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Peer cultures of effort and achievement influence early adolescents' academic adjustment. A randomized controlled trials design was used to test the extent to which aspects of peer cultures of effort and achievement were enhanced following teachers' participation in the Supporting Early Adolescents' Learning and Social Success (SEALS) intervention. Observational and survey data from teachers (N = 188) and survey data from 6th-graders (N = 2,453) in 36 rural schools across the United States were analyzed. Results indicated that in SEALS versus matched control schools, social prominence was more favorably associated with effort and school valuing, and peer group injunctive norms were more supportive of effort and achievement. Findings indicate that aspects of peer cultures respond to the school context and provide evidence of the efficacy of the SEALS model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the social network system of African American early adolescents ( N = 237) in rural, low-wealth schools, specifically in terms of networks with norms strongly favoring effort and achievement. Networks with norms favoring effort and achievement were more likely to be central to the social system at the end of the school year. Subsequent analyses focused on boys ( n = 103) and the effects of affiliation in networks with norms that strongly favored effort and achievement. Twenty-four percent of boys sustained membership in these networks and experienced greater school valuing and likeability, but reduced admiration among peers, net of scores at the beginning of the school year. The results of the study stand to inform both an understanding of positive peer group affiliations of minority boys and intervention work with this population by clarifying developmental mechanisms that contribute to positive school adaptation among rural African American boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on discourse processes and participatory structures granting sources of mathematical authority in first-grade classrooms in the U.S. Importance of understanding how mathematical ideas are generated; View of teachers as the sole mathematical authority; Accomplishment of the shift from a formal to a growth-and-change tradition of socializing students.

Studies the tendency of African-American, Asian-American and European-American adolescents to choose friends with similar interests and values. Tendency of African-American adolescents to chose friends on the basis of ethnic identity; Finding that adolescents did not choose friends with identical orientations.

A randomized control trial was conducted to evaluate the impact of the Rural Early Adolescent Learning Program (Project REAL) on teachers' awareness of peer groups at the beginning of the 1st year of middle school. Two schools were randomly assigned to the intervention condition and 2 to the control condition. Thirty-nine teachers and 466 students (252 girls, 214 boys) participated in the study. As part of Project REAL. teachers were taught about social dynamics and early adolescent peer group processes. Social cognitive mapping procedures were used to assess and compare students' and Teachers' perceptions of 6th grade peer groups. As compared with teachers in the control condition, intervention teachers were more likely to accurately identify peer groups. In addition, when the analyses were restricted to students who were involved in bullying, intervention teachers were more likely to accurately identify peer group membership. However, there were no significant differences between intervention and control teachers for the accurate peer group membership identification of specific bullying involvement subtypes (i.e., bullies, victims, bully victims). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]