Degree Name

Education Specialist (EdS)

Semester of Degree Completion

1986

Thesis Director

Paul D. Overton

Abstract

Teaching children how to cope with death experiences so that they will not ever suffer from prolonged grief is the responsibility shared by all of society. Along with church leaders and parents, teachers, too, must help teach death education. The purpose of this paper was to explore how well equipped teachers are with adequate training and resources to teach death education in the schools. Also, to explore how concerned teachers are with this area of education.

This study was done through the use of a three-page questionnaire which was developed by the writer. The questionnaire was given to all teachers in the elementary, junior high and senior high schools in the Mattoon, Illinois school district. The results of the questionnaire were tabulated to show absolute frequencies and relative frequencies of each item. Pearson correlation coefficients were performed to show relationships in teachers' attitudes with their personal knowledge of death. Coefficients of determination were given where significant correlations were found.

The results of this study indicate that these teachers report that they feel inadequate in their training and resources for dealing with death education. However, teachers in this study said they were open and positive about teaching death education in the classroom.

The implications are that colleges could provide programs in training teachers to deal with death education. Schools could provide inservice and workshops to better train teachers to teach death education.

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