Individual teacher behaviors, characteristics, and instructional methods make an important difference in what and how well students learn. Children enter school with a wide variety of differences in family background and aspirations, expectations, and previous learning. Research on learning in the home, nursery school, and kindergarten points out…

This book presents the results of research on sociopsychological factors that affect the schooling process and academic achievement among young children. The first chapter of the report provides a background on schooling, and reviews what is known and what remains to be discovered about academic achievement. Chapters 2 and 3 review research on…

This paper presents recently reported findings that associate teacher behavior with student achievement. These findings fall under 5 general categories: time usage, classroom management, teacher expectations, teacher effectiveness research, and specific teacher behaviors. Research on time usage has demonstrated that the same amount of learning…

A study of classroom communication skills and strategies initiated in an effort to enhance the experience of Chinese graduate students visiting the United States had two parts. In the first, communications in a sampling of U.S. graduate science courses were examined, resulting in information about the language of classroom conversation management.…

In four parts, this discussion describes characteristics of the thought of infants, preschool children, primary school students, and adolescents. Topics briefly addressed in part I, on the thought processes/capabilities of babies, concern sensorimotor thought without abstraction, the importance of physical exploration, the development of…

A study was conducted to examine the effects of child abuse and neglect on children's nonverbal behaviors. It was hypothesized that abused and neglected children would be less active nonverbally than would control group children. Eight abused and neglected children, aged one through three years, were videotaped interacting with their caregivers in…

To provide a description of children's strategies for acquiring and protecting status in peer interactions, participant observation fieldwork was conducted in a classroom of 24 kindergarteners in a low socioeconomic status urban public school. During the period from January through May of 1983, 26 observational visits were made and 80 hours of…

The goal of the Home-School-Community Agents (HSCA) Program is to help disruptive pupils make a positive adjustment to those elements in their lives which interfere with their success in school. In 1982-83, 20 HSCA served 8 high schools and 12 middle schools in Columbus, Ohio. Each agent worked in depth with approximately 60 descriptive pupils and…

To facilitate cost effective bus schedules, middle school classes begin one hour later than high school classes in the Fort Worth Independent School District, Texas. This study investigated whether middle school students were adversely affected, in terms of grades and classroom performance, by having the class day extended to 4 p.m. High schools…

For a long time Chicanas have been self-denying, self sacrificing. Well, it is time that Mexican American women began thinking of themselves. It follows that if women love and cherish others, they must begin by loving and cherishing themselves. From the mental health perspective it is essential that they do so, not only for their sake, but for…

This longitudinal study measured the impact of pubertal development, sex, race, and school type on the self-esteem of 12- and 13-year-old children. One of the questions being investigated was whether the move from a protected elementary school into a larger, more impersonal junior high affected children's self-image more negatively than did a move…

Integrating concepts of basic citizenship education with community involvement, this experiential curriculum provides a means for developing decision making and critical thinking skills within the existing second grade social studies curriculum. The 10 lessons, translated into Spanish, cover the following concepts: friendly, unfriendly and…

A naturalistic-design study compared the practices of "writer-teachers" (expert practitioners) who employ methods rooted in experience with traditional "teacher writers." Eight subjects were chosen from a group of 23 writers who teach below the college level. One quarter of classroom observation and taping produced an in-depth study of two expert…

This paper is a review of literature, written between 1973 and 1980, concerning various factors affecting the cooperating teacher's role and responsibilities during the student teaching experience. Areas covered are: (1) perceived status of the cooperating teacher; (2) relationship of other roles in the internship to that of the cooperating…

The 11 papers assembled in this volume reflect the readiness of professional social work to develop practice approaches for working with parents of children in foster care. The papers were written from different perspectives, emphasize diverse aspects of foster care, and disagree on many issues. A unifying theme exists, however, in the shared…