In order to develop a scale to measure student attitudes toward desegregation in their own schools, 61 Likert type statements were developed and administered to over 3000 black and white middle school students in five schools in a southwestern community. Gordon Allport's criteria, particularly his contact theory of desegregation, provided the…

This study investigated the efficacy of using inoculation theory in developing students' skills in resisting pressures involved with drinking and driving situations. Inoculation theory stems from psychosocial investigations that have demonstrated that resistance to specific opposing arguments can be increased if subjects are familiar with these…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of Jigsaw as a strategy to prevent substance abuse. Jigsaw is a structered peer teaching program in which students teach part of the regular classroom curriculum to a group of peers. The goals of Jigsaw were to make student learning more active and student-student interactions more cooperative. As a result of…

A study was conducted to determine whether the use of voice as defined by writing theorists is essential to producing good student writing and whether peer interaction would help students gain a greater sense of voice in their writing. Forty-two high school juniors were divided into two clusters: a peer interaction group and a teacher-centered…

Studies in group homes have shown that behaviors suggestive of a reinforcing relationship with an adult and of adult teaching are inversely related to self-reported delinquency among group home adolescents. Adolescents (N=29) living in natural family settings completed several self-report measures of delinquency and drug use to determine whether…

Two studies of a total of 17 preadolescent emotionally disturbed children were undertaken to observe children's reflective and naturalistic social cognition, and to utilize a developmental sequence of levels of interpersonal understanding to evaluate the interpersonal problem solving skills of emotionally disturbed children. Individual interviews…

This study examines the effect of classrooms where standard English is spoken on the speech of Black English speaking children. The research analyzed samples of language used by 22 Black English speaking children in seven kindergarten classrooms in three Madison, Wisconsin public schools during one academic year, 1977-78. The following questions…

One of the important factors contributing to the current interest in the development of social competence in preschool children is the acceptance of such competencies as appropriate outcomes in the evaluation of preschool intervention programs. Measurement of social competence is still in an early stage of development. One problem is that…

This script, with music, lyrics and dialog, was written especially for youngsters to inform them of the potential dangers of various drugs. The author, who teaches in an elementary school in Harlem, New York, offers Miss Heroin as her answer to the expressed opinion that most drug and alcohol information available is either too simplified and…

A review of more than 100 student journals that are kept as part of the requirements of an education course that gives juniors and seniors academic credit for tutoring freshmen and sophomores in writing reveals that the tutors contribute to the development of writing abilities by providing the opportunity to use oral language in discursive…

A 50-item questionnaire was developed with the assistance of a group of five current truant, five former truant, and five nontruant junior high students for distribution to students and teachers at one junior high within the Iowa City Community School District. Survey results indicated that most student and teacher respondents believed that…

One of 52 theoretical papers on school crime and its relation to poverty, this chapter considers the perspective that violence and vandalism in schools are a structural rather than a personal problem. Various facets of the schooling process are discussed with an emphasis on past and present meaning of forms of social control and how these may be…

This study asks whether placing students in small, cooperative work groups results in redirecting student norms, climate and student interaction. Using a post-test only design, students in classes which daily used cooperative groups for the entire academic year were compared with comparable students from classes which used the lecture-discussion…

The effects of model age and competence on the imitation behavior of 80 educable mentally retarded boys (mean age 12.2 years) were investigated. (Author/PHR)

A study investigated student participation in class discussion in a college psychology course. Findings indicated that the quality of participation is related to personality. Teachers are cautioned to avoid one-sided discussions by dividing students into discussion groups which include intuitive, extroverted, judging, thinking, and perceptive…