This manual for classroom teachers is designed to teach the application of contingency contracting procedures in the typical instructional setting. A "contingency contract" is an agreement between teacher and student whereby the student, upon demonstration of specific task achievement, receives a reward: permission to participate in a "reinforcing…

Five experiments (conducted in 1968 on observing responses and vigilance, reward preferences, and learning strategies in concept formation) indicate that socioeconomic level (SEL) has an influence on intellectual and educational functioning of elementary school children. Expectation of reinforcement was tested in experiment 1, using 60…

This institute was planned to help teacher-trainers develop a philosophy of adult basic education; increase their understanding of the undereducated adult; understand and apply curriculum development process in adult basic education programs; and increase their knowledge and understanding of concepts and techniques related to recruitment, testing,…

In order to clarify the conditions under which material rewards have a detrimental effect upon children's later interest in the rewarded task, the effect of a reward for drawing was measured with 24 preschool children ranging in age from 34 to 40 months. The children were grouped as high or low in initial interest on the basis of observation of…

A Piagetian perspective is used to build a rationale to explain why group games are good for young children. Three major areas in which group games might foster children's development are discussed. In the socioemotional area, the rationale is that moral development, personality development, and autonomy are enhanced by the social context of peer…

This paper investigates the popular belief that children's attitudes toward school and particular subjects have a positive relationship with their school and subject achievement. Definitions of attitude by L. L. Thurstone, L. W. Doob, and M. Fishbein are presented as a basis for the investigation. The difficulties involved in assessing attitudes…

A study was conducted to investigate the application of the PLATO IV system to training interpersonal skills. Suitable content areas were chosen, and a mechanism to integrate various skill areas was designed. Training materials for this integration of skills were developed and coded into the PLATO IV system. A sample of experimental and control…

In order to investigate the effect of reinforcement on learning, 21 disadvantaged black children, 4 to 5 years of age, were divided among three treatment groups. Group I children received only feedback (information) as to the correctness or incorrectness of their responses. Group II children received a raisin for each correct response, and group…

Phase 1 has been completed of a five-phase project to develop a model of teacher role behavior in individualized classrooms, to develop teacher training courses (including workshops) for behaviors specified by the role model, and to train teachers (inservice and/or preservice) to fulfill the role provided by the model. The classroom management…

Six student and four potential student populations were sampled to determine what, how, when, and where suburban community college students and potential students would like to learn, and to relate learning preferences to sex, age, education, occupation, and the 10 groups surveyed. A total of 952 community college student responses were obtained,…

The effectiveness of positive and negative evaluative comments for children's learning was assessed in a two-choice discrimination task. Results indicate that negative comments after incorrect responses greatly facilitated learning while positive comments after correct responses had little effect. To explain the findings, a naturalistic analysis…

In a cognitive-developmental analysis of achievement and moral judgments, 300 black and white subjects aged 4-18 made moral and achievement evaluative judgments in sixteen situations. The situations differed according to the intent (effort) and ability of the person being judged, and in the objective consequences of the behavior. Analysis of…

The Mother-Child Home Program was designed to modify the early cognitive experience of preschool disadvantaged children by "intervening" with a series of verbal stimulation activities planned to raise the child's measured IQ. Intervention was timed to occur with early speech development and within the context of family relationships. The…

The goal of this position paper is to present considerations and alternatives for healthy life directions which can be made available through education to the Native American to enable him to go beyond the present narrow choices of either total assimilation within the white value system or remaining isolated on the reservation. The 3 purposes of…

On looking back at Head Start and other early childhood program plans, it is felt that several false assumptions have been made, the most obvious being the idea that poor children are understimulated; another is that poor children can be stereotyped, although there are relationships between poverty and health problems and language development. The…