The effects of amount and type of teacher-child interaction on child-child interaction during free-play

Social interactions between preschool behaviorally handicapped children were measured under three experimental conditions during free-play: (a) active teacher involvement in free-play, (b) no teacher involvement in free-play, and (c) teacher structured free-play. Significantly more child-child interactions occurred during teacher structured free-play than in either of the other two conditions, with the no teacher involvement condition producing significantly more child-child interactions when compared to the active teacher involvement condition. Additionally, significantly more teacher-child interactions occurred during the active teacher involvement condition than in either of the other two conditions, with nonsignificant differences in teacher-child interaction between the no teacher involvement and the teacher structured conditions. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for ameliorating social interaction deficits among young behaviorally handicapped children.     

Teacher as token dispenser: Effect of an observer

Data were collected on rate per minute of administering token reinforcement for one male and six female teachers enrolled in a behavior modification course. Data were obtained from record cards maintained by pupils for tokens received during an observer-present condition and for an observer-absent condition. Comparison of reinforcement rates for observer-present vs. absent indicated significantly higher rates of token delivery (p <.025) in the observer-present condition. The observer effect has important implications for those programs in which assessment procedures introduce an observer into the classroom to collect data on changes in teacher behavior.