The purpose of this evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of the Cool Kids social skills program. Fister, Conrad and Kemp (1998) created this program as a way to teach students basic and specific social skills that would enable them to succeed academically as well as socially.
Entering into a school social environment is a significant and foundational experience for children. Elementary age students must successfully transition from well-established, comfortable social interactions with caregivers to explicit and implicit social rules and interactions in a school environment. Being able to successfully make this transition with teachers and classmates is often key to a successful school experience (Dereli 2009).
Early behavior problems in children put them at risk for escalating academic problems such as grade retention and school dropout. Not only is a student’s behavior significantly related to grades, it has also been found that inadequate social skills can increase vulnerability to depression as well as social anxiety. Further, one of the more crucial findings was the correlation between poor social skills, aggression and violent behavior. Studies show that 10% of early school age children entering the educational system each year display prevalence for aggressive behavior problems; for socio-economically disadvantaged children it may be as high as 25% (January and Casey, 2011).
Studies points to the fact that a valuable and cost effect means of interrupting the progression of behavior problems in children is to intervene with social skills education when they are young and most impressionable (Webster-Stratton & Reid, 2004).While educators would like to focus on just academics, social-emotional growth seems to have...
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Second, few studies followed teaching staff and their fidelity to specific social skills programs. The use of triangulation in observing the classroom would be a strong improvement as a way to not only verify teacher fidelity to the program but to confirm reports of changed classroom behavior. The question is, to what extent is Cool Kids associated with higher teacher ratings of social competence and lower ratings of antisocial behavior for elementary age students? Multiple observers would be the best way to answer this question.
Works Cited
Dereli, E. (2009). Examining the permanence of the effect of a social skills training program for the acquisition of social problem-solving skills. Social Behavior and Personality, 37(10), 1419-1428.
Fister, S., Conrad, D., Kemp, K. (1998). Cool kids; A proactive approach to social responsibility. Longmont: Sopris West.
(1) The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning, or CSEFEL, is a training model designed to provide teachers with curricula and skills to promote social-emotional learning in their preschool classrooms in order to prevent challenging behaviors (CSEFEL, n.d.). I interviewed Dr. Mary Louise Hemmeter, who is the principle investigator at CSEFEL at Vanderbilt University. This center works with child care programs, preschools, and Head Start programs to prepare children for the transition into kindergarten, where self-regulatory and social-emotional skills are necessary (Hemmeter, Ostrosky, & Fox, 2006). This program promotes social-emotional skills for all children in the classroom to prevent challenging behaviors, and
Children who are socially competent in interactions generally have positive interactions with other children in different situations (Marion, 2015).
Moreover, the children who can effectively explore early social situations in school show signs of improvement begin and keep on benefitting from their social information and experience as they advance through primary and middle schools. The studies proposed that teacher-pupil relationships assume a critical part in affecting youthful children's social and enthusiastic advancement (Rudasill & Reio, 2010). In addition, children who had a safe relationship with their preschool and kindergarten teachers showed great associate communications and positive relationships with teachers and companions in primary
Social information-processing (SIP) describes the individual cognitive tasks which are involved in a child’s social interactions, and it is known that these impact on social adjustment (social experiences and evaluations by peers) (Crick & Dodge, 1994). In particular, social information-processing can help us understand more about an important subset of social experiences; antisocial and aggressive behaviour, and potentially aid in interventions to help socially maladjusted children alter their behaviour.
Every Monday and Friday for 30-45 minutes the entire student body participate in a lesson from The Boys Town Education Model Building positive relationships. At its foundation, the BTEM is about building healthy, positive relationships between students and one another, as well as between students and staff. The goal of the BTEM is to create a healthy school environment through effective classroom management techniques, relationship building, and social skills instruction. The Boys Town Education model can also be divided into four topical components: building positive relationships, teaching social skills, reinforcing social skills, and responding to problem behavior. Similar to Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, the BTEM is based on research in applied behavior analysis and social learning theory (Hensley et al.,
When students learn about social behavior and relationships it is easier to understand why the behavior of other people is different from others. Our society has many ways of socializing with people around us, and getting to know the right way is an important factor. Everyone in our society has their own behavioral reaction to things and other people, therefore knowing how to react to any type of behavior, and not bring up a problem is something very important. If students are able to understand all the different ways in which they can socialize with others, then it will allow them to feel more comfortable with
...l behavior by educating youth, and youth are more likely to respond positively when being taught by other youth (Strobel, p.1).
This understanding that a child 's behavior is a part of their social development is crucial
...re exiled by peers for being socially-awkward, thus increasing the number of students who enjoy being at school. In this environment cliques are dismantled, and everyone respects each other. This is what I will strive for in my classroom.
With social and emotional skills, a high-quality learning environment that has high-quality classroom structure and rules, commitment to the academic success of all students and high performance expectations, student learning is optimized. Attitudes towards learning, behaviour in and out of the classroom and academic performance have shown improvement with development from quality social and emotional learning that is supported through parent involvement and integrated throughout the entire curriculum.
The socializing among learners is not at its optimum is most schools. Schools are known as environments for socializing process for learners. It is a place where knowledge, culture, opinions, skills are exchanged and learnt. Teachers can start by involving learners by creating group work and activities so learners can interact with one
The social contexts created within a classroom influence not only academic motivation and achievement, but also the individual development and well-being of students. There are many situations throughout a school day where students must interact with each other, and are shaped by the attitudes and behaviors of others. Research has found that students’ perceptions of positive relationships with their teachers were correlated with their pursuit of pro-social classroom goals such as getting along with others and being socially responsible, and were more strongly linked to student motivation in school (Urdan & Schoenfelder, 2006). Students care about their relationships with their teachers and respond with greater engagement and effort when they believe that their teachers care about them and are supportive. Scaffolding is a great instructional strategy to engage students in the
Children should be socially and emotionally ready to be able to make the social adjustment in the classroom environment. Preschool teachers should focus more on children’s social skills than rather pressured into teaching academics, but that may not be considered best practice. In fact, children who have been rejected by their peers in kindergarten shows poor school performance. Children who lack social and emotional skills are being kicked out of kindergarten. As a result, they are not receiving the information that is being taught. Factors that influence children’s transition to kindergarten are children’s home environment and the preschool program they attend between preschool and kindergarten (Deyll-Gingold, 2007). Here are some kindergarten expectations students should know before they enter
There are many school-wide behavior expectations that will included in my future planning to establish a learning environment and decrease disruptions in the classroom. For this reason, I will teach social behavior to students during my lecture and provide opportunities so they can interact among each other. According to Flannery and Fenning (2014), teachers need to recognize and respond to the need to teach appropriate social behavior at the same time they are teaching the specific lesson (Flannery & Fenning, 2014). I chose these expectations mainly because it helps students meet their needs with a positive behavior and provide opportunities for students to develop social skills. Teachers need to provide opportunities for all students to practice and enhance their social skills (Banks & Obiakor, 2015). Another reason why I chose these expectations is because it enhances student’s positive behavior of culturally and linguistically diverse students. For instance, different resources will be assigned to students where they will be able to practice their skills and change their attitude to become better citizens. For this reason, schools must begin focusing on providing students the skills, attitudes, and knowledge they will need to be successful in the pluralistic and interdependent world in which students will live and work as adults (Diaz-Rico, 2014). Providing meaningful
Teachers see pupils exhibit a high rate of undesirable social skills, manners, and respect for others and themselves. Instructors have seen an escalation