Elizabeth G. Cohen

Producing Equal-Status Interaction in the Heterogeneous Classroom:

Emphasis on tracking and ability grouping as sources of inequality and as goals for reform ignores processes of stratification within heterogeneous classrooms. Research literature on effects of classroom status inequality is reviewed. The article presents a test of two interventions derived from expectation states theory and designed to counteract the process of stratification in classrooms using academically heterogeneous small groups. The design focuses on variation in the frequency with which teachers carried out status treatments in 13 elementary school classrooms, all of which were using the same curriculum and the same system of classroom management. There was good support for the hypotheses that the use of status treatments would be associated with higher rates of participation of low-status students and would have no effect on the participation of high-status students. Analysis at the classroom level revealed that more frequent use of these treatments was associated with more equal-status interaction.

Can Groups Learn

This is a study of assessment of the work of creative problem-solving groups in sixth-grade social studies. We test the proposition that providing students with specific guidelines as to what makes an exemplary group product (evaluation criteria) will improve the character of the discussion as well as the quality of the group product. To assess the group’s potential for successful instruction, we examine the character of the group conversation as well as the quality of the group product. We present a statistical model of the process of instruction that connects the use of evaluation criteria, group discussion, creation of the group product, and average performance on the final written assessment. This is a study of assessment of the work of creative problem-solving groups in sixth-grade social studies classes. We test the proposition that providing students with specific guidelines as to what makes an exemplary group product ~evaluation criteria! will improve the character of the discussion as well as the quality of the group product. To assess the group’s potential for successful instruction, we examine the character of the group conversation as well as the quality of the group product. We present a statistical model of the process of instruction that connects the use of evaluation criteria, group discussion, creation of the group product, and average performance on the final written assessment.

The Center for Interracial Cooperation: A field experiment.

In a field experiment which contrasts two treatments for producing equal-status behavior in interracialgroups of early adolescents and pre-adolescents, it was hypothesized that Expectation Training, based on previous theoretical and laboratory work, would be more powerful than Learning Center, the alternative treatment. Effects of treatment were measured immediately after the intervention and again after three weeks of classroom experience with a cooperative curriculum. It was also hypothesized that the experience of social interaction in these specially structured classrooms would act to maintain the effects of the initial treatment. Results showed equal-status behavior in the students experiencing both treatments on the first measurement. The final measurement indicated some treatment differences, with a pattern of white dominance reappearing in the Female Learning Center. There was a tendency toward black-domination in Male Expectation Training in the long run. Test of the second hypothesis indicated that the classroom phase was associated with no significant changes in black initiation rates over time.

An alternative perspective on sex differences in organizational settings: The process of legitimation.

This article takes a sociological approach to a problem that has usually been considered as a psychological phenomenon. It addresses the problem of male—female interactions in work situations utilizing the organizational concepts of division of labor and legitimacy. Traditional explanations evoking sex-role socialization are reviewed and rejected for purposes of experimentation and intervention. An alternative argument, focusing on the structural arrangements of organizational settings, is presented as an explanation for behavioral effects previously attributed to inherent sex differences. The results of a pilot study are briefly described, and directions for further experimentation and possible intervention strategies are suggested.

Modifying Status Relations in Israeli Youth An Application of Expectation States Theory

The theory of status characteristics and expectation states provided the basis for applying expectation training to Israel society. A baseline study identified Middle Eastern and Western ethnic background as low and high states of a diffuse status characteristic; Jews of Western background were more active and influential than Jews of Middle Eastern background in four-person groups engaged in a collective task. Next, 180 Jewish boys of Middle Eastern and Western ethnic background participated in an experiment to alter ethnic interaction patterns reflecting the status ordering of the larger society. Middle Eastern subjects were trained to exhibit a high degree of competence on either academic or nonacademic tasks, whereupon they instructed Western boys in these tasks. Four-person groups comprised of two members from each ethnic group engaged in two group decision-making criterion tasks. Analysis of the interaction data revealed that both academic and nonacademic training increased the amount of influence wielded by low status subjects in contrast with control groups. Generality of the application to mixed status classrooms is analyzed.

Modifying the Effects of Social Structure

The problem of racial inequality has been the focus of a large number of investigations in recent years. The imbalance evident at the societal level is reflected at all levels from the institutional to the interpersonal. Numerous studies document inequality in desegregated schools where white children tend to receive better grades, are better &dquo;adjusted to school,&dquo; and typically complete more years of formal schooling than do black children. At the small-group level, behavioral measures of interaction and influence reveal patterns of white dominance in problem-solving groups (Katz et al., 1958; Cohen, 1972). It would be possible to document this imbalance in an almost limitless variety of settings. The applied social psychologist is, however, more interested in modifying social behavior and altering the social structures in

Design and Redesign of the Desegregated School

The chances of implementing and maintaining a truly integrated school, whether the goal is harmonious, interracial relations or improved, minority group academic performance are not, at this time, high.1 This is not because such a successful school is, in principle, impossible. Rather we, as educational planners and researchers, are the victims of our own conventional and wishful thinking about the nature of the problems in this setting. We hear simplistic solutions recommended so often that they are accepted as truisms.

The Use of Evaluation Criteria to Improve Academic Discussion in Cooperative Groups

Abstract Teachers remark that during Cooperative Learning (CL), the academic nature of the group discussions and the resulting group products can be disappointing. Often, this may be due to a lack of understanding on the students’ part on the elements that make up an exemplary product. This study examined whether clearly articulated evaluation criteria (ECs) would alter the nature of the groups discussion and subsequently improve students’ learning. The groups using the EC spent more time evaluating their products, discussing the content of their unit and task than students not using the evaluation criteria. The evaluative and task‐focused talk at the group level were modestly, yet significantly correlated with individual scores on an essay test following the unit. These findings suggest that the presence of clear and accessible criteria for evaluation can improve the academic nature of group discussions and individual learning gains. The findings provide a practical way to apply current assessment practices to classrooms using CL strategies.

Peer Status in the Middle School: A Natural Treatment for Unequal Participation

The focus of this study is on the problem of unequal participation of students within small cooperative learning groups in middle-school classrooms. According to previous research using Status Characteristic Theory, this unequal participation stems from differential expectations for competence based on academic and peer status. Previous research had also found that in classrooms where rank on these two status orders was uncorrelated (incongruent classrooms), problems of unequal participation were less severe. This study involved systematic observations of students in working groups in four middle-school science classrooms. The derivation of hypotheses required an extension of Status Characteristic Theory to handle three-to-five-person groups working in a multicharacteristic situation. The results showed good support for hypotheses explaining the effect of incongruence in the social structure on participation of low-status students. Incongruent classrooms had fewer small groups that were highly differentiated on status. Moreover, the degree of status differentiation in the groups was a direct predictor of the participation rates of the low-status students. Thus, the less differentiated groups in incongruent classrooms showed fewer status problems. As a practical matter, the tendency of students to construct peer status orders that are independent of academic status acts as a natural treatment for unequal participation.

Teacher as Supervisor of Complex Technology.

The literature on the hidden curriculum, for example, argues that the latent function of experience in classrooms is to produce a docile and obedient adult worker (Carnoy & Levin, 1985, Chapter 5). This metaphor, however, has been applied too narrowly. The reader pictures the classroom as a factory. Workers toil at routine tasks under the watchful eye of a boss, who uses direct supervision to make sure tasks are carried out in the prescribed fashion. The image of the factory, however, is not the only possible analogy; routine work and direct supervision are not the only forms of work arrangements in organizations. In this article, we use organizational theory to extend the metaphor to situations in which work is by no means routine, and in which authority is delegated to the worker. Instead of the image of student-workers laboring over routine tasks, let us think of studentworkers as scientists and engineers in the research and development department of a high-tech corporation. The student-scientists work in teams, making discoveries and solving problems. The teacher-supervisor holds the teams accountable for