Examined the development of teaching skills in older siblings responsible for teaching their younger siblings to become competent members of their culture among children from a Zinacantec Maya village in Chiapas, Mexico. Found that by age 4, children took responsibility for initiating teaching situations with their younger siblings, and by 8,…

Describes design features of group learning activities. Includes providing open-ended tasks, multiple ways to demonstrate competence, discipline-based content, creative and supportive interdependence and individual accountability, and clear evaluation criteria. (Contains 11 references.) (PKP)

Argues that New Hampshire high-stakes test administered at the end of the third grade is flawed and thus should be discontinued because the questions are not only too abstract, but beyond the knowledge and experience of most third graders. (Contains 23 references.) (PKP)

Notes that many children in today's classrooms exhibit a variety of emotional and social difficulties, and discusses the use of bibliotherapy, an approach that uses literature as an effective way to remediate such difficulties. Explains emotional intelligence and how bibliotherapy can promote development of the socioemotional competence necessary…

Focuses on the problems of education and development in post-apartheid South Africa. Argues that there must be a focus on the uneven terrain of educational attainment and long term socio-economic development. Discusses factors hindering educational development. Calls for reconstitution of South Africa's educational programs for all citizens. (CAJ)

Examines association between intimate premarital relationships and subsequent marital dissolution. Results suggest neither premarital sex nor premarital cohabitation by itself indicate either preexisting characteristics or subsequent relationship environments that weaken marriages. Findings are consistent with the notion that premarital sex and…

Used interviews and questionnaires to assess preschool teachers' beliefs about the importance of young children's social competence. Found that teachers valued peer competence in early childhood, but academic goals were more frequently valued than social goals. Teachers felt peer competencies were influenced more by the child's inherent nature…

This paper examines current literature about social competencies and individuals with developmental disabilities, explaining the role of leisure in enhancing social competencies through the lifespan. After defining perceived social competence, the paper looks at how recreation and leisure can increase communication and social skills for this…

Discusses the role of friendships in children's development. Examines the meaning of the term friendship; the roots of friendship development; the role of parents, teachers, and siblings; and concerns about children's choices. Suggests that positive attitudes, when established early in life, can affect physical and mental health and the quality of…

Tabulated the frequencies of dyadic and group interactions in single-sex playgroups of 4- and 6-year-olds. Found that boys and girls at both ages engaged in similar frequencies but in different patterns of dyadic interactions. Only 6-year-old boys interacted in groups. (BC)

Followed 8-year olds' friendship dyads through school year to determine if they remained friends, and compared their interaction in structured potential conflict with nonfriend dyads. Found that friends made more proposals than nonfriends to negotiate object sharing, spent more time negotiating, compromised more, and showed more competitive…

Research has shown that the classroom social environment is a chief psychological determinant of academic learning. A recent study showed students who gave their classrooms high ratings on cohesion, challenge, satisfaction, and absence of friction and favoritism on the Learning Environment Inventory achieved more academically, had better attitudes…

Describes aspects of self-concept that develop in toddlerhood: (1) self-recognition; (2) self-representation; (3) self-description; (4) self-assertion; (5) self-evaluation; and (6) self-regulation. Intervention ideas for children with special needs are presented based on three dimensions of the socializing environment: provision of inanimate…

The behavioral and heart rate responses of 22 children (ages 3-4) with autism and 22 with other developmental disabilities were compared while they were watching videotapes of a baby either playing or crying. Both groups of children showed heart rate slowing when watching the video of the crying baby. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

General and specific issues of the risk and resilience framework in the social development of children with learning disabilities include: (1) integrating current research with prior related studies; (2) measurement problems; (3) more differentiation regarding gender and severity of learning disabilities; (4) potential risk and protective factors;…