Marilyn Watson

Schools as Communities, Poverty Levels of Student Populations, and Students’ Attitudes, Motives, and Performance: A Multilevel Analysis

Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine relationships between students’ sense of school community, poverty level, and student attitudes, motives, beliefs, and behavior among a diverse sample of 24 elementary schools. Major findings were that: (a) within schools, individual students’ sense of school community was significantly associated with almost all of the student outcome measures, (b) Between schools, school-level community and poverty were both significantly related to many of the student outcomes (the former positively, the latter negatively), (c) Most of the relationships between school community and student measures held for schools at different poverty levels, (d) Several significant interactions between school community and poverty level indicated that some of the strongest positive effects of school community occurred among schools with the most disadvantaged student populations.

Prevention effects of the Child Development Project: Early findings from an ongoing multisite demonstration trial.

The Child Development Project is a comprehensive school program to reduce risk and bolster protective factors among children. It includes classroom, school, and family involvement elements that, collectively, help schools become caring communities of learners-environments that are characterized by supportive social relationships, a sense of common purpose, and a commitment to prosocial values; that are responsive to childrens developmental and sociocultural needs; and thatfoster their resilience when confronted with stressful events and circumstances. The program was implemented in elementary schools from six school districts around the United States. Similar schools from these same districts served as a comparison group. Analyses of data on problem behaviors over a 3-year period indicated that the program was associated with significant reductions in student drug use and delinquency. Effects were strongestfor students in the subset of schools that had made the greatest degree of progress in program implementation.

Creating classrooms that students experience as communities.

Although prior research has shown sense of community in schools to be related to many positive student characteristics, effective interventions that can create or enhance this sense have not been demonstrated. In this paper we describe a comprehensive elementary school program, implemented by teachers, that was successful in creating a sense of community in the classrooms, as perceived by students. The program was implemented in three elementary schools in a suburban school district; three additional schools in the same district served as a comparison group. The program, which emphasized cooperative learning, the importance of democratic and prosocial values, student autonomy and self-direction, and a child-centered approach to teaching and classroom management, was experienced by a cohort of students from kindergarten through Grade 4, and by a subset of that cohort through Grade 6. Sense of community was assessed—by questionnaire—in Grades 4, 5, and 6; various student outcomes were assessed via questionnaire and interview. Results indicated that the program was successful in heightening students’ sense of community, and that the sense of community—by itself and in combination with program status—related positively to a number of student outcomes. There was also suggestive evidence that students who experienced their classroom as a community attempted to abide by its norms and values, and that the authority structure of the classroom was an important determinant of students’ experience of community and of some of its observed effects.

Enhancing Children’s Prosocial Behavior in the Classroom

A program designed to enhance children’s prosocial development was conducted in three suburban elementary schools for 5 consecutive years, focusing primarily on a single cohort of children as it moved from kindergarten through fourth grade. Repeated observations were conducted each year to assess program implementation and student interpersonal behavior in classrooms in the three “program” schools and in three “comparison” schools. Analyses of these observational data revealed significantly higher scores in the program than the comparison classrooms on each of five indices of program-relevant activities and practices: Cooperative Activities, Developmental Discipline, Activities Promoting Social Understanding, Highlighting Prosocial Values, and Helping Activities. Further analyses indicated that students in program classrooms scored significantly higher on two indices of interpersonal behavior: Supportive and Friendly Behavior and Spontaneous Prosocial Behavior. Corroborative data from a second, 2-year cohort in the same schools is also presented. Implications of these findings for educational practices that emphasize supportive teacher-student relationships and the provision of opportunities for student decision-making, autonomy, and collaborative interaction are discussed.

Enhancing students’s social and ethical development in schools: An intervention program and its effects

Abstract This chapter describes effects on students social and ethical attitudes and behaviors of a comprehensive elementary school program that was implemented in 12 elementary schools in six school districts in the United States over a four-year period, with an additional 12 schools serving as a comparison group. The program as a whole is designed to promote a sense of the school as a community. Data, collected in a baseline year and each of three program years, included classroom observations and student and teacher questionnaires. Data analyses showed variability both within and between schools in teacher changes from baseline to classroom program implementation. Positive effects on students’s sense of community and on several social/ethical variables were found for the five program schools that showed adequate changes in implementation. Structural equations modeling analyses of classroom-level data showed clear support for a model in which program effects on social-ethical outcomes for students were mediated through intervening linkages with program implementation and with the sense of community.

A Program to Promote Interpersonal Consideration and Cooperation in Children

This chapter describes a project whose purpose is to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a comprehensive school- and home-based program to enhance prosocial tendencies in young children. This project (called the Child Development Project) was initiated in response to what we see as some critical problems in contemporary society: inadequate levels of social responsibility and concern for others’ welfare, accompanied by excessive self-centeredness and social alienation.1 These phenomena may be reflected in such recent trends as increasing vandalism, violence, delinquency, and school discipline problems. Although there are undoubtedly multiple determinants of these trends, the project is guided by the assumption that they can be effectively ameliorated through strengthening children’s tendencies to behave in more socially positive ways. The aim is to encourage children to be concerned about and responsive to the needs of others, without at the same time inappropriately sacrificing their own legitimate needs and interests.

The Child Development Project: Building Character by Building Community.

When a teacher focuses on creating a caring community in the classroom he or she is not just providing the optimal context for character development. The processes involved in creating a caring community require far more than that the teacher be fair and caring, it requires teaching children the skills and attitudes they need to be fair and caring, and seeing to it that everyone in the community lives by these values. This article outlines the many skills and understandings that preservice teachers need in order to create caring classroom communities and the supportive conditions they need, both as student teachers and as teachers, if they are to succeed in making a positive contribution to the character development of their students.

The Role of the School in Prosocial Development

With the exception of the family, no other social institution has as pervasive an influence on children’s social and moral development as the school. From the time a child enters kindergarten at age 5 until graduation from secondary school 13 years later, he or she will spend 15 to 30 hours per week, approximately 40 weeks each year, in school. Much of this time occurs during the so-called formative years, when the child is developing basic understandings of self and society and is expected to learn and conform to societal norms and to adopt basic cultural values. The learning that occurs during schooling thus encompasses considerably more than the acquisition of basic academic knowledge and intellectual skills (see Bar-Tal, 1978; Minuchin & Shapiro, 1983). Schools in all societies also have a formal responsibility for the socialization of children, and the role of the school in social and moral development has been central to educational thinking since at least the time of Socrates (Johnson, 1987).