At school, pupils often cooperate on common projects and must coordinate their different individual actions. However, grades are pervasively used even in cooperative situations, which make the pupils' differences in achievement and their relative rank salient and may reduce their inclination to work constructively with others. Thus, we…

High attrition in technical training courses in Army Service Schools was found to be a major problem during the years 1962 to 1965. Data obtained at the U.S. Army Air Defense School showed that students who volunteered specifically for their training had significantly lower attrition rates than students of comparable aptitude who were assigned to…

Students in the two schools showed a similar distribution of time between concentrated academic effort and distractive activities, and were sharply distinguished on most of the other behavioral measures. (Authors/CB)

Relationships among peer social interaction rate, classroom activity, and teaching style were investigated to determine whether teaching style could be defined in terms of differential student interaction rates across various classroom activities. Peer interaction rates were determined in three primary level classrooms representing various…

Descriptive data were collected over a two-month period on two middle elementary classrooms to which student teachers had been assigned. From this data typical patterns of teaching/learning behavior were identified for each classroom. The student teachers were then interchanged, and the data collection continued for another two months. Comparison…

This study, employing inclusion, control, and affection as independent variables, tests empirically Schutz' (1958) three-dimensional theory of group process, using a Prisoner's Dilemma experimental analogue situation with dyads. (Author)

Relationships among behaviors, defined within each of several observation systems, were determined and relationships across systems were examined to empirically derive dimensions of classroom behavior. These four observation systems were selected to include as broad a range of categories as possible: Fuller Affective Interaction Records (FAIR),…

Research conducted in the United States has found that people exert more effort when they perform a task individually than when they do so in a group. This phenomenon has been labeled social loafing. To examine the transcultural generality of social loafing, 20 male and 20 female Chinese school children in Taiwan were selected from grades 2, 3, 6,…

This paper reports on an investigation of the interdependent relationship between ecological classroom dimensions and kindergarten students' task-related classroom behaviors, studied independently of personalities or age-group generalizations. Major purposes of the study were: (1) to identify and describe the main action structures observed in the…

The feasiblity of an observational rating scale which would provide objective, reliable and quantifiable measures of social and affective behavior was investigated. The Observation of Socialization Behavior (OSB), focusing on peer-group behavior of pre-school children and designed for use in unstructured situations was developed. Two forms of the…

Many children are targets of verbal and physical abuse or social ostracism at some point during their school careers, and a minority are repeatedly victimized by their peers. This volume brings together leading investigators to present the latest psychological research on chronically victimized children and adolescents. The book's introduction…

The relative importance of factors such as student characteristics, prior contact with the other race, opportunity for contact in the present situation, and conditions of inter-racial contact are examined in order to determine how they predict the social outcomes of inter-racial contact in high schools. Multiple regression analyses are performed…

Videotaped group work lessons of an elementary school third grade class provide material for study of the non-verbal aspect of group behavior. A system of activity categories is developed and a typology of pupils' working methods in group study distinguishes types and characteristic forms of activity. The following activity categories are used in…