Embedding social skills training programs within cooperative group learning programs
Loading...
Authors
Grimm, Karl
Issue Date
1995
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Social skills in children--study and teaching
Alternative Title
Abstract
It is the intent of this thesis to demonstrate that coached social skills training programs, such as Asher & Oden (1977) and Bierman & Furman (1984), which have been shown to improve both the social skills and peer acceptance of low status children, can be integrated into regular school curriculum through cooperative group learning programs to assist these children. The community project will test this thesis by presenting a combined social skills training and cooperative group learning program to a sixth grade class. The training program is based on the social skills deficit model (Asher & Renshaw, 1981), which states that rejected children acquire this status primarily due to deficiencies in their understanding and use of relevant social norms and skills. Improving a rejected child's skills however, does not necessarily improve the child's peer acceptance. This is due to peer's tendency to reinforce and perpetuate a rejected child's status through negative stereotyping and prejudicial behavior (Price & Dodge, 1989). Coached skills training provides the rejected child with a structured peer experience in which to display new social skills, thereby altering peer's perception of them and changing their prejudicial attitudes and behaviors that reinforce the child's rejected status (Bierman, 1986).