Evaluating the impact of a multicomponent intervention model on teachers' awareness of social networks at the beginning of middle school in rural communities.

Abstract

A randomized control trial was conducted to evaluate the impact of the Rural Early Adolescent Learning Program (Project REAL) on teachers' awareness of peer groups at the beginning of the 1st year of middle school. Two schools were randomly assigned to the intervention condition and 2 to the control condition. Thirty-nine teachers and 466 students (252 girls, 214 boys) participated in the study. As part of Project REAL, teachers were taught about social dynamics and early adolescent peer group processes. Social cognitive mapping procedures were used to assess and compare students' and teachers' perceptions of 6th grade peer groups. As compared with teachers in the control condition, intervention teachers were more likely to accurately identify peer groups. In addition, when the analyses were restricted to students who were involved in bullying, intervention teachers were more likely to accurately identify peer group membership. However, there were no significant differences between intervention and control teachers for the accurate peer group membership identification of specific bullying involvement subtypes (i.e., bullies, victims, bully victims).

Studious by association? Effects of teacher’s attunement to students’ peer relations

“…Research by Farmer et al (2010) showed that teachers' network perceptions can be trained to be accurate, i.e., correspond better to students' self-reported network. In view of the association bias substantiated in the present research, the intervention they developed seems highly recommendable.…”

Improving the School Context of Early Adolescence Through Teacher Attunement to Victimization

“…Teachers who are attuned to the social dynamics of their students, such as which children affiliate together in peer groups, tend to have classrooms characterized by more positive social climates, with students that report a greater sense of school belonging and a greater willingness to defend victims of bullying (Hamm et al, 2011). Intervention efforts to improve teacher attunement have demonstrated positive effects on teachers' ability to identify the peer groups of students identified as bullies (Farmer, Hall, Petrin, Hamm, & Dadisman, 2010); in turn, when teachers and students agree which children in their classrooms are aggressive, the social status of aggressive children diminishes over time (Ahn & Rodkin, 2014). Unfortunately, teacher attunement to bully-victim dyads is generally low, particularly as the number of students in a classroom increases (Ahn, Rodkin, & Gest, 2013).…”

Methodological Choices in Peer Nomination Research

“…In the first of these methods, participants typically receive a roster of peers for each item. In the latter two methods, participants typically receive a single roster to use across items (although the second option allows nominators to choose peers without a roster; e.g., Farmer, Hall, Petrin, Hamm, & Dadisman, ).…”

“…In the interim, however, researchers should take care to avoid order effects if possible. Randomizing name order on rosters (van den Berg & Cillessen, ) or eliminating rosters entirely (Farmer et al., ) are options but would make it more onerous for participants to provide nominations, particularly when rosters are large and many items are being assessed. Poulin and Dishion () suggested counterbalancing name order on rosters and recommended that participants be directed to think about relevant peers for each item before consulting the roster; both approaches would be expected to mitigate, but not eliminate, name order effects.…”