REINFORCEMENT CONCEPTS DERIVED LARGELY FROM RESEARCH OF SUBHUMAN SUBJECTS WERE TESTED FOR APPLICABILITY TO HUMAN-LEARNING SITUATIONS SIMILAR TO THOSE THAT OCCUR IN SCHOOLS. A SERIES OF EXPLORATORY STUDIES CONDUCTED IS DESCRIBED IN PART II OF THIS REPORT. IN PART III, TWO EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE THE REINFORCING VALUE OF DIFFERENT STIMULI…

THERE ARE SIGNIFICANT FACTORS IN GROUPING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN FOR EFFECTIVE LEARNING. THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS SECTION HAS EXAMINED NUMEROUS RESEARCH STUDIES ON GROUPING. DISCUSSED ARE QUESTIONS CONCERNED WITH RELATIVE VALUES OF GROUPING CHILDREN ACCORDING TO NEED, SPECIAL ABILITIES, AND ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS. PREDICTIONS ON THE FUTURE OF…

TWO STUDIES ON LEARNING SET FORMATION IN CONTINUOUS, DISCOURSE-PROGRAMED MATERIAL WERE CONDUCTED. ONE STUDY WAS CONDUCTED WITH 315 COLLEGE STUDENTS, THE OTHER WITH 141 SIXTH-GRADE STUDENTS. THE MAJOR INDEPENDENT VARIABLE WAS THE NUMBER OF PROGRAMED UNITS ADMINISTERED. THE DEPENDENT VARIABLES WERE PRE- AND POST-ACHIEVEMENT TEST SCORES AND ERROR…

ON THE BASIS OF SELECTED RESEARCH FINDINGS, A DISTINCTION BETWEEN RECREATIONAL AND INDIVIDUALIZED READING AND A PLAN FOR IMPLEMENTING AN INDIVIDUALIZED READING PROGRAM ARE DISCUSSED. PLANS FOR FLEXIBLE GROUPINGS AND THEIR COMBINATIONS, SHARING ACTIVITIES, RECORD KEEPING, EVALUATING PROGRESS, AND INITIATING A PROGRAM ARE PRESENTED. REGULAR…

Some research and ideas about learning, which are of interest to elementary school counselors, deal with individual differences and classroom environment. Studies find girls markedly superior to boys in language skills, with boys better in analytic thinking and transfer of learning. However, no sex differences in intellect have been found. There…

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,…