PERSON PERCEPTION IN THE CLASSROOM: STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR READING-GROUPS AND PEERS WITHIN THESE GROUPS
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of children's age, sex, reading ability group, and sex of the perceived peer upon perceptions of reading group peers; knowledge concerning policies related to group formation and change; and evaluations of reading group. This study is theoretically based on models of person perception (for example, Livesley & Bromley, 1973; Peevers & Secord, 1973) and social cognition (Fiske, 1980). The following research questions were explored: (1) Does age, sex, reading ability group, and sex of the perceived peer affect number of units produced and category usage? (2) Does age, sex, and reading ability group affect: (a) knowledge concerning policies related to group formation and change? (b) degree of liking for group and degree of satisfaction with group placement? and (c) number of positive, negative and neutral statements. The sample population consisted of 54 children randomly selected from grades 1, 3 and 5 in an elementary school in Western Connecticut. The final population was evenly divided by grade, sex and reading ability group. Three instruments were developed by the investigator for this study: (1) Peer Perception Interview, to measure perceptions of peers within reading groups. (2) Knowledge Interview, to measure knowledge of policies governing reading group formation and change. (3) Evaluation Interview, to measure evaluations of reading group. Analyses of variance were computed to test for group differences in mean number of units produced. Chi-square tests were computed to test for group differences in category usage. Significance was set at .05 by the investigator. For number of units produced, significant differences were found between age groups; no significant differences were found between sex, reading ability groups, and sex of perceived peer. For category usage, significant differences were found between sex, age, reading ability group, and sex of perceived peer; significance differences were also found in category usage for both Knowledge and Evaluation Interviews. The major conclusion was that age, sex, reading ability group, and sex of perceived peer influenced perceptions of reading group peers, knowledge of grouping policies, and evaluations of reading group.
Subject Area
Elementary education
Recommended Citation
CURTIS, CAROLYN G, "PERSON PERCEPTION IN THE CLASSROOM: STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR READING-GROUPS AND PEERS WITHIN THESE GROUPS" (1984). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8423121.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8423121
