ERIC Number: ED134573
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1976
Reference Count: 0
The Beliefs and Behaviors of Pupils in an Experimental School: School Settings.
Lancy, David F.
This paper focuses on various settings in an intermediate school--the library, the gym, art class, and the homeroom--described from the point of view of a participant observer. It reports the results of a year-long study conducted at Longbranch, an experimental school associated with the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh, with the aim of relating pupils' activities to the varying school settings in which they take place. Pupils were interviewed to elicit their shared cognitive map of the activities domain. Five major categories emerged: working, helping, making, playing, and fooling around. The first section of the paper offers a description, based on the year-long participant observation, of the various settings in the school. The second section presents data that give an indication of the actual frequency of the major pupil-named activities and the relative frequencies of these activities in different settings. In the third section, the pupils' cognitive map of their activities is contrasted with the teachers' view of the same activities. There is some difference in the views of the pupils and the teachers. Conclusions drawn are that: (1) pupils play a role in the management of their school life; (2) they do not always behave in conformity with the expectations of the teachers or the planned agenda of the various settings; and (3) their view of and justifications for their own behavior have not been taught to them by their teachers. Appendixes include a weekly schedule of classes for a fourth-grade section, a pupil behavior observation schedule, and an excerpt of an interview with a fourth-grade teacher. (MM)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Sponsor: National Inst. of Education (DHEW), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: Pittsburgh Univ., PA. Learning Research and Development Center.