A conceptual model of learning environments and the procedures necessary for its investigation are proposed. It is argued that a research agenda involving longitudinal, comparative case-study designs and using field-method techniques is the only method capable of generating a solid base of information on the relationship between structural…

The application of small group interaction and decision making assessment methods has demonstrated many of the interpersonal preferences, understandings, and attitudes of the Supreme Court. Six terms of the Supreme Court, from October 1969 through October 1974 were chosen for evaluation. Only those cases in which the formal opinion of the Court…

This paper examines a junior high counseling procedure which utilized preschool students as models. Differing with traditional modeling procedures, the junior high students were required to interact with the youngsters as well as each other. Following the interaction, twice-weekly group counseling sessions were conducted for a nine-week period to…

When phonetic science is extended from an individual to a dyadic system base, it acquires relevance to intercultural communication. A study examining the ability of sixteen Japanese American bilingual communicators to be understood in a situation of stressful audial interference establishes the upper limit for training in pronunciation. An…

This report, the fourth in a series of evaluations for Home Start planners and administrators, presents an analysis of the Home Start program operation during the fall of 1973 and a description of the data base being developed for the forthcoming cost-effects analysis. The first chapter is an executive summary of the interim findings and future…

This paper presents a study designed to determine whether or not parents' attitudes and children's intelligence scores affect children's reactions to television programs. Preschool children's behavior before, during, and after the viewing of two half-hour television programs, "Sesame Street" and "Polka Dot Door," was compared.…

The technique originating from the study of ecological systems for the examination of dynamic educational systems over time is utilized. The technique is based on the theory of energy exchanges in interactions between variables. Using this technique, interactions among variables can be specified and simulated over time using an analog computer.…

Over a period of three years, the National Consortium for Humanizing Education worked with teachers and students in two states to test hypotheses drawn from a model in which student outcomes (including good mental health) were seen as the results of a learning process occurring between individuals rather than as the product of an institutionalized…

This paper traces the development of interpersonal skills and characterizes the essential features of social interaction as they change from infancy to adolescence. It is demonstrated that, at each life stage, the quality of social relationships is dependent on the person's capacity for interpersonal closeness, his ability to use language, and his…

Systematic and reliable feedback are critical elements of microteaching. One system whereby pre-service and in-service teachers may obtain systematic and reliable feedback during microteaching is called the Social Science Observation Record (SSOR). This monograph is intended to meet three purposes: (1) To explain the SSOR as a verbal system for…

The Social Science Observation Record (SSOR) is a systematic observation system designed to abstract and describe class discussion, specifically those discussions directed toward value clarification as an aspect of subject-matter instruction. The objective and yet diverse nature o category observation systems is described and an explanation is…

From the perspective of games theory, this article suggests some ways in which young parents can increase the positive effects of children on their marriage. The plea is less for planned parenthood than for planned "education" for parenthood. Commonsense advice is presented for dealing with such issues as: self-actualization, parenthood education,…

This study investigated congruence in ego stage and group relevant aspects of teachers' and learners' personalities, and between their preferences for and perceptions of group work and emotionality behaviors, as related to learners' learning achievement and to teacher and student satisfaction with learning group membership. Subjects (130 learners…

Positive social reinforcement (teacher attention) was used to modify the deficient social behavior of two disadvantaged Negro kindergarten children. Subjects were a girl who showed a very high amount of isolate behavior, and a boy who usually played alone, or with girls to the exclusion of boys. Data were collected for one month during half hour…

The verbal interaction patterns of selected teachers during a rather structured portion of the reading instruction process were explored. The objectives were (1) to determine if persons identified as above-average elementary classroom teachers of reading differ in these verbal interaction patterns from those identified as beginning teachers during…