Naturally occurring levels of teacher commands, child compliance to those commands, and positive and negative teacher feedback were studied in 19 teachers and 130 children in kindergarten through third grade. Seventy-five of the children had been identified as "making a good social adjustment" to school (high-rated) and 55 children were identified as "not making a good social adjustment" to school (low-rated). Results of intensive observation over a 4-wk period showed that: (a) individual teachers differed significantly in their overall use of commands; however, they did not differentially respond to high-versus low-rated children; (b) high-rated children were more likely to comply with commands than were low-rated children; (c) although the overall level of positive social consequences was extremely low, there was some indication that highrated children were more likely to receive positive feedback for compliance than were low-rated children; (d) low-rated children received significantly more positive feedback than high-rated children for noncompliance; (e) teachers gave negative feedback for noncompliance at an equal level to both groups of children; and (f) although repeated teacher commands following noncompliance were equal across groups, low-rated children were exposed to significantly higher levels of repeated commands following compliance than were high-rated youngsters.DESCRIPTORS: teacher behavior, classroom, assessment, childrenProbably the most readily available and on occasion a powerful influence on children's classroom behavior is social reinforcement from the teacher. Over the last decade literally hundreds of classroom-based studies have shown that teachers' delivery of social reinforcement can result in improved academic performance

No abstract

As a first step in the identification of functional skills required for successful adjustment in elementary school, 130 kindergarten through fifth-grade students participated in a naturalistic descriptive investigation. Of the children studied, 55 were identified by teachers as "not making a good social adjustment to school" (low rated) and 75 were identified as "making a good social adjustment to school" (high rated). These two groups were compared on 15 dependent variables selected to provide a broad-based assessment of school adjustment. Measures were drawn from direct observations in academic and nonacademic settings, self-reports, and assessments of academic achievement. In addition to correlational analyses replicating earlier findings, the results indicate that the two groups differed significantly on the overall assessment of school adjustment variables, and that this overall effect was due to specific differences on six measures.

Twenty kindergarten children who were nominated by teachers as not being socially and academically competent (low-rated) and 36 kindergarten children who were nominated by teachers as competent (high-rated) participated in this study. Selfconcept and academic achievement data were gathered on each subject. In addition, all children were observed in class, with particular attention to compliance/noncompliance with adult requests, on-task/off-task behavior, and positive/negative social behaviors with peers. The results indicate that: (a) The factor structure of the self-concept instrument (Primary Self-concept Inventory) was replicated in both groups of children. (b) There were no significant differences in self-concept scores among high-vs. low-rated children. (c) There were profound differences in academic and social behaviors that were found to covary with positive self-evaluations within the two study groups. In general, high-rated children who felt best about themselves were higher achievers and more compliant than were their study group cohorts. Lowrated children who felt best about themselves were, on the contrary, more off-task, more negative in their peer contacts, and inferior academically to their study group cohorts.Failure in the early school grades, be it related to the acquisition of math facts or the development of close peer relations, is a problem of enormous magnitude. After an exhaustive review of problem behavior referral and incidence data, Strain, Cooke, and Apolloni (1976) concluded that approximately 15% of all elementary school children exhibit delayed or deviant social behaviors that require careful, systematic intervention. Moreover, Becker and Carnine (1980) maintain that approximately 10% of all elemen-