Operationalising the Victorian Novel for Dutch Pre-University Students

Abstract

This thesis operationalises the long and complex Victorian novel into a literature curriculum for sixth-year pre-university students that not only meets the core objectives pertaining to literature established by the Dutch Ministry of Education, but also stimulates the use of higher-order thinking skills in the study of the most influential works of the period in a constructivist, differentiated learning environment. Following the introduction, the second chapter provides an overview of the reading level of Dutch pre-university students in order to show that Victorian literature is at the appropriate outer rim of the average student’s zone of proximal development. The third chapter explores the theories of constructivism, differentiated education, and teaching literature in context used to inform the theoretical framework. The fourth chapter presents the results of a questionnaire on the teaching and testing of English literature at eleven pre-university schools throughout the Netherlands. The fifth chapter contains the literature curriculum, which takes shape as a 12-lesson series that is divided into four sub-series of lessons based on social issues of the Victorian period, as well as the principles used to inform its design. Students explore the themes of the Victorian period through individual close reading, group discussions, and student presentations in order to increase student agency in the learning process. The extracts read are allocated per student on the basis of reading level or student interest in order to differentiate. In this way, students are activated and building knowledge through social interaction, which is a hallmark of constructivism. The fifth chapter also contains expert appraisal of the perceived curriculum. It is hoped that pre-university English teachers find this thesis paper useful to teaching literature in the current educational climate and see value in adapting the basic didactic philosophy to subsequent literary periods.