Advocates early intervention to prevent high-risk behaviors among upper-elementary school students. Discusses changes experienced by preadolescents and implications for their learning and future adjustment. Reviews brief intervention packages and describes an alternative approach involving embedding a prevention program into daily classroom…

Underachievement in the classroom is a problem which confronts educators and national initiatives such as America 2000. Little field research exists to evaluate the effectiveness of classroom interventions on improving academic performance of the underachiever. A field study was designed and implemented by school psychologists which focused on…

Researchers have suggested that many low-achieving students lack planning skills and self-direction. In this study, goal-setting techniques were used to provide self-management for fourth-grade mathematics students lacking planning skills. While all 30 students in the classroom participated in the project, 5 boys who had low mathematics diagnostic…

To investigate questions concerning relationships among students' cognitive processes, aptitudes, later achievement and attitudes, and direct instruction, fifth- and sixth-grade students (N=72) were randomly assigned to one of six classes using a factorial assignment of ability level crossed with attitude. The questions addressed were: (1) What…

Investigated the relationship between hyperactive behavior and children's (N=92) perceptions of teachers' behavior, particularly acceptance and demand. Hyperactive behavior was significantly related to both variables in the directions of less perceived acceptance and greater perceived demand. Hyperactive boys perceived significantly less…

Describes one teacher's use of traditional wooden blocks in fifth-grade curriculum. Notes that use of blocks can teach communication, teamwork, precision, and arithmetic concepts. Also describes four easy classroom block projects. (TM)

Investigated the effects of classroom guidance on children's classroom behavior, attitudes toward school, and achievement in language arts and mathematics. The implications for improving elementary school children's behavior and attitudes, and for preventing problems through counseling, are discussed. (Author/KS)

The effects of wait-time, the pause following a teacher question and the pause after a student response, on the length and number of student responses were analyzed at different cognitive levels. Data were obtained from 95 students in grade 4 and from 5 teachers using a wait-time of 5 seconds. Four oral discussion sessions by teachers and students…

Sixteen Caucasian, fourth-grade, low ability math students participated in an experimental classroom intervention designed to improve their self-concepts. After pretesting with the How I See Myself Scale (HISMS), students each day for 8 weeks began class with a self-enhancing activity. Specific classroom exericses aimed at increasing children's…

Examined the relationship between teacher pupil control ideology and pupils' projected feelings toward teachers in a sample of 131 teachers and their students. Results indicated that custodialism in teacher pupil control ideology was directly related to pupils' negative feelings toward teachers, followed by teacher sex and grade level. (JAC)

Examined outcome differences of elementary counselors who emphasized classroom guidance in their programs contrasted with counselors who used individual counseling as primary approach to helping students. Examined whether student self-esteem, behavior, and perceptions of help needed could be positively influenced by counselor actions. Findings…

This study examined the impact of the use of cooperative learning on classroom discipline in third-, fourth-, and fifth- grade classrooms. Data were collected by means of teacher and experimenter observations of student classroom behavior. Problem behaviors were classified into two categories that involved the students themselves: off-task and…

A controlled study investigated the impact of systematic praise techniques on 145 sixth-grade students' self-esteem. Eighty-five students comprised the experimental group, and 60 students made up the control group. The study was initiated in order to explore the link between self-esteem and academic achievement. The attempt to increase student…

Three approaches to classroom management--assertive discipline, cooperative learning, and behavior management/mastery learning theory--are described. Assertive discipline was observed in a fifth-grade class taught by a teacher who would not allow students to interfere with her teaching or another child's learning. The assertive discipline approach…

The development and norms for the Intermediate North York Self Concept Inventory for grades two through six and the Primary Self Concept Inventory for grade one are presented. The Intermediate instrument is comprised of 30 items on aspects of student self esteem related to the school environment or the "general self," and with a high…