Traditionally, discrimination has been understood as an active process, and a technology of its procedures has been developed and practiced extensively. Generalization, by contrast, has been considered the natural result of failing to practice a discrimination technology adequately, and thus has remained a passive concept almost devoid of a technology. But, generalization is equally deserving of an active conceptualization and technology. This review summarizes the structure of the generalization literature and its implicit embryonic technology, categorizing studies designed to assess or program generalization according to nine general headings: Train and Hope; Sequential Modification; Introduce to Natural Maintaining Contingencies; Train Sufficient Exemplars; Train Loosely; Use Indiscriminable Contingencies; Program Common Stimuli; Mediate Generalization; and Train “To Generalize”.

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An implicit technology of generalization.

This article presents a motivational conceptualization of engagement and disaffection: First, it emphasizes children’s constructive, focused, enthusiastic participation in the activities of classroom learning; second, it distinguishes engagement from disaffection, as well as behavioral features from emotional features. Psychometric properties of scores from teacher and student reports of behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, behavioral disaffection, and emotional disaffection were examined using data from 1,018 third through sixth graders. Structural analyses of the four indicators confirm that a multidimensional structure fits the data better than do bipolar or unidimensional models. Validity of scores is supported by findings that teacher reports are correlated with student reports, with in vivo observations in the classroom, and with markers of self-system and social contextual processes. As such, these measures capture important features of engagement and disaffection in the classroom, and any comprehensive assessment should include markers of each. Additional dimensions are identified, pointing the way to future research.

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A Motivational Perspective on Engagement and Disaffection: Conceptualization and Assessment of Children's Behavioral and Emotional Participation in Academic Activities in the Classroom

Caregivers in day-care centers: Does training matter?

Research in developmental and educational psychology has come to rely less on conventional psychometric tests and more on records of behavior made by human observers in natural and quasi-natural settings. Three coefficients that purport to reflect the quality of data collected in these observational studies are discussed: the interobserver agreement percentage, the reliability coefficient, and the generalizability coefficient. It is concluded that although high interobserver agreement is desirable in observational studies, high agreement alone is not sufficient to insure the quality of the data that are collected. Evidence of the reliability or generalizability of the data should also be reported. Further advantages of generalizability designs are discussed.

Interobserver agreement, reliability, and generalizability of data collected in observational studies.

We considered problems of assessment and taxonomy that have hindered the study of childhood disorders. Many instruments have been developed for assessing children's behavior as seen by parents, teachers, clinicians, trained observers, peers, and children themselves. Multivariate analyses of behavior problems show consistencies in the identification of a few broad-band patterns and more numerous narrow-band syndromes, despite differences in specific items comprising different instruments. Satisfactory reliability has been achieved in many instances, although the variability of children's problem behavior limits agreement among informants who see children under different conditions. Despite their disagreements, however, each informant's perspective may validly contribute to the comprehensive assessment of a child's needs. The quantitative, relativistic, and developmental aspects of children's behavior disorders argue for replacing categorical approaches to assessment and taxonomy with taxometric approaches that capitalize on quantitative methods for identifying and assessing children's behavioral problems and competencies.

Psychopathology of Childhood

This study compared self-regulation and external regulation procedures in the treatment of children's disruptive classroom behavior. After baseline data were collected, three of the four most disruptive children in each of 10 first- and second-grade classrooms received reinforcement for achieving low rates of disruptive behavior. The fourth child served as a control subject throughout the experiment. Two of the three experimental subjects were then taught to self-observe their own disruptive behavior. In the final reinforcement period, these subjects were given control over dispensing reinforcers to themselves, based on their self-collected behavioral data while subjects in the other experimental group continued with the externally managed reinforcement. In extinction, reinforcement was discontinued for all subjects, but one of the self-regulation subjects in each classroom continued overtly to self-observe. Results indicated that both reinforcement programs reduced disruptive behavior. The self-regulation procedures were slightly more effective in reducing disruptiveness than was the external regulation procedure, and this advantage persisted into extinction. These results suggest that self-regulation procedures provide a practical, inexpensive, and powerful alternative in dealing with disruptive behavior in children.

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Self-regulation in the modification of disruptive classroom behavior.

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Methodological Issues in Naturalistic Observation: Some Problems and Solutions for Field Research. Final Report.

THE STUDY COMPARED THE BEHAVIOR OF FAMILY MEMBERS AT HOME AS RECORDED BY AUDIOTAPE RECORDINGS IN TWO CONDITIONS: with an observer present or absent. Behavioral differences were expected as a function of differential reactivity to these observational procedures, but none was found, and there was no evidence of adaptation effects in either condition. In general, significant positive correlations were obtained between the rates of recorded behavior in both situations. The implications of these findings for the development of nonreactive observation procedures were discussed.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED110506.pdf

Reactivity to home observation: a comparison of audio recorded behavior with observers present or absent.

BOLSTAD, ORIN D., and JOHNSON, STEPHEN M. The Relationship between Teachers' Assessment of Students and the Students' Actual Behavior in the Classroom. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 570-578. This study examined the relationship between the descriptions that teachers gave of their students and the behavior that these students exhibited. Teachers were asked to select from their classrooms boy and girl pairs whom they would label as "best, average, and least well-behaved" in classroom conduct. Both retrospective teacher ratings and immediate behavioral observation data were collected for each of these students. The results indicated that teachers' ratings were convergent with assessment of their students' observed behavior. Among the behavioral categories, students' scores for attention to task appeared to be the most strongly associated with teachers' selections.

Orin D. Bolstad

Papers

Self-regulation in the modification of disruptive classroom behavior.

Methodological Issues in Naturalistic Observation: Some Problems and Solutions for Field Research. Final Report.

Reactivity to home observation: a comparison of audio recorded behavior with observers present or absent.

The Relationship between Teachers' Assessment of Students and the Students' Actual Behavior in the Classroom.