Essays (essays) 1947
The Captain's Death Bed, and Other Essays (essays) 1950
A Writer's Diary: Being Extracts from the Diary of Virginia Woolf (diary) 1953
Hours in a Library (essay) 1957
Granite and Rainbow: Essays by Virginia Woolf (essays) 1958
Collected Essays. 4 vols. (essays) 1966-67
The Letters of Virginia Woolf. 6 vols. (letters) 1975-80
Moments of Being: Unpublished Autobiographical Writings (autobiographical essays) 1976
Books and Portraits (essays) 1977; also published as Some Further Selections from the Literary and Biographical Writings of Virginia Woolf: Books and Portraits, 1979
The Diary of Virginia Woolf. 5 vols. (diary) 1977-84
The Essays of Virginia Woolf. 4 vols. (essays) 1986-93
A Moment's Liberty: The Shorter Diary of Virginia Woolf (diary) 1990
A Passionate Apprentice: The Early Journals, 1897-1909 (journals) 1990
*This work was also published with Leonard Woolf's “Three Jews” as Two Stories in 1917.
SOURCE: Kurtz, Marilyn. “Glass Breaking: Later Fiction.” In Virginia Woolf: Reflections and Reverberations, pp. 115-23. New York: Peter Lang, 1990.
[In the following excerpt, Kurtz considers the symbolism of windows and mirrors in Woolf's later short fiction.]
Windows and mirrors play as compelling a part in the later fiction of Virginia Woolf as they do in the earlier works. Even the short stories are infused with images of glass, for here, as in the novels, Virginia Woolf makes explorations into personal identity and the human condition through vehicles of glass in a quest for meaning.
Because of their power to separate and divide (as the self...
(The entire section is 3488 words.)
SOURCE: Narey, Wayne. “Virginia Woolf's ‘The Mark on the Wall’: An Einsteinian View of Art.” Studies in Short Fiction 29, no. 1 (winter 1992): 35-42.
[In the following essay, Narey views “The Mark on the Wall” as an “artistic manifesto” of time and perspective influenced by the theories of Albert Einstein.]
James Naremore's study of Virginia Woolf, The World without a Self, refers to her short story “The Mark on the Wall” as “a sketch in which the protagonist indulges in what appears to be a Freudian daydream” (58-59). The Freudian aspect of the story comes from the free-associative quality of the protagonist's thoughts, the only...
(The entire section is 3288 words.)
SOURCE: Clements, Susan. “The Point of ‘Slater's Pins’: Misrecognition and the Narrative Closet.” Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 13, no. 1 (spring 1994): 15-26.
[In the following essay, Clements regards “Slater's Pins Have No Points” as an “emblematic representation” of difficulties faced by lesbian writers and focuses “on the destructive and ultimately self-effacing practice of misrecognition.”]
“Chloe liked Olivia,” I read. And then it struck me how immense a change was there. Chloe liked Olivia perhaps for the first time in literature.
—Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's...
(The entire section is 5382 words.)
SOURCE: Cyr, Marc D. “A Conflict of Closure in Virginia Woolf's ‘A Mark on the Wall.’” Studies in Short Fiction 33, no. 2 (spring 1996): 197-205.
[In the following essay, Cyr explores the meaning of the mark in “The Mark on the Wall” and debates the sense of closure in the story.]
Virginia Woolf's “The Mark on the Wall” concludes with the identification of that mark as a snail, this after several pages of digressions—on history, reality, society, art, writing, and life itself—incited by the flimsy ruse of an ontological inquiry. Readers have reacted variously to this revelation: As T. E. Apter notes, some, like M. C. Bradbrook, have found it...
(The entire section is 4078 words.)
SOURCE: Newman, Herta. “Stories about Storymaking.” In Virginia Woolf and Mrs. Brown: Toward a Realism of Uncertainty, pp. 17-29. New York: Garland Publishing, 1996.
[In the following essay, Newman assesses Woolf's success as a storyteller, concluding that her stories “fail to satisfy the reader's desire for certainty.”]
But what are stories? Toys I twist, bubbles I blow, one ring passes through another. Sometimes I begin to doubt if there are stories.1
Virginia Woolf's stories have not generally received the acclaim accorded to her novels and essays. Yet she is an inveterate storyteller, and it is in...
(The entire section is 4022 words.)
SOURCE: Greene, Sally. “Brownean Motion in ‘Solid Objects.’” Virginia Woolf Miscellany, no. 50 (fall 1997): 2-3.
[In the following essay, Greene assesses the influence of Thomas Browne on Woolf's fiction, particularly “The Mark on the Wall.”]
As Woolf refashioned her early empirical realism into a modernist practice, her work began to reflect a deeper engagement with the Renaissance, including the works of an old friend, Sir Thomas Browne. While she was finishing Night and Day (1919), she was embarking on a new direction in short fiction. “The Mark on the Wall” and other stories collected in Monday or Tuesday (1921) reflect, in their...
(The entire section is 1357 words.)
SOURCE: Séllei, Nóra. “The Snail and The Times: Three Stories ‘Dancing in Unity.’” Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies 3, no. 2 (1997): 189-98.
[In the following essay, Séllei finds thematic and stylistic similarities in “The Mark on the Wall,” “Kew Gardens,” and “An Unwritten Novel.”]
“[Y]esterday I … arrived at some idea of a new form for a new novel. Suppose one thing should open out of another—as in ‘An Unwritten Novel’—only not for 10 pages but 200 or so—doesn't that give the looseness and lightness I want; doesn't that get closer and yet keep form and speed, and enclose everything?” asks Virginia Woolf...
(The entire section is 4993 words.)
SOURCE: Blackmer, Corinne E. “Lesbian Modernism in the Shorter Fiction of Virginia Woolf and Gertrude Stein.” In Virginia Woolf: Lesbian Readings, edited by Eileen Barrett and Patricia Cramer, pp. 78-93. New York: New York University Press, 1997.
[In the following essay, Blackmer analyzes the lesbian-themed short stories of Woolf and Gertrude Stein to gain insight into their “distinctive approaches to creating lesbian modernist literature.”]
To the extent that lesbians have been associated with the obscure, the neglected, and the marginal, there is something quintessentially “lesbian” about bringing the shorter fictions of Virginia Woolf and Gertrude Stein...
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SOURCE: Lackey, Michael. “The Gender of Atheism in Virginia Woolf's ‘A Simple Melody.’” Studies in Short Fiction 35, no. 1 (winter 1998): 49-63.
[In the following essay, Lackey perceives “A Simple Melody” to be a transitional work in Woolf's short fiction oeuvre and examines her portrayal of male atheism in the story.]
Posthumously published, the 1925 short story “A Simple Melody” is one of the most pivotal works in Virginia Woolf's corpus, signaling a decisive break with her first four novels, yet anticipating the central issues of her last five. Typical of Woolf's fiction, the story features a main character who is an...
(The entire section is 6463 words.)
SOURCE: Oxindine, Annette. “Sexing the Epiphany in ‘Moments of Being,’ Woolf's Nice Little Story about Sapphism.” Journal of the Short Story in English, no. 31 (autumn 1998): 51-61.
[In the following essay, Oxindine links the homoerotic and epiphanic moments in “Slater's Pins Have No Points.”]
You remember there is a very fine instinct wireless telepathy nothing to it—in women—the darlings—which fizzles up pretenses, and I know what you mean though you don't say it …
—Virginia Woolf to Violet Dickinson, 1903
Critical avoidance of the lesbian intimacy at the conclusion of...
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SOURCE: Tremper, Ellen. “Prologue: ‘The Journal of Mistress Joan Martyn’ and Wordsworth's Guide to the Lakes.” In “Who Lived at Alfoxton?”: Virginia Woolf and English Romanticism, pp. 35-61. Cranbury, N.J.: Bucknell University Press, 1998.
[In the following essay, Tremper investigates the influence of William Wordsworth's Guide to the Lakes on Woolf's “The Journal of Mistress Joan Martyn.”]
Here are the poets from whom we descend by way of the mind.
—Between the Acts
Virginia Woolf's relations with her father, Leslie Stephen, were exceptional. Beyond...
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SOURCE: Rosenfeld, Natania. “Incongruities; or, The Politics of Character: Departures.” In Outsiders Together: Virginia and Leonard Woolf, pp. 81-95. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000.
[In the following essay, Rosenfeld juxtaposes the style and themes of the two pieces collected in Two Stories: “The Mark on the Wall,” and Leonard Woolf's “Three Jews.”]
Five years after their [Virginia and Leonard Woolf's] marriage, in 1917, the newly founded Hogarth Press issued its first publication. The Woolfs saw their press as an opportunity for creative and intellectual freedom, and as a respite from mental labor. It would enable Virginia to...
(The entire section is 8073 words.)
SOURCE: Benzel, Kathryn N. “Woolf's Early Experimentation with Consciousness: ‘Kew Gardens,’ Typescript to Publication, 1917-1919.”1 In Virginia Woolf: Turning the Centuries, edited by Ann Ardis and Bonnie Kime Scott, pp. 192-99. New York: Pace University Press, 2000.
[In the following essay, Benzel speculates about the origin, creation, and revision of “Kew Gardens.”]
In Michael Cunningham's novel The Hours, he describes a park that his character Virginia Woolf envisions in a dream:
It seems, suddenly, that she is not in her bed but in a park; a park impossibly verdant, green beyond green—a Platonic...
(The entire section is 3526 words.)
SOURCE: de Gay, Jane. “An Unfinished Story: The Freshwater Drafts of ‘The Searchlight.’” In Virginia Woolf: Turning the Centuries, edited by Ann Ardis and Bonnie Kime Scott, pp. 207-15. New York: Pace University Press, 2000.
[In the following essay, de Gay traces the revision of “The Searchlight” into “A Scene from the Past,” and contends that the final version deserves more critical attention than it has been given.]
This paper will focus on a collection of drafts relating to Woolf's short story “The Searchlight,” which differ significantly from the version published by Leonard Woolf in A Haunted House (1943). Unlike the published version,...
(The entire section is 4329 words.)
SOURCE: Westman, Karin E. “The First Orlando: The Laugh of the Comic Spirit in Virginia Woolf's ‘Friendships Gallery.’” Twentieth-Century Literature 47, no. 1 (spring 2001): 39-71.
[In the following essay, Westman maintains that “Friendships Gallery” best represents Woolf's development of a “new ‘art’ of biography that could negotiate the tension between fact and fiction” and identifies the story as the roots of her novel Orlando.]
The Comic Spirit laughed meanwhile.
—“Friendships Gallery” (284)
If Orlando (1928) has typically been read as the literary...
(The entire section is 12130 words.)
SOURCE: Besnault-Levita, Anne. “What ‘It’ Is About: The Implicit in Virginia Woolf's Short Fictions.” Journal of the Short Story in English, no. 40 (spring 2003): 135-47.
[In the following essay, Besnault-Levita analyzes Woolf's use of the pronoun “it” in her short fiction and explores “the implicit theories of meaning and interpretation behind the implicit as they are put to the test by Woolf's fictional prose.”]
How does “it” mean, what is “it” about and what does “it” reveal about the ethics of Virginia Woolf's poetics of the implicit, and therefore of fiction, are the three questions I would like to raise in this paper. My starting point...
(The entire section is 5102 words.)
SOURCE: Schröder, Leena Kore. “Tales of Abjection and Miscegenation: Virginia Woolf's and Leonard Woolf's ‘Jewish’ Stories.” Twentieth-Century Literature 49, no. 3 (fall 2003): 298-327.
[In the following essay, Schröder explores elements of anti-Semitism in Woolf's short story “The Duchess and the Jeweller” and Leonard Woolf's “Three Jews.”]
There can be no straightforward account of attitudes toward Jewishness in the work of Virginia Woolf. This is a woman who lived happily married to a Jew and whose private references to Leonard as “my Jew” are marital jokes (Diary [The Diary of Virginia Woolf] 1: 11), yet whose diaries regularly...
(The entire section is 11856 words.)
SOURCE: Henry, Holly. “Maps, Globes, and ‘Solid Objects.’” In Virginia Woolf and the Discourse of Science: The Aesthetics of Astronomy, pp. 71-92. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
[In the following excerpt, Henry investigates the influence of Bertrand Russell's theories of material phenomena on her “Solid Objects.”]
BERTRAND RUSSELL AND WOOLF'S “MULTIFORM ARTWORK”
In her short fiction experiments like “Solid Objects,” “Kew Gardens,” and “The Mark on the Wall,” Woolf explored the questions that Russell and Whitehead were working out in their own theories regarding what can be known of the material world....
(The entire section is 4598 words.)
SOURCE: Levy, Heather. “‘These Ghost Figures of Distorted Passion’: Becoming Privy to Working-Class Desire in ‘The Watering Place’ and ‘The Ladies Lavatory.’” Modern Fiction Studies 50, no. 1 (spring 2004): 31-57.
[In the following essay, Levy argues that “The Watering Place,” “The Ladies Lavatory,” and “The Cook” reveal Woolf's exploration of the “fricative interrelationships between class, lesbian desire, and the occupation of public and private space.”]
The bodies and minds of working-class women are elided in most of Virginia Woolf's earliest shorter fiction and then only partially or unflatteringly staged in most of her middle and...
(The entire section is 11728 words.)