Efforts of the Center for Career Development (Mesa, Arizona) to compare various strategies for promoting available career education materials and services in the Mesa Public Schools (to determine which strategies are more effective in increasing utilization of career education resources) are described. After identifying the career education…

Discusses in some detail five factors considered responsible for teacher burnout: negative image of the school system, inadequate teacher preparation, ineffective school management, lack of full cooperation between schools and parents, and the schools' emphasis on issues other than learning and student development. (JHZ)

Investigated acceptability of intervention designed to improve spelling performance as rated by sixth grade students (n=93) in two studies. Results showed that these interventions were successful at improving spelling performance and that differences related to group size were inconsistent across studies. (Author/PVV)

A Copy, Cover, and Compare procedure was found to produce large improvements in the accuracy of the multiplication facts of two middle school students with attention deficit disorder or attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. The addition of a token economy program produced only small improvements in performance. (Author/PB)

This study of interactions between three severely withdrawn, autistic preschool children and six nonhandicapped peers found that peers can be effectively taught strategies to increase appropriate social behaviors of autistic classmates, and a group-oriented reinforcement contingency is an effective complement to teacher-prompted interventions and…

Classroom intervention is an essential component of comprehensive treatment for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Several educational interventions are reviewed. Most are based on contingency management, but some deal with modifications of the task or the classroom. Research needs, particularly for adolescents with ADHD, are…

Examination of effects on 27 secondary students' Spanish vocabulary quiz performance of 2 variables (group versus individual study and group versus individual contingencies) found that, overall, group study was superior to individual study and, within the group study condition, group contingencies were superior to individual contingencies.…

Two families were studied that had children placed in foster care due to abuse and neglect by parents with mental retardation. One mother easily learned necessary parenting skills. In the second case, incremental resumption of custody was made contingent on completion of relevant parenting tasks; when progress in task completion ceased, parental…

This paper reports on the application of a token economy approach to increase on-task behavior and decrease inappropriate "call-outs" of nine seventh and eighth grade Caucasian male students in a self-containted emotional support classroom. The program included a behavioral contract, token economy "bucks" kept in a classroom bank, and a list of 12…

This paper describes a community research project which preceded the development of the Kamehameha Early Education Project (KEEP). The community project was designed to assist teachers in solving classroom behavior and academic problems. The initial focus on workshops and theories proved inadequate for dealing with daily classroom problems. A…

Contingency theory, the formal structure of graduate schools, and the applicability of contingency variables to graduate schools as organizations are examined. Contingency theory is based on an open systems concept that views an organization as composed of many interdependent parts that are interacting with one another. It also holds that under…

Learned helplessness occurs when an organism learns that escape from aversive stimulation and/or the occurrence of reinforcement are independent of response (noncontingent). The learned helplessness model was applied to a classroom setting to examine its relationship to student performance. Response/outcome contingency conditions were combined…

The second of two documents designed to train paraprofessionals to work with mainstreamed mildly handicapped children presents a teacher's guide approach to inservice and preservice training. The following four topics are covered in the section on preservice training (sample subtopics in parentheses): the teacher (forming a good working…

The first year of operation of the Eufaula Adjustment Center, a residential facility of the Alabama Department of Mental Health, is described and evaluated in this report. The Center's approach is based on the concept that certain mental illnesses are the result of having learned inadequate or inappropriate coping skills and behavior rather than…

This paper presents a case study of a sixth grade remedial math class which illustrates the thesis that only the "experimental attitude," not the "experimental method," is appropriate in the classroom. The thesis is based on the fact that too many independent variables exist in a classroom situation to allow precise…