Withdrawn and disruptive students can make progress in an alternative school where they receive individualized instruction and attention with a system of earned credits and fines. The student body in an alternative school may be hetereogeneous, ranging from the borderline mentally retarded and learning disabled to the emotionally disturbed. Their…

Acceptance of handicapped students by their peers is a major component of success in the mainstreamed classroom. How teachers plan for interactions and lessons determines the degree to which social acceptance is achieved. The teacher's behavior models desired social acceptance, and the structure of learning activities evidence academic…

Following a literature review on the subjects of the decline in student writing abilities and increased student writing apprehension, this paper offers teachers information on a basic writing program that reduces writing anxiety and improves writing skills through large doses of positive reinforcement. The second section of the paper discusses the…

THE VERBAL ENVIRONMENT OF THE FIRST YEARS OF LIFE IS CRUCIAL IN THE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL. THERE IS A CLOSE INTERRELATEDNESS AMONG LANGUAGE ARTS. SPEAKING, WRITING, LISTENING, AND READING PERFORM RECIPROCAL FUNCTIONS IN THE COMMUNICATIVE CYCLE. THEREFORE, THERE IS A NEED TO REINFORCE LANGUAGE ARTS IN ALL GRADES AND IN ALL…

The concept that teacher beliefs about future student achievement may actually influence the subsequent performance of students provides the basis for a model of teacher expectation communication which uses attribution theory as explanatory links in the communication process. These model links were tested in a two-year study involving 16 third-,…

The described inservice education programs are designed for regular classroom teachers dealing with mainstreamed students who require specific diagnostic and corrective plans and strategies. Included in this informative report are an outline of the contents of the programs, the activities and resources they involve, and ordering information for…

This paper describes an educational program for 28 adolescent delinquents at a training school for boys. All of the students had histories of educational failure. Individualized programed instruction and a system of extrinsic learning reinforcements were the experimental basis of the program. Points, exchangeable for money, were given to the…

This paper describes a study which examined interactive relationships between a personality variable (need for approval) and a situational variable (incentive for achievement) as determinants of transgression in temptation situations. Hypotheses were formulated that need for approval would correlate differentially with transgression when…

Cited are two studies which analyzed the reinforcing effectiveness of verbal evaluative comments on educable retarded and handicapped elementary school children. In the first study, a two-choice push button discrimination, it is reported that Ss consistently chose a button which avoided the verbal comment "wrong", but made no significant…

This study was designed to ascertain whether reading achievement and attitude toward reading of students in grades two, four, and six can be improved through implementation of a token system within regular reading programs. Two schools were assigned to the experimental and two to the control treatment, with an equal number of classrooms from the…

Learning theories proposed by William Glasser in his text, "Schools without Failure," were implemented in an individualized language instruction program in a small high school in northern Ohio. The theory suggests that the success factor is far more significant than the failure factor in developing learning motivation. The belief that individuals…

The leadership reinforcement learning package is designed as a module containing objectives, pretest, learning environments, and posttest. Objectives of this module are to enable readers to analyze existing leadership competencies, organize these leadership possibilities systematically, and plan worthwhile projects while recruiting responsible…

To motivate slow learners and discipline-problem pupils to improve their writing skills, a reinforcement program was developed in Baltimore, Maryland, modeled on an earlier program which created a school environment operated like the business world. Upon successful completion of assigned tasks, the experimental group, 24 eighth graders, were given…

Professional workers can assist parents of retarded infants by (1) helping them to recognize and cope with their feelings of guilt and despair, and (2) establishing a home program of exercises to allay the infant's inertia. Such exercises have been demonstrated by numerous investigators to be of positive value in improvement of motor performance.…

The nutrition instruction guide is designed for volunteer leaders in the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), which focuses on youth nutrition education and understanding teenagers. Teaching techniques incorporate the importance of socialization, "discovering" answers, positive reinforcement, and teenager involvement in…