The effect of Tennessee Valley Authority on selected students' political orientation, attitudes, and cognitive learnings

The purpose of this study was to determine if an experimental, systematic method of instruction utilizing the Tennessee Valley Authority would have an effect on students in three areas. These three areas were political orientation, the attitude of students toward the Tennessee Valley Authority, and cognitive learnings associated with the agency.

The instruments used to evaluate change in the three areas included a newspaper headlines test to measure student interest in TVA. Also used were the Follett Conservative- Liberal Scale to obtain student political orientation and a ten question multiple choice test to determine cognitive learnings.

The procedure employed was to utilize two groups of students at William Blount High School, Maryville, Tennessee, in the Nonrandomized Control Group Pretest- Posttest Design. The control group, the fall semester l979 civics class, was taught using an abstract, textbook method focusing on the theoretical nature of the Conservative- Liberal Concept. The experimental group, the spring semester l98o civics class, was given a systematic experiental unit of study emphasizing the Tennessee Valley Authority to develop an understanding of the conservative liberal concept. The Tennessee Valley Authority was chosen as the vehicle in the experimental treatment because its history so closely parallels the development of the conservative-liberal concept in the United States since the 193o's and because of its relevance and proximity to the students involved in the study.

It was found that there was a slight conservative trend in the students' political orientation. Also found was a small increase in favorable attitude toward the Tennessee Valley Authority. The third result was an increase in cognitive learnings related to the Tennessee Valley Authority. However, none of these findings was proved by the analysis of covariance statistical technique to be statistically significant.

It was concluded that the use of the Tennessee Valley Authority is valuable as a tool in instruction, especially for students in the Tennessee Valley area. However, the main focus of the study was the political orientation of the students and in this instance, as was the case with some research in the field of political orientation of students, classroom activity does not seem to appreciably affect students' political attitudes.