The Orange County (California) Human Relations Council exists to improve intergroup relations by enabling a representative group of school community members to work collaboratively toward creating and sustaining a safe, inclusive school climate that is respectful of society's diversity. The Council concentrates on training and encouraging…

Elementary school students often exhibit a lack of social skills that interferes with positive classroom interaction. This action research project examined the impact of an intervention for improving respect for others, self control, and listening to increase cooperative behavior in students. The targeted population consisted of a class of fourth…

This final report describes the activities and outcomes of a 3-year federally funded project that developed and evaluated interventions aimed at increasing retention of special education teachers. The interventions developed and evaluated consisted of: (1) a series of stress management workshops aimed at preventing or alleviating teacher burnout,…

A pilot study examined whether there is a "caste system" within the forensics community; what graduate students, faculty coaches, and tournament administrators can do to foster a sense of community and break down the caste system; and the role that formal and informal mentoring can play in this process. A survey was completed by 17…

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to examine friendships of early adolescents in a culturally diverse fifth grade class in an urban elementary school in the southeastern United States. The study described and interpreted the experiences of being a friend and having a friend in a culturally diverse classroom. The approach was grounded in…

This study investigated social interactions with peers on the part of 4-year-olds who were playing with a computer. Subjects were 18 preschoolers whose interactions were videotaped while they played with a computer for eight 45-minute sessions. Composition, initiation, and form of interaction were coded. Observations about the composition of…

This study had three purposes: to observe the formation and development of a teacher workgroup over the course of an academic year; to explore the connections between a teacher workgroup and the organization which supported it; and to determine the relationship between the organizational support given to the school, which was undergoing a massive…

Four Ontario universities with extensive distance education programs were surveyed to obtain information on the nature and extent of the interaction that exists among tutors, students, and peers in undergraduate distance education programs. A total of 84 tutors and 447 students completed the questionnaires, which elicited information on the…

The Southern Child Care Support Program was established in 1986 to help children with disabilities gain access to child care services. The program consists of a team of four Integration Support Workers who are able to provide support in 27 child care centers in the region of Adelaide, Australia. The program's model of child care focuses on three…

Three elementary-aged students with severe, multiple disabilities acquired basic communication and motor objectives within cooperative learning activities conducted in their regular education classrooms. With gradually fading assistance from the instructor, the nondisabled members of the cooperative learning groups provided cues, prompts, and…

An interview measure of social-cognitive skills that have been found to discriminate aggressive and nonaggressive children was developed. The interview was administered to 25 second and third grade children identified by teachers as nonaggressive and 50 second and third grade children identified by teachers as aggressive and referred to an…

Peer action groups generally begin with adults who form a peer group because they are participating in the education or parenting of a common group of teenagers. This paper contains seven sections which address questions connected with establishing peer outreach groups for junior and senior high school students: (1) Who are "at-risk…

This paper examines the process by which an immediate access-to-technology environment influences the frequency, form, and substance of collegial interaction among classroom teachers. The longitudinal study, part of the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow project, covers a 5-year period and utilizes data from 32 elementary and secondary teachers in five…

A Wisconsin study examined the perceptions of participants in a state-mandated mentoring program for beginning teachers. A researcher obtained names and addresses of beginning teachers, counselors, and librarians as well as personnel serving as mentors to beginners. A total of 14 mentors and 15 beginning teachers, counselors, and librarians agreed…

It was hypothesized that antisocial behavior and deviant peer involvement assessed prior to puberty, at grade four, would predict initiation of sexual intercourse by grade nine. The hypotheses were tested on a sample of 201 boys who were at risk for delinquency. The subjects participated in an extensive multiple method/agent assessment for both…