Date
5-20-2026
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)
Chair
Jeffrey Savage
Keywords
classical education, ENJOY, CVTAE, Control value theory of academic emotions, education, classical, quantitative, spiral, spiral curriculum, history, social studies, Pekrun, Bruner
Disciplines
Education
Recommended Citation
Knapp, Ginger B., "A Causal-Comparative Study of Student Enjoyment in Classical Private School, Non-Classical Private School, and Non-Classical Public School Social Studies Courses" (2026). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 8367.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/8367
Abstract
The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative design study was to investigate differences in the enjoyment of history/social studies as an academic subject among high school juniors and seniors educated in classical Christian private school, non-classical Christian private school, and non-classical public-school settings. The study is important because its measure of enjoyment is associated with teaching pedagogy or instructional methodology. Prior quantitative studies have associated achievement with standardized test scores, recommending that future studies explore the link between instructional methodology and achievement. This research study fills the literature gap by employing a sound psychometric measure of enjoyment to examine its associations with specific instructional methodologies. The sample consisted of 44 high school juniors and seniors from a non-classical public school district, 47 from a non-classical private school, and 19 from two classical private schools. The researcher collected demographic and survey data using the ENJOY Scale – Short Form, sent via email via an online survey platform. Examination of the one-way analysis of variance indicated a significant difference in students' enjoyment of history/social studies as an academic subject, with non-classical private-school students reporting greater enjoyment than their non-classical public-school peers. These results revealed that the school setting does impact students' overall enjoyment of history/social studies as an academic subject. It is recommended that further research examine targeted populations such as types of private and public schools, instructional methodologies, and teacher characteristics to investigate possible trends.
