The effects of teacher-delivered social reinforcement on the task persistent behavior of educable mentally retarded children

The effects of teacher-delivered social reinforcers on the task persistent behavior of children enrolled in an intermediate class for the educable mentally retarded were studied. These children were grouped with a regular fourth grade class during a social studies period in which the study was conducted. The special education children were randomly divided into two groups, with seven children in each group. Using a reversal design, social reinforcers were delivered contingent upon the task persistent behavior of the seven target children. The seven youngsters in the control, or nonreinforcement, group were essentially ignored as they engaged in appropriate task-related behaviors. The results clearly show that increases in the level of task persistent behavior and the administration of social reinforcement were functionally related. The level of task persistent behavior emitted by the control children was not affected by reinforcement delivered to their peers.     

The Effect of Bilingualism on the Measured Intelligence of Elementary School Children of Italian Parentage

The recency of the community college movement has prevented large scale organization and dissemination of knowledge concerning the processes and steps required to establish a community college. There is, therefore, a need for means to incorporate contemporary evidence into the curriculum of prospective administrators of higher education. The purpose of this study was to compare Higher Education Administration students’ peceptions of a logical sequence of events for establishing a community college with a sequence of events for establishing a community college as determined by practice. The Edwards’ matched-pair technique was used to rank the perceptions of the students. A sequence of twenty-nine events was selected from the literature. Each event was matched with every other, thus providing 406 decision situations. From these decisions an ordering was obtained. Using the Spearman rho correlation technique, a coefficient of 0.82 was found between the sequence of events taken from the literature and rank ordering of these events as determined by the Edwards’ matched-pair technique.     

Multicultural children’s books: An American fairy tale

Most analyses of multicultural children's books concentrate on published works by white authors and the implications of their depictions of non-white characters. This article explores the production process of multicultural children's literature. The differences between multicultural and culturally conscious literature are discussed. The production and distribution processes of children's books are described. Interview data is used to highlight areas of these systems which constrain the production of books by non-white authors.     

‘If you miss the ball,you look like a total muppet!’ Boys investing in their bodies in physical education and sport

Connections have been drawn between masculinity, muscularity and physical or social status in sport. Not only are sporting bodies often related to masculinity but also to whiteness, leading to the devaluing of Asian boys' bodies and sporting experiences. This paper draws on three British Asian teenage boys' visual and verbal narratives to enquire how they negotiate these connections in their physical education and recreational sport experiences. Bourdieu's notion of capital is used to make sense of boys' ways of investing in their bodies to manage their status in school. Drawing from focus-group interviews which used participant-driven photography and photo elicitation techniques, the research indicates how three boys invested in their bodies by doing particular types of physical activity that would enable them to develop muscularity, fitness and/or motor competence, to attain or retain physical and social capital in school. Along the way, they add pertinent comments on the intersections of masculinity and ethnicity in constructing and performing a sporting body.