AN EXAMINATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF POIRIER'S TEAM LEARNING IN REDUCING THE NUMBER OF SOCIALLY ISOLATED ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN AND THE INTENSITY OF SOCIAL ISOLATION OF FRINGE ISOLATE CHILDREN IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM

• Main Author: Scadamaglia, Richard Joseph
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1974
• Subjects: Education
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/3072; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4071&context=uop_etds

PROBLEM: Because of the detrimental effects of social isolation on children's achievement, peer relations and self-image, there is a need for an effective classroom organizational program which will reduce the number of isolates and fringe isolates among elemertary school children. PURPOSE: Since Poirier's team learning exposes the isolate to a high incidence of social interaction, it was the objective of this study to investigate the effectiveness of Poirier's team learning in improving the sociometric standing of children identified as social isolates and fringe social isolates in the elementary school. PROCEDURES: Twenty -two randomly selected classes were selected from six San Francisco Bay Area school districts. The teachers of the eleven experimental classes were given inservice training in the principles of Poirier's team learning. For approximately five months, the children in the experimental classes were organized into learning teams of five to six students. Each team worked together on assignments. The children in each team were instructed to help one another whenever possible. Each group received team points for their collective efforts. Rewards were often given. Cooperative competition between teams was encouraged. All children were given Georgia Sachs Adams' sociometric surveys to determine their sociometric standing. The chisquare was used to test the effect of Poirier's team learning on the rejection of social isolates and highly rejected fringe social isolates. The analvsis of variance was used to test the effec t of Poirier's team learning on the intensity of rejection of the fringe social isolate by his peers. FINDINGS: No significant difference was found to exist between the number of isolates in the experimental group and those in the control group . No significant difference was found to exist between the number of isolates and highly rejected isolates combined in the experimental group and those in the control group. A significant difference was found to exist between the mean of the scores of the fringe isolates of the experimental group and that of the control group. However, this difference was the direct antithesis of that anticipated by the researcher and indicated that classes in the study using Poirier's team learning had significantly more isolates in them than did classes not usinq Poirier's team learninq. CONCLUSIONS: The finding reject the hypothesis the Poirier classes would have significantly fewer social isolates in them. On the contrary , although not statistically significant , the team learning classes had more isolates in them than did the control classes . The findings also rejected the hypothesis that Poirier classes would have significantly fewer isolates and highly rejected social fringe isolates combined in them than classes not using Poirier's team learning. Again, although not significant , the classes using Poirier's team learning had more isolates and highly rejected fringe isolates in them than did the control group classes. The findings rejected the hypothesis that Poirier classes wou ld have fringe isolates with significantly higher social acceptance scores than those children in classes not using Poirier's team learning. In fact, the converse was true. Fringe isolates in Poirier classes had si gnificantly lower social acceptance scores than those in the control classes. This was the direct antithesis of the assumptions of this study. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: Four further investigations are recommended: (1) Experiment to ascertain the effect of competition on social isolates. (2) Experimen t to ascertain what changes, if any, occur in social acceptance within a learning team from the time it is organized to its deactivation. (3) Experiment to ascertain what effect pl aci ng less socially accepted children with those who have nominated them on a sociometric survey will have on social status. (4) Experiment to ascertain what effect to social status model-reinforcement group counseling would have.