Individual Pupils Research Articles

Providing for the Individual Pupil Through Grouping Procedures

Previous articleNext article No AccessProviding for the Individual Pupil Through Grouping ProceduresOakley Union SchoolOakley Union School Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Elementary School Journal Volume 57, Number 3Dec., 1956 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/459519 Views: 1Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Myrtle M. Imhoff, Wayne Young Chapter III: School Organization, Review of Educational Research 29, no.22 (Jun 2016): 155–164.https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543029002155 Walter J. Moore , and Kenneth D. Norberg Selected References on Elementary-School Instruction. I. Curriculum, Methods of Teaching and Study, and Supervision, The Elementary School Journal 58, no.11 (Oct 2015): 48–54.https://doi.org/10.1086/459594

The Guidance Function of the Classroom Teacher

Not only is the classroom teacher on the guidance firing line but no guidance program can succeed unless the role of the guidance specialist is clearly related to the role of the teacher and vice versa. Good teaching includes guidance, and a good teacher, no matter what he teaches, fulfills a guidance role. The authors, members of the department of education of Ohio State University, College of Education, clarify the relationship that should exist between teachers and guidance specialists. ual in the school system, a teacher. There is no plan in such an organization which will guarantee to each individual pupil an opportunity to be understood as an individual. (2) Information about an individual should be cumulative. If each teacher plans a guidance program of his own, there is no provision for a continuous record of development and growth of the individual through his entire school experience. (3) Assigning the responsibility to each teacher does not permit coordination of the best efforts of all teachers. The individual differ-

Some Criteria for Evaluating Elementary-School Guidance Services

TEHE MODERN TEACHER, according to widely held opinion, must understand and meet the needs of the children in his classroom if we are to have child-centered classrooms and guidance-centered schools. It is the purpose of this article to describe some criteria that a school might use to determine the extent to which it is providing adequate guidance services to implement this generally accepted goal. Guidance services are frequently used to provide more complete information about the needs, abilities, and interests of individual pupils in order to facilitate instruction. With their background of training, guidance workers have more thorough knowledge concerning the tools and techniques for understanding the needs of individuals than most classroom teachers, and the counselor customarily works with individuals to relieve and reduce personal problems blocking learning. As teacher-pupil ratios are reduced and as classroom teachers acquire the special skills that counselors possess, the teacher will be in an advantageous position to expedite the total growth (social, psychological, and e ucational) of each individual in his care.

Individual Pupil Coaching

Individual Pupil Coaching

Toward a Psychological Ecology of the Classroom

Two contributions of psychological and educational research stand out in a broad view of our resources for an understanding of social interaction in the classroom. Both are the products of essentially experimental work. The first is a growing body of knowledge about the laws of social behavior. The second is a battery of instruments for diagnosing the social characteristics of individual pupils. These contributions enable us to give a lot of if, then advice. We can say that if children are rewarded or punished or coerced or deprived or praised or blamed or gratified in the classroom as children were in this or that experimental study, then they are likely to behave as classroom members in certain ways. And we can say that if children do thus and so under the conditions of particular tests, then they are able or disposed to behave sim ilarly when like conditions arise in their school lives. Such conditional statements often turn out well enough to facilitate greatly the tasks of educational guidance. But these accomplishments leave us with a need for another kind of research product. Our knowledge of what pupils are likely to do under certain conditions and our devices for meas uring what they are able or disposed to do leave us at this late date with a need for knowledge of their actual behavior and their actual conditions of life at school. This need can be met only by recording and analysis of field observations. It calls for a psychological ecology of the classroom. We would like to men tion at once some possible benefits of developments along this line which seem pertinent to the theme for the present collection of papers. **

The Tape Recorder

EAST STROUDSBURG PENNSYLVANIA __*I 0* 0~' VAI THE tape recorder is one of the newer audio aids finding its way into the music classroom to help the busy teacher. A description of some of its uses may be of assistance to those wondering how to use this machine in their work. I have found the tape recorder to be of greater value than other types of recorders because of the lower cost, the ease of operation, and the satisfactory tonal results which may be secured by a person with a comparatively limited knowledge of recording techniques. The tape may be used over and over for an unlimited number of times. No cutting needle needs to be replaced, no danger of record breakage incurred. There are no moving parts to wear out or to go out of adjustment. The principal value of the recorder, ] have found, is to motivate the interest of t h e radio-movie-phonograph-conditioned youth of today. The machine creates an atmosphere for learning by presenting an overview of the composition to be studied, by providing an audience situation for every class session, by improving the capacity of the pupils for self-criticism, and by providing a means of comparing their work with that of classes of the same or greater ability. In using the machine to teach beginning classes, I have found the following procedure to be highly successful. The ensemble class, made up of highly selected voices, prepares the composition to be studied by the beginning class. Usually one or two readings of the number are all that are required. The singing is then recorded in its entirety. Immediately afterwards, each individual part is sung, followed by various combinations of the parts. Following this, the accompanist for the ensemble group, who is an advanced student pianist, records the accompaniment of the number. Enough material is recorded at one time to provide music for an entire class session. The recording is then played for the beginning classes, who listen to the playing of the first part several times, with the score in hand. Not only do the pupils thus gain an overview of the song, but the class also associates the correct rendition of the number with the score. Next, the class sings the song in its entirety with the record. The individual parts are sung through, in the same manner. The teacher, free from having to attend to the piano, can go about the class, aiding individual pupils. The four parts are again sung with the aid of the record. After the class has gained sufficient mastery, it sings the number against the accompaniment as played by the machine. This latter device is not necessary, of course, if an accompanist of competence is available in each class. Recordings are made of the class as drill is going on, and criticisms 3f the play-back help focus the pupils' attention on every phase of choral singing. A recording of the finished product is occasionally made and kept for future comparison with work of a later date, to show the pupils their progress. A sense of accomplishment is thus built up, making for better morale and increased interest.

What Biological Facts Interest High School Sophomores?

Forty-four girls and twenty-five boys from two biology classes, nearly all sophomores, submitted answers to the followino question asked near the close of the work for the first half year: What topic, subject, or fact has interested you most up to this time in youlr biology course? Because of the possible bearing on choice of topic it is noted that the high school is located in a New Engyland town of about 11,000 population, on the Connecticut River about two hundred miles from the seacoast. The surrounding area is oine of small farms with some large orchards. Dairying is carried on extensively, as is poultry raising. There are several prosperous industrial planits in the communiity. Over five hundred pupils attenid the high school, one of two servino the immediate vicinity. About a hundlred pupils come from outlying districts. The contributions received, from almost the enitire class, were so varied as to be most difficult to classify. Some replied by onie or two words, others wrote short paragraphs. A few added reasons for the selection or commented briefly. Five were unsioned but were capable of allocation by sex because of handwriting or other means of recogniition. Signing was niot compulsory. A few did not hanid in a choice and a few were absent. The pupils were asked to leave their contributioni in the basket provided for receiving papers; no attempt was made to check upon them to see who did or who -did not do so. It was carefully explained that an honest opinlion was desired, that it was niot an exercise which would be graded for averaging with other marks. Time was allowed for considering the miatter briefly and sample topics were merely mentioned as 'illustrative of what was wanited. The instructor was curious to see what particular points, if any, had made general appeal; to see if there was correlation between class discussiolnal emphasis and impression; to find out whether some common prejudices had been overcome; to linlk topics chosen with individual pupils provided names were signled, and it was expected that nearly all would be; to discover what might be results that could be useful in guiding future treatment of the subject matter. It was expected that a similar procedure would be followed at the close of the year. This was not possible because of the resignation of the inistructor to carry on the trainling of cadet nurses elsewhere. For the first half year in question thirty-one chapters (499 text pages) were covered in readinig assignments, scienitific termi studies, question problems, laboratory exercises and elass discussions. There were some project assignnments, and outside readings in supplementary booklets, other texts, magazines, etc. Illustrative mnaterial was introduced ilnto class periods and free reading' in class on special topics was a practice employed from time to time. The broad un-it subjects were four: The Fundamental Likenesses of All Living Things How Plants Solve the Problems of Life How Invertebrates Solve the Problems of Li.fe

A Testing Program for Mathematics at the Secondary-School Level

An important problem related to instruction in mathematics, as in every other subject field, is that of assessing accurately the aptitude and the achievement of individual pupils and of classes. There is imperative need for a teacher to be informed reliably concerning the ability of his students and concerning their mastery of the content of the subject being taught if he is to adapt his instruction to their varying levels, correct their weaknesses, predict their success in advanced courses, and afford them guidance in accordance with their predispositions, attainments, and functioning interests.

Remedial Programs in Relation to Basic Programs of Reading

basic reading program, indeed the entire school program, may be impaired. Likewise any kind of provision for remedial reading--the establishment of a reading clinic, part-time service by the principal in working with individual pupils, the assumption of responsibility for remediation by the regular classroom teacher-has its effect on the developmental program of reading. For this reason remedial measures need to be chosen with due consideration to the entire curriculum and the ultimate good of all the pupils. This article, through an analysis of the characteristics of eighty-three pupils who were refe red to the reading department either by principals or by the Psychological Clinic' of the Detroit public schools, attempts to throw some light on a few aspects of the problem of emedial procedure in large city school systems. This analyis, which was made in the autumn of 1943, was concerned entirely with pupils in the middle grades. The pupils represented forty-one elementary schools, approximately a fifth of those in the city. Sixty-nine of the subjects were boys, and fourteen were girls. Such a large proportion of boys is not unusual in surveys of remedialreading cases. The aid of three experienced teachers was enlisted in determining the types of pupils who were experiencing failure. One of these teachers spent

The Development And Application Of Age Progress Percentile Norms Of Elementary School Achievement

Origin of study.?Problems of individual learning have assumed somewhat greater prominence within the last decade than they previously had, and in the testing field greater attention is being given to developing better standard reference points for the evaluation of individuals than the traditional grade norms provide. In 1934 an opportunity was presented of studying the records of pupils in a small com munity who had been tested annually by Stanford Achievement Tests for five years. The major objective of the study was to de vise a method by which the progress of pupils as measured by tests might be used in evalu ating the effectiveness of the educational pro gram. The testing program in this commu nity had been inaugurated at the same time that the educational program in the elemen tary school had been radically modified in the direction of informality. Since the em phasis of the new program was upon the indi vidual pupil, it seemed that if an evaluation of the program in terms of measurement should be possible, it would come about through the evaluation of individual pupil growth. Need of individualized progress norms.?To measure individuals' growth adequately, the use of grade norms seemed inadequate. The author's belief was at that time, and still is, that a school grade, in a modern school, is an equivocal reference point to which to refer all questions of standards. If a child is not at age for grade, should his educational status be measured with reference to the school grade in which he is, or the one in which he should be if rightly placed for his age? For twenty years school testing programs have been accumulating evidence that: i. Even when there is considerable retarda tion and acceleration presumably to adjust pupils to their school work, it is found that pupils are not placed in grades in accordance with any rigid criterion that their school work is at that grade level. All school surveys have insistently shown that in any grade some pupils may be found whose accomplishment is two to four grades below the grade level and other pupils whose accomplishment is two to four grades above.

The Art of Teaching: Teacher-Pupil Planning in Junior High School Mathematics

The goal of all school activities, irrespective of the individual pupil or his level of maturity, should be directed toward the perpetuation and fostering of a democracy. The present international situation should place a premium on the democratic way of life, and our schools should rededicate their energies in developing pupils whose characteristics are conducive to a democratic way of life.

Helping the Individual Pupil Adjust to the Problems of War and Peace

portant functions of the school is to preserve a heritage of culture and to pass it along to the individual student through many mediums, particularly those falling within the areas of language, literature, and the arts. Now, if this war lasts very long (and most predictions indicate that it will go on for another two, three, or perhaps five years), the probability is that this function of the school is going to suffer. In the upper years of the secondary school and the junior college those aspects of the curriculum that have to do with the cultural heritage are going to be jeopardized because of the demands that must necessarily be made on these institutions during this critical period. Our expanding war industries will call for more and more mil-

A Co-operative Training Program in a Small School

THE Turtle Lake High School, enrolling 140 pupils, is located in a typical North Dakota small town. Most of the business activity is confined to a single main street. During eleven years of service as an educational administrator in this locality, the writer has seen many boys and girls come and go from the educational institutions of this area, and it cannot be said that the educational methods have resulted in a satisfactory product. Youth of the past few years have seemed helpless, floundering in a maze of potential opportunities, with no tangible occupations in view. So poorly have they been trained that most graduates have confined their activities to helping at home or doing odd jobs. Many have been unaware of abilities upon which they could capitalize. Have not the schools been handicapping these boys and girls by failing to provide them with some type of educational program whereby their interests and abilities could be developed? The purpose of this article is to describe the attempt of one community and school to meet this problem of guidance and training. The need for such a program in this small school was indicated by a survey of the 231 pupils who had graduated from the Turtle Lake High School in the years 1930-40. Some very interesting information came to light. These data demonstrated that little provision was made by the high school to give individual pupils adequate preparation for definite types of work. It is probable that there is a close similarity between the activities of this high school and those of other high schools in the area. The conditions indicated clearly the need of a guidance and counseling program in the small secondary schools. Ninety-seven of the 231 graduates did not continue their education beyond the high school-a high proportion of pupils 761

An Experimental Investigation of the Effectiveness of Certain Diagnostic and Guidance Procedures When Applied in Cases of Low School Achievement

Over a period of several years the authors have been working with high-school pupils and have been concerned, as have countless other teachers, over those pupils whose achievement is inferior to their estimated capacity to achieve. Consideration of these pupils in any school system must lead to an awareness of two specific problems: how to determine the causes of low school achievement, and how to bring about correction of the contribut ing factors. The present report is of an investigation carried on in Wisconsin High School during the 1938-1939 school year in an attempt to discover the difficulties experienced by low achieving high-school pupils and to effect a correction of these difficulties through the application of various guidance services adapted to individual pupil needs. In addition to these primary problems, it was hoped that the investigation might produce inferences as to the desirability of increasing the guidance training provided in the teacher training program. In order to study this problem, a group of pupils whose scholastic achievement was found to be inferior to their capacity to achieve was selected, their problems were diagnosed through the use of various objective measures and individual interviews, and the revealed difficulties were then attacked by the pupils themselves with the assistance of trained case workers.

An Evaluation of Educational Opportunities for the Negro Adolescent in Alabama, II

1. Larger schools with increased facilities in centers where small high schools now are, in order to give their pupils the advantages of varied curricula, specialization in instruction, homogeneous grouping of pupils were desirable; principals with training, experience and more opportunity to supervise the instructional program and to conduct professional courses and experimental projects; reduced per pupil cost in equipment, maintenance and instruction, and the inspiration and holding power of larger numbers. 2. Additional schools. County surveys indicate the need for establishment now or in the near future of a few additional senior high schools, and of a large number of junior high schools. The ultimate determining factor in the establishment of an additional school should be whether or not all the children in the area can and will be provided for without it. 3. The small schools should be able to employ and to hold teachers who have preparation, experience, and ability at least equal to those of teachers in larger centers. Justice, equality of opportunity, and a proper appreciation of our human resources, all demand relief from the present conditions. The evil of excessive turnover of teachers is often aggravated rather than cured when teachers of exceptional merit are employed and given opportunity to develop in small schools. Some of the obvious causes of this condition are: (a) Lack of salary schedules by which tenure, successful experience or meritorious services are recognized; (b) Lack of opportunity for advancement of position in the school or system; (c) Lack of opportunity for professional growth; (d) Absence of assurance of tenure on the basis of merit; (e) Impossibility of doing the most successful teaching; (f) Unsatisfactory living conditions; and sometimes (g) Injustice and inhumanity in treatment accorded. While the foregoing are very real handicaps, present in varying degrees, it is by no means intended to leave what would be a false impression. Some good teachers are remaining in these schools rendering invaluable service. The injustice, however, is the more manifest and the hurt to the schools no less real by reason of this fact. 4. Further development of the service of the schools to the individual pupils and to the communities through:

Developing Individual Pupil Interests in Biology

Developing Individual Pupil Interests in Biology

Can We Adapt Arithmetic Instruction to the Needs of All the Children?

A committee was assembled to determine the procedures that should guide them in preparing a State arithmetic syllabus for use in elementary schools. Early in their deliberations, some one asked whether it were possible for a State committee to prepare a syllabus that would actually help teachers to adapt arithmetic instruction to the needs of individual pupils. This question stimulated a healthy and not altogether comfortable discussion. It was apparent that all assembled were thinking primarily in terms of their grade placement of subject matter. For most, the only conception of adaptation to the individual differences among ch1ldren was acceptance of the inevitable conclusion that some would learn more and some less from any exposure to which the entire group might be subjected.

Schedule-Making Made Easy

THE plan of schedule-making described in this article is premised on a preliminary registration using new-type tabs and registration forms similar to those illustrated in Figure i. Through the use of this technique the steps necessary to schedule-making not only are fewer in number than those commonly followed but also are greatly simplified. Moreover, a thoroughly satisfactory method of schedule-making in which the conflict sheet has been eliminated becomes a reality. The registration card is unique in containing the entire list of subjects which may be selected by a group of pupils in a given year. These subjects are printed on the card with an angular space opposite each to serve as a guide for attaching a tab to identify each subject that the pupil is to carry. The tabs used for indicating the choice of subjects are of gummed cloth so shaped as to identify unmistakably the subject chosen. These are to be affixed to the card by the pupils when registering. The tabs have a hole punched in them, the use of which will be indicated later. Once the tabs have been affixed to the card, they become a permanent part thereof. As may be seen from the illustration, the tabs visibly identify the subject choices of each pupil and of the group as a whole. Moreover, as the tabs and the holes punched in them line up when the cards have been stacked, the schedulemaker is enabled to work with subjects rather than with the separate elections of individual pupils. The group of cards illustrated in Figure I represents the choices

Eleven Experiments of the Boulder Junior High Schools

A GREAT deal of experimenting has taken place in the junior high schools of this city during the past year. A brief summary is here presented. Readers should bear in mind that the changes discussed are frankly experimental. Some may be abandoned and previous practices restored. Some may be succeeded by new experiment. An experiment at North Side in reporting pupil progress to parents in the form of individual pupil comment by each teacher was begun a year ago. This plan replaced the S-U system which had in turn replaced the percentage grading scheme. The innovation met with such whole-

Teacher-Pupil Conferences: Purpose and Initiation

A cardinal point in the philosophy of progressive education is recognition of individual differences. Teachers attempting to make adequate provisions for these differences find it necessary to resort to much individual teaching. Meeting the individual differences and needs of pupils means, literally speaking, meeting the individual pupil. A philosophy which directs attention to pupil needs requires an understanding of the problems involved in building desirable relationships between teacher and pupil. The large and inclusive area of teacher-pupil relationships cannot be effectively analyzed and studied without first breaking it down into smaller areas. It is the purpose of this investigation to study one of these smaller areas, that of teacher-pupil conferences. To know the initiators of these conferences, the times at which conferences occur, the purposes for which they are held, and pupil reaction to conferences would provide information helpful in giving an insight into this field. In order to obtain the desired information, the writer conducted a survey by means of a questionnaire. Not all the points on which data were collected are discussed in this article, those items being selected which seemed most interesting and important. Because this study did not include enough cases to provide statistically reliable results, the figures given are not offered as proof of any existing condition. The purpose is rather to call attention to some of the problems involved in teacher-pupil relationships. Permission was secured to present the questionnaire to some of the classes in seven senior high schools and one junior high school, all in Connecticut. The George Junior Republic at Litchfield, Connecticut, was also included in this survey. The survey was conducted in the various schools during April and May, 1937. Periods of test-