Studies in the Social Psychology of Adolescence

J.F. Forrester et al, Dr J Richardson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136251191
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This is Volume X of twelve in a collection of the Sociology of Youth and Adolescence. Originally published in 1951, this is a book of studies in social psychology The study of children in their social relationships, the effect of membership of groups, the school as a social therapeutic institution. These are relatively novel phrases and like all such fresh phrases they point to a new emphasis in the observation of human beings and in the formulation of basic hypotheses as to their nature.

PART ONE

CLASSIFICATION BY FRIENDSHIP: SOCIOMETRIC TECHNIQUES APPLIED TO THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH

CHAPTER TWO

PLANNING AN EXPERIMENT IN A LONDON SCHOOL

THIS experiment arose in the first place from a belief that group methods might be applied more specifically to the teaching of English Composition than they appear to have been in the past. Ever since the time of Caldwell Cook activity methods have been widely used in connection with dramatic work and oral expression, and in project work the writing of reports is frequently treated as a group responsibility; yet there seems to have been little scientific investigation into the possibility of training children to co-operate in the writing of stories, plays or poems, although a wealth of folk literature exists to prove that such activity is healthy and natural/Instead, this kind of co-operation is viewed in some quarters with distrust, and the experiment now to be reported may well be open to criticism on the grounds that group activity, while benefiting the dull or mediocre child, may have a thwarting effect on a child of outstanding artistic talent. It should be understood, however, that the children who participated were given frequent opportunities to write individually as well as co-operatively. It is not suggested that group writing should take the place of individual writing: on the contrary it was hoped, when the method was first put on trial, that the children would acquire new ideas and greater ease of expression as a result of close intercourse, and so would write more competently and with more enjoyment when thrown back on their own resources.

At its outset, then, the aim of the investigation was to produce better writers. But it was in the nature of such an experiment that this single aim should become merged with others and that the field should prove to be wider than it had originally seemed. It soon became apparent that the group method was not simply a matter of setting five or six children to pool ideas for a story. Mechanisms were being put into action which might affect significantly the social relationships of the children as well as the quality of their work. The method, in fact, brought with it new responsibilities which could not be ignored or considered lightly: ill-considered allocation of children to groups might precipitate new psychological difficulties; wise grouping might help to solve existing ones. Thus the search for a more effective teaching method became also a search for a better psychological environment, and the study of the children's intellectual growth proceeded side by side with the study of their social development.¹

The experiment was carried out in a girls' secondary school near London between January 1947 and October 1948. In January 1947 the pupils who were to take part in the experiment were in their first year, in two parallel forms with populations varying from thirty-three to thirty-seven during the six terms which followed. During the autumn term of 1946 both forms had been given the Fleming-Jenkins Tests in English, Arithmetic and General Ability. The results of these showed that the two groups were comparable in intelligence, the experimental group being slightly superior to the control group. The scores ranged from 222 to 315 for Group C (the control group) and from 217 to 311 for Group E (the experimental group); the mean and standard deviations were 262·5 and 23·77 for Group C and 272·3 and 24·17 for Group E.

During the spring term six further tests were given to assess the pupils' attainments in English Composition and to find out something about their attitudes to the subject. In view of the difficulty of marking compositions reliably,² two objective attainment tests, each consisting of fifty items, were constructed with a view to assessing range and accuracy of vocabulary, awareness of the less obvious differences between words used in similar contexts, appreciation of the structure of a sentence and ability to follow the logical sequence of sentences in a paragraph. Recognised statistical procedures were used to calculate the validities of the separate items, the validity of each test as a whole and the internal reliability of the tests.³ In addition to these two objective tests of attainment, three composition tests were used. The choice of subjects for these tests was made with two aims in view—firstly to give the pupils opportunities for different kinds of writing and secondly to ensure that, in at least two out of the three, all the children should have a common fund of subject-matter on which to draw, so that the less inventive ones might not be unduly penalised; the first and second composition subjects were therefore based on the narrative material used in the two objective tests and the third was a description of either ‘a room crowded with furniture and ornaments’ or ‘a general store in a country village’. The compositions were marked, according to an analytical scheme, in the three categories—Words, Sentences and Ideas. As a further guide to reliable marking, a five-point scale was constructed for each of these categories, in which the qualities expected for each grade were described. For these five tests the maximum score was 210 (65 for each attainment test, 30 for Composition I, 25 for Composition II and 25 for Composition III). A test of attitude to English Composition was then constructed by the Thurstone method and scored by the combined Thurstone-Likert method.⁴ A hundred statements were originally compiled, largely from children's expressed opinions; they ranged from very favourable attitudes (e.g. 'I think play-writing is fascinating') to very unfavourable attitudes (e.g. 'I think keeping a diary is a waste of time and paper') and covered such varied forms of written and oral composition as letter-writing, story-telling, the keeping of diaries, play-writing, debating and public-speaking. From these, twenty-four statements were finally selected for inclusion in the test. The maximum score possible on this test was 87 (32 for the eight very favourable statements, 12 for the four favourable statements, 15 for the five unfavourable statements and 28 for the seven very unfavourable statements).^*

THE FIRST SOCIOMETRIC TEST: APRIL 1947

On April 18th the following sociometric test was given: each girl was asked to write down, in order of preference, the names of four others with whom she would like to work in English lessons. The pupils in the experimental group (Class-Group E) were told that they would in future be writing compositions (stories, plays, descriptions, etc.) in groups as well as individually, and that the grouping would be arranged on the basis of their expressed choices, all receiving equal consideration. For them, therefore, the test fulfilled the conditions laid down by Moreno and Jennings that the criterion should have significance for the subjects being tested.⁵

Sociometric methods were used for two purposes—to collect data on the social configurations in the two groups and to provide a basis for breaking up the experimental group (and later, the control group) into smaller working units. The pupils in the control group (Class-Group C) were told that although they would not be doing composition work in groups for some time, it would be helpful for the teacher to know how they would like to be grouped if opportunities arose, say, in drama lessons, and they were promised that after not more than three terms they would be grouped for composition work too. It is realised that for them the test had less significance, but it seemed at the time (and later when they were retested in September) that they accepted this explanation and recorded their choices sincerely.

RECORDING METHODS

A note must here be inserted to describe the methods used for tabulating and charting the results of the sociometric tests, which were given periodically during the next sixteen months as the need for retesting arose. Table I (at end of book) shows the procedure adopted to record the choice for both groups in five successive tests. The method is that used by Moreno and Jennings: the entries along the horizontal lines show for any individual which other girls she chooses, and the entries in the columns show for any individual by how many other girls she is chosen. A first choice is indicated by the number 4, a second by 3, a third by 2 and a fourth by 1; total and scores are given for every child at the foot of the table. As there were ten children who entered or left the group for varying reasons during the period of investigation, not every child was involved in every test: the name of any child who was not in the class-group at the time of a test is therefore bracketed in the corresponding table for that test. Table II (at end of book) shows an analysis of the choices of the same group on three occasions: here, too, the method used by Moreno and Jennings in their investigations at the New York State Training School has been applied. In Table III (at end of book) the results of a test given to Class-Group E in May 1948, when they were asked to give their...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• THE SOCIOLOGY OF YOUTH AND ADOLESCENCE
• Full Title
• Copyright
• FOREWORD
• CONTENTS
• PART ONE CLASSIFICATION BY FRIENDSHIP: SOCIOMETRIC TECHNIQUES APPLIED TO THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH
• PART TWO ADOLESCENT OPINION
• PART THREE GROUP WORK AND CLASSROOM ATTITUDES
• INDEX