Disability labels and other social categories in school arise out of an educational system which attributes learning problems, perceived weaknesses, and academic failure to individual students. Instead, this dissertation investigates how learning problems are produced and reinforced through cultural practices. Through a two-year, cross-context…

Research has demonstrated that a person's attraction to a stranger is influenced by experimental manipulations suggested by general behavior theory. To examine whether a neutral observer, listening to a conversation between two strangers, could be influenced by the manipulation of several learning variables, 80 female undergraduates listened to a…

Written in the form of programmed instruction, this book is designed to help parents and teachers understand and correct situations in which a child's behavior is distressing. The book utilizes the social learning approach (that people learn most behavior patterns from other people). The first section discusses how parents and children learn and…

Describes 2 studies in which experienced and inexperienced preschool teachers were observed during children's free play periods. It was suggested that inexperienced teachers tend to go along with children's play perferences, while experienced teachers direct the children into activities they consider more important to academic success (i. e.,…

The study demonstrated that teacher verbal disapproval can function as a positive social reinforcement for student inappropriate behavior. Thus, student behaviors thought to be punished are instead maintained or increased. A more appropriate method of dealing with misbehavior is presented. (ST)

Observations of parent-child interaction indicate that mother's positive feeling is correlated with her child's sociability, curiosity, attentiveness, manipulation, and offering information. (AJ)

Examined sex differences in the play preferences of 2-year-old nursery school children and determined whether teachers of this age group reinforce female sex-typed behaviors as do teachers of older preschoolers. (SDH)

Described are the systematic reinforcing and shaping procedures used by a school principal to modify an 11-year-old child's phobic fear of the classroom. The child's class attendance significantly increased as a consequence of the procedures. (Author/SDH)

One hundred twenty-eight observers randomly assigned to 16 treatment conditions in a modified Latin square design, viewed three videotapes of simulated classrooms in which teacher behavior was controlled (paralleling psychophysical procedures) to fit unambiguously into specific categories on ratings of frequency and variety of social…

Problems encountered in cross-cultural research are discussed in this report which describes a study of the relationship between social class differences and maternal teaching patterns of 2- and 3-year-old children. The study involved a total of 63 mother-child dyads from middle- and working-class groups in Bristol, England and 34 Kuwaiti…

This study inquired into the relationships between (1) the role school plays in preparing children for adult life and the attitudes of children, teachers, and parents toward schooling; (2) the school curriculum and children's out-of-school experiences; and (3) curriculum content and Western influences on teaching styles. This study is a followup…