Pupil behaviors and interactions in desegregated urban junior high activity-centered science classrooms.

Abstract

Pupil classroom behavior was observed in 14 activity-centered science classes in four urban junior high schools. Classroom behaviors of 26 white males and 26 black males were observed for ten 6-minute periods each over 3 months. Nineteen behavior categories were coded and later combined to form categories labeled learning, attending, and nonattending. Interpersonal interactions were coded as cross-race or within-race and on-task or off-task. Entering California Achievement Test mathematics and reading scores (CAT-M and CAT-R, respectively) and final grades were obtained from school records. No significant race differences were found in in-class behavior, very few hostile interactions were observed, there were more within-race than cross-race interactions, and cross-race interactions were more apt to occur during learning than during nonattending. Reading and math scores were correlated with final grade for both groups. Learning behavior accounted for significant variance in final grade, after removing effect of CAT-M and CAT-R, for black students but not for white students.

Behavior, motivation, and achievement in desegregated junior high school science classes.

“…The independent variables were the number of interactions with (a) black males, (b) black females, (c) white males, (d) white females, (e) other males, (f) teachers, (g) the entire class, and (h) student groups. This resulted in a total R 2 of .44, comparable to the .49 found by Howe et al (1983). This analysis also yielded univariate correlations (point biserial) between each independent variable and the dependent variable.…”

“…This should be particularly true in activity-centered classrooms because actively engaging in classroom activities is necessary in order to come into contact with the material covered in science tests. In an earlier study that focused on cross-race interactions of males in similar classrooms, Howe, Hall, Stanback, and Seidman (1983) found significant correlations between learning behaviors and grades for blacks only. In the present study we restructured the Howe et al observation instrument to focus more carefully on academic behaviors, and we included both sexes.…”

An observational study of peer interaction in racially mixed "accelerated" classrooms.

“…The four unadjusted proportion scores (e.g., proportion of all peer interaction that occurred with white males) for each subject were entered into a2X2X2X2 analysis of variance (ANOVA), where the grouping factors were the race and sex of subject, and the trial factors were the race and sex of the interactant. 6 Results of the ANOVA indicated that, as predicted, students interacted primarily with other students of their own sex, 6 Because the within-cell distribution of these proportion scores may have violated one assumption of the ANOVA paradigm-normal distribution-an arc sine transformation of the scores was performed, and the adjusted scores were entered into an identical ANOVA (Mosteller & Tukey, 1968, p. 199). The results of the analysis of the transformed scores vary only slightly from the results of the analysis of untransformed scores that are discussed in this article (cf.…”

ISCS in review

“…The Level I text was intended to be used in seventh grade, but a careful analysis of selected representative passages, using the Flesch and Gunning readability scales, indicated that a reading level of ninth to tenth grade was necessary for "the textbook to be used independently and with good comprehension" (Howe & Early, 1979). The need for good reading skills is borne out in studies cited above and as an incidental finding in other studies.…”

“…This expected relationship has been confirmed, often incidentally, by McDuffie and DeRose (1982), Gabel and Herron (1977), Conlon (1970), and others. Success in ISCS is also related to reading level and/or mathematics ability (Daume, 1980;Howe & Early, 1979;Howe, Hall, Stanback, & Seidman, 1983; McDuffie & DeRose, 1982), and to reasoning ability (Howe & Early, 1979). Several of these studies suggest that a minimal level of reading and mathematics ability is necessary for success but not sufficient to insure it, since other factors become more important once the minimal level of these entering skills has been reached.…”