Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T01:51:04.993Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - The Relations of Classroom Contexts in the Early Elementary Years to Children's Classroom and Social Behavior

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2009

Edited by
Aletha C. Huston  and
Marika N. Ripke
Aletha C. Huston
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Marika N. Ripke
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, Manoa
Get access

Summary

Beginning formal education represents an almost universal developmental milestone that occurs near the time that children enter middle childhood. Although the major agenda of school is teaching academic skills, schools are social environments with expectations for behavior and social structures to which children need to adapt (Weinstein, 1991). School environments are small communities in which the social interactions are neither totally prescribed nor totally unconstrained. The expected behaviors go well beyond literacy and numerical skills to self-regulation (e.g., involvement in classroom activities, restraining disruptive behavior, attending to the agenda of the classroom, working autonomously), harmonious social interactions with adults (e.g., compliance, clear communications, positive social interactions, absence of defiance or conflict), and positive interactions with peers (e.g., cooperative activity, nonaggressive conflict resolution).

In this chapter, we ask how the social and instructional context of the school classroom contributes to children's social and behavioral competencies during middle childhood. We define context at the level of processes within the classroom that include instructional and emotional support for learning, positive and negative climate, and negative disciplinary interactions between teachers and students. We frame the questions at two levels. First, are there immediate associations between classroom contexts and children's social behavior within the classroom? That is, do children demonstrate different patterns of involvement, peer interaction, or disruptive behavior depending on such features of the classroom as teacher involvement, teacher sensitivity, and instructional style?

Type
Chapter
Information
Developmental Contexts in Middle Childhood
Bridges to Adolescence and Adulthood
 , pp. 217 - 236
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. (1991). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist/4–18 and 1991 profile. Burlington, VT: Author.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. H., & Corwyn, R. F. (2002). Socioeconomic status and child development. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 371–399.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brody, G. H., Dorsey, S., Forehand, R., & Armistead, L. (2002). Unique and protective contributions of parenting and classroom processes to the adjustment of African American children living in single-parent families. Child Development, 73, 274–286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Campbell, S. B. (1995). Behavior problems in preschool children: A review of recent research. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 36, 113–149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Entwisle, D. R., & Alexander, K. (1999). Early schooling and social stratification. In Pianta, R. C. and Cox, M. J. (Eds.), The transition to kindergarten. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.Google Scholar
Fisher, C. B., Jackson, J. F., & Villarruel, F. A. (1997). The study of African American and Latin American children and youth. In Lerner, R. M. (Ed.), Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 1145–1208). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Golombok, S., & Fivush, R. (1994). Gender development. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gresham, F. M., & Elliott, S. N. (1990). Social skills rating system manual. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service, Inc.Google Scholar
Heaviside, S., & Farris, E. (1993). Public school kindergarten teachers' views on children's readiness for school. (NCES Publication No. 93–410) [On-line]. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93410.pdf
Ladd, G. W., & Burgess, K. B. (1999). Charting the relationship trajectories of aggressive, withdrawn, and aggressive/withdrawn children during early grade school. Child Development, 70, 910–929.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paro, K., & Pianta, R. C. (2001). Predicting children's competence in the early school years: A meta-analytic review. Review of Educational Research, 70, 443–484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meisels, S. J. (1999). Assessing readiness. In Pianta, R. C. & Cox, M. (Eds.), The transition to kindergarten: Research, policy, training, and practice. Baltimore: Paul Brookes Publishers.Google Scholar
National Center for Education Statistics. (1994). School and staffing survey. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
National Center for Education Statistics. (1999). America's kindergartners. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
National Center for Education Statistics. (2003). The Condition of Education 2003 (NCES 2003–067). Washington, DC: Institute of Education Sciences, US Dept of Education.
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2002). The relation of global first grade classroom environment to structural classroom features and teacher and student behaviors. The Elementary School Journal, 102, 367–387.CrossRef
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2003a). The NICHD Study of Early Child Care: Contexts of development and developmental outcomes over the first seven years of life. In Brooks-Gunn, J. & Berlin, L. J. (Eds.), Early childhood development in the 21st century (pp. 182–201). New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (2003b). Social functioning in first grade: Association with earlier home and child care predictors and with current classroom practices. Child Development, 74, 1639–1662.CrossRef
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2004). Does class size in first grade relate to changes in child academic and social performance or observed classroom processes?Developmental Psychology, 40, 651–654.CrossRef
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (in press). A day in third grade: A large-scale study of classroom quality and teacher and student behavior. The Elementary School Journal.
Rimm-Kaufman, S. E., Pianta, R. C., & Cox, M. J. (2000). Teachers' judgments of success in the transition to kindergarten. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 15, 147–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rimm-Kaufman, S. E., Early, D. M., Cox, M. U., Saluja, G., Pianta, R. C., Bradley, R. H., & Payne, C. (2002). Early behavioral attributes and teachers' sensitivity as predictors of competent behavior in the kindergarten classroom. Applied Developmental Psychology, 23, 451–470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, D., McFadyen-Ketchum, S. A., Dodge, K. A., Pettit, G. S., & Bates, J. E. (1999). Early behavior problems as a predictor of later peer group victimization: Moderators and mediators in the pathways of social risk. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 27, 191–201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weinstein, C. S. (1991). The classroom as a social context for learning. Annual Review of Psychology, 42, 493–525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×