With the purpose of obtaining relevant data about the curriculum, classroom, teacher, and peer effects on individual Head Start children, this project plans to have trained observers spend several hours in the classroom (1) attending to and recording the total functions of the class and (2) attending to and recording the behavior of individual…

An argument is made against the use of school averages as composition measures by documenting the non-random nature of peer associations and by presenting evidence that different students are influenced by different reference groups. The structure of friendship associations among some 20,000 students in the McDill Twenty High School Sample is…

This practicum was developed (1) to improve, supervise, and disseminate a model cross-age tutoring program, and (2) to determine if a tutorial program would increase the sight vocabulary of 100 second grade students in the Dallas Independent School District. A secondary purpose was to determine if such a program would improve the reading grades,…

Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) has developed a peer helper training program based on a modular training design. A peer helper at VWCC is a student attending the college who has been trained and evaluated as being effective in specifically defined interpersonal helping relationships. Peer helpers provide services as an adjunct to those…

Scholastic achievements of high school students and the impact which these achievements have on adolescents' feelings of personal worth are examined. Nine hundred and thirty-four subjects from nine Iowa secondary schools participated in the study. The hypothesis that in high academic achievers more positive self-concept scores are found among…

This paper reports on the development, evaluation and implications of a primary grade social development curriculum based on structural, developmental, and social perspective taking theory. The curriculum was used in a preliminary pilot study and in a formal 8-week intervention program with 14 second and third grade classes. The social…

This paper focuses on the theory and rationale of assessing the social behavior of children. It is asserted that child social behavior must be assessed accurately in order to do research on socialization. Socialization is defined as the process by which an individual learns to interact with others. It is proposed that it is possible to design a…

The following research projects are described in this annual report: (1) "Concept Learning in Discrimination Tasks," which indicates that kindergarten children are able to discriminate the letters "b,""d,""p," and "q"; (2) "Discrimination of Letter-like Forms," indicating that nursery…

Four areas of evaluation will be briefly discussed: 1) those areas of functioning which should be assessed, 2) instruments which were used in each area, 3) knowledge of instruments, 4) preliminary results for each instrument. The areas related to the preschool child which should be evaluated consist of: 1) the child's cognitive functioning, 2) the…

There is little theory of research concerning the impact of father absence on females. The present study compared father-absent and father-present preadolescent girls on the basis of selected measures of peer relationships, dating practices, source of sex information, family and peer relationships, and sexual experience. The sample consisted of 95…

The experiments here reported represent attempts to produce "equal status interaction" in four-man groups of junior high school boys, two of whom are white and two black. The theory is that equality is not a consequence of interracial task performance. Rather, it is likely that generally held beliefs about the differential competence of…

Previous research has emphasized the reliability and the validity of peer ratings. However, the cognitive and affective impacts of peer evaluations within specific academic disciplines is lacking. The present study explored the impact of peer group evaluations on student attitudes toward the basic speech course and student achievement on speech…

The purpose of this manual is to illustrate the application of the small group process approach to bilingual education at junior high and senior high school levels. Chapters include (1) "The Group Process Approach," (2) "Skills Required in the Small Group Process Approach," (3) "Learning Environment," (4) "Grouping Procedures," (5) "Activities and…

This paper reviews three studies which illustrate the use of two different techniques of behavior modification to control aggression in preschool children in classroom situations. The first technique demonstrated the use of "time-out" as a mild punishment procedure. The teacher changed events following aggression by briefly removing the child from…

Investigated with five communication handicapped and four model (normal) children were communication patterns and friendship choices in a mainstreamed preschool setting. A review of literature revealed a controversy as to whether mainstreamed communication handicapped children receive appropriate verbal models and whether mainstreaming helps…