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Samuel T. Helms
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.
EDUCATION & WELFARE
OFFICE OF EDUCATION
THIS DOCUMENT HAS SEEN REPRO
DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM
THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIG-
INATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPIN
IONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY
REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU-
CATION POSITION OR POLICY
DAVII5 L. DEVRIES
KEITH J. EDWARDS
SEPTEMBER, 1972
Baltimore, Maryland
er 2
INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT
ii
3
ABSTRACT
iii
4
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
iv
INTRODUCTION
students and between teachers and students (Wagoner, Glatt & Gaines,.
1970; Georgeoff, Jones, Bahlke & Howard, 1970; Winnecoff & Kelly,
student teams and instructional games. The study examined how this
preference has been substantiated for students from the sixth grade
(1968), the racial barriers are stronger for the more intimate rela-
situation but who were rewarded individually. Katz and Benjamin (1960)
the group. The students worked in teams for a semester. The teams
The teems created a common goal among the students on a team by making
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assigned equal-status roles, and the teacher reinforced racial inter-
action.
work teams used. Katz created ad hoc groups that worked together for
only a short time. Witte used more intact, natural groups andgave
(1954) and the studies by Katz (1970) suggest that interracial contact
f..
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METHOD
Subjects
junior high school; 437. of the students were blacks, and 477. were
1222112
vs. quizzes), and (b) Reward (team vs. individual). The experiment
Two male and two female teachers participated in the study, all
four teachers was black, the remaining three were white. The
treatment was taught by both a female and male teacher. Because the
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: 9
Independent Variables
by Allen (1969). The game taps both arithmetic and general logic
math ability. At the end of each game, each individual player was
assigned a score, and at the end of the period, his game scores were
days. For each quiz the students were assigned a percentage score
one-half period each Tuesday and for the entire period on Friday.
The math quizzes were administered to the two nongame classes for
part of the period on each Tuesday, and Friday. The remainder of the
week involved traditional instruction (two and a half days for game
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F.
10
and three days for nongame classes) and practice sessions (total of
in both the game and quiz classes. On the day after the game or quiz
newsletter listed the preceding day's scores for the individual students
1
as well as for the entire te ra. A cumulative score for each student
and each team was also listed. The teams were ranked by both the
preceding day's team scores and the cumulative scores (or season
those of the preceding day were listed. The individual reward atudents
were told their math grade would depend in part on their own performance
1
The team score was obtained by summing the scores of all members
present for the game or test. Teams with absent members were thus
penalized, with no provision for make-ups.
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Dependent-Variables
asked to give the names of fellow classmates (1) "whom you helped";
(2) "who helped you"; and (3) "who are your friends." Eight blank
experiment.
RESULTS
Inter-Student Agreement
a majority (61%) were mutual. The overlap for the you helped-helped
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12
2
significant (X = 28.09; df = 1; pd(.001). The nature of the student
interaction in the Equations game may have made it difficult for the
Tables 1 and 2
Cross-Race Interaction
class (the first row of numbers) shows the amount of interracial inter-
selection for "you helped," 20% for "helped you," and 31% for friends.
1
The analysis begins by calculating the natural logarithms of the
observed cell frequencies of Table 1. In the analysis, the quali-
tative dependent variable (helping or friendship choices) is treated
as an additional factor in the ANOVA model with the number of levels
of the factor equal to the number of categories in the dependent
variable. In the present study the number was two: Cross-and within-
race or sex. The resulting design, a 2 x 2 x 2, has one observation
per cell - the log of the observed frequency. The development of the
statistical model (Goodman, 1970) and the method for significance
testing (Goodman, 1969) are reported elsewhere.
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13
Table 1
Table 2
*p < .10
**p < .05
***p < .01
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reward and the task-by-reward interaction on the cross-race helping and
effect (Z = 1.684, 1)4:7.05) for the "helped you" variable, but not for
effect for the two helping behavior measures (7.: = 1.698; p.05:
Cross-Sex Interaction
Tables 3 and 4
"you helped," 10% for "helped you," and 21% for "friends." In this
tative data was also used in the analysis of the cross-sex data. The
the friendship dimension. The games caused a slight retreat back into
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15
one's own sex group for selection of friends. The reward factor had a
significant and positive effect on all three sociometric choice dimen-
Figure 1
Summary of Results
Table 5
pronounced effect than did teams. What effect the game did have varied
for the race and sex dimensions; creating slightly less
cross-sex
selection of friends, and greater cross-race selection of students
16
Table 3
Table 4
*p < .10
**p < .05
***p < .01
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1'7
NO GAMES GAMES
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18
Table 5
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19
DISCUSSION
The results clearly indicate that using student teams in the class-
room helps reduce race and sex barriers to student interaction. 1 The
results support those obtained by Mann (1959) and Witte (1972) in their
teams.
particular, if he does not help the low ability students, they will
detract from the performance of the team relative to the other teams
1
It should be noted that tracking of students in a school, i.e. assign-
ing students to different courses or classes by ability, may preclude
the possibility of cross-race or at least cross-social class integra-
tion. The junior high school in the present study as a matter of
policy grouped heterogeneously. In homogeneously grouped classes
the overall effects of student teams may be reduced considerably.
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: 20
their teammates. Other studies of student teams (DeVries, Muse &
to friendships.
game are not likely to go out of their way to assist their fellow
when teams are added to the game structure (as advocated by its
been analyzed separately for the white subjects and black subjects.
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21
This is because biracial work groups have been viewed (Katz, 1970)
quently select even more friends and helpmates from the same race.
As the low status group seeking entry into the high status group,
for the blacks and whites across the four treatment groups
suggests
that the status hypothesis is not supported (Control: blacks
= 28%,
whites = 35%; Games only: blacks = 62%, whites = 15%; Teams-only:
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at the top five, as compared to the bottom five tables for the games-
played at the bottom five tables as did at the top five. Since the
low status group trying desperately to gain entry into a high status
group (as predicted by Katz, 1970), but rather of two equal status
1972; DeVries & Edwards, in press) suggest that teams create high
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23
racial attitudes could be collected in the present study. The increased
racial interaction noted for the teams conditions existed not only for
ment effect, with students seeking even more cross-race and cross-sex
nature of the interaction between the sexes and across the races.
What was the affective tone of the interaction? Was there a develop-
Answers to these and other questions require :sore research using more
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24
REFERENCES
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25
Katz, I. & Benjamin, L. Effects of white authoritarianism in biracial
Oork groups. Journal of Abnormal and Social. Psychology, 61,
-.-
1960, 448-456.
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