J. William Moore

Continuous Progress Concept of Instruction with University Students

Performance and attitudes of Ss who had completed either a traditionally organized university course or an experimental course which held mastery as a requirement for progressing through the course were compared. There were three replications of the experiment, one each in courses in biology, philosophy, and psychology. In all three comparisons the performance of Ss in the E group was higher and their attitudes toward the instructional procedures were more favorable than the performance and attitudes of controls.

Racial Prejudice, Interracial Contact, and Personality Variables.

This study examined the relationship of the racial prejudice of school-age children to the actual race of the child, interracial contact, grade, sex, intelligence, locus of control, anxiety, and self-concept. A scale was devised to measure five facets of racial prejudice: a total index of racial prejudice, dating and marriage, school, social relationships, and racial interactions in restaurants. The subjects were 93 black children and 307 white children in grades 6 through 10. The results indicated that white students appear to be more prejudiced than blacks in situations requiring prolonged interracial contact; however, no differences were noted in circumstances involving minimal intimate social relationships for short periods of time. No differences in prejudice were found among grade levels; however, females were generally less prejudiced than males. Black males of low prejudice were more intelligent, more external, and less anxious than black males of higher prejudice. It is suggested that integration...

Role of Knowledge of Results in Programed Instruction

A two-way analysis of variance design was used to compare the effects of knowledge of results, knowledge of results plus knowledge of what the correct response should be, knowledge of results plus an extrinsic reward, no knowledge of results, and the effects of using a teaching machine as a programed text for two modes of responding (multiple choice vs constructed response) in a programed instructional format on the achievement and attitudes of introductory psychology students. Results indicated that the type of reinforcement, mode of presentation, and mode of responding did not significantly affect achievement. Lower error rates on the programed lessons were noted for those groups which had knowledge of what the correct response should be and also for those who received an extrinsic reward. Responses of Ss concerning their attitudes toward the reported advantages of using programed materials were generally in a positive direction; however, most groups favored the traditional method of teaching, using programed materials as a supplement.

EFFECTS OF SEVERAL SCHEDULES OF KNOWLEDGE OF RESULTS ON MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT

Four forms of a program in mathematics, each varying in the amount of confirmation provided, were utilized in an investigation of scheduling knowledge of results for learners. The schedules were unrelated to achievement.

Conditioning Children's Attitudes toward Alcohol, Smoking and Drugs.

The researchers investigated the effects of classical conditioning procedures on the attitudes and choice of social behavior of elementary and secondary students associated with drinking, smoking, and the use of drugs. The experimental treatment involved the pairing of words having negative connotations with the concepts smoking, drinking, and the use of drugs. The results indicated that the experimental group expressed more negative attitudes toward smoking and drinking and chose the use of drugs in social settings less frequently than did the control group.

The Interactive Effects of Consonant and Dissonant Teacher Expectancy and Feedback Communication on Student Performance in a Natural School Setting

High, neutral, and low statements of success expectancy were paired with positive and negative success feedback statements in a 2 x 3 factorial design involving 43 low-achieving high school students. The communication was applied to reading comprehension lessons in 10 daily class sessions with two dependent variables, comprehension (test scores) and effort expended as measured by the rate of lessons completed on 33 reading exercises. Incongruent communication combinations (e.g., high success expectancy-negative feedback) produced higher comprehension than congruent combinations (e.g., high success-positive feedback). There were no reliable differences in effort expended. The results are amenable to both an arousal theory and an attribution theory interpretation with some evidence that the attribution interpretation explains the findings more adequately.

Attitudes, Social Choices and Substance Use

This research investigated the effects of four conditions on attitudes and social choices regarding substance use, i.e., involvement with smoking, drinking, and drugs. Three conditions, the treatment dimension, consisted of the presentation of negative evaluations, legal consequences, and physical consequences of substance use, and the remaining condition, a stratification variable, comprised the social reasoning ability of the subjects. The data, produced by 160 students in the 4th and 11th grades, were analyzed in a repeated-measures design which included the treatments, stratification, and the repeated variable, retention. The results indicated, generally, that young childrens attitudes and social choices were more negative than those of adolescents and also showed greater resistance to change. Surprisingly, legal threats to drinking produced greater positive attitudes toward drinking among adolescents and were more effective than physical punishment in this respect for all students. Of importance was the outcome that over time, all students made more favorable social choices for substance use with the exception that young childrens social choices for drinking remained negative. Because of the significant interactions which occurred, many of the results can be explained in terms of differences in both social reasoning ability and developmental levels. Implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.

The Effect on Children’s Performance of a Discrepancy between Adult Expectancy and Feedback Statements

Ninety-six high-achieving fourth-graders performed a memory task before which either positive or negative expectancy statements were made by an adult and after which either positive or negative feedback statements were given. The resulting dissonant or consonant expectancy-feedback combinations were delivered over a four-day period. Results indicated that for high IQ children, performance was higher for those given discrepant rather than consonant combinations of expectancy-feedback statements. However, for low IQ children, performance was higher when given negative rather than positive feedback regardless of expectancy. The results are discussed in light of an uncertainty theory of motivation and arousal.

Increasing Instructional Effectiveness through the Use of a Problem-Solving Approach to the Design of Instructional Systems.

Experimental procedures were designed to provide teachers with training enabling them to generate effective, efficient instructional systems which, in turn, would allow them additional time to generate hypotheses to provide for a greater number of individual differences. It was hypothesized that if they were able to meet the needs of a greater number of students, there would be a decrease in the number of students exhibiting inattention. The results of the study indicate there was a significant decrease in both the number of students exhibiting inattention (p < .01) and in the mean amount of inattention (p <.05) displayed by students of experimental teachers.

Stability of Teaching Behavior, Responsiveness to Training and Teaching Effectiveness.

AbstractThis investigation was completed to obtain information concerning the relationship of the stability of teacher behavior (measured in terms of active learner inattention) to teacher effectiveness and teacher responsiveness to inservice training. A second purpose was to determine if differences in stability of teaching behavior were, in part, a function of sex of teacher, years of experience, or grade level taught. Sixty-seven teachers participated in the study, with 30 of these teachers receiving inservice training for a 6-week period. The results indicated that teachers with stable and unstable teaching behavior were equally responsive to training. Stability of teacher behavior was related to the amount of learner inattention in the classroom; teachers with the more stable behavior had less active learner inattention.