Date of Award

5-1984

Document Type

Field Project

Degree Name

Specialist in Education (Ed.S.)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Richard Wikoff

Second Advisor

Norman H. Hamm

Abstract

The study examined the effects of a child's socioeconomic status and intellectual level on classroom teachers' ratings of positive and negative interventions. Ninety urban kindergarten through sixth grade classroom teachers participated in the study. The teachers varied according to age, sex, race, number of years taught, and years of experience with low socioeconomic children, as well as grade level currently teaching. A vignette was constructed varying the socioeconomic status and intellectual level of an elementary school age boy who was displaying inattention during instructional time. The inattention (token economy) paired with it. The teacher were asked to read one of the eighteen case history/intervention strategies. Following the reading, they filled out the Intervention Rating Profile (IRP-20) to judge the acceptability of that intervention for that type of child. No main effects or interactions were found to be significant. It was concluded the socioeconomic status and intellectual level of the child did not enter into the teachers' judgment of the intervention's acceptability. The teachers showed no significant preference for the positive over the negative token economy intervention or vice versa. Other factors undoubtedly are considered more than these particular characteristics of the child. The intervention used may not be a form teachers prefer to implement. Future studies could investigate different intervention strategies which might interact more significantly with the salient characteristics of the child.

Comments

A Field Project Presented to the Department of Psychology and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Education Specialist.

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