The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of three types of praise activities on school adjustment and social efficacy of sixth graders. The three types of praises consist of verbal reinforcement, encouragement, and social acknowledgment.
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The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of three types of praise activities on school adjustment and social efficacy of sixth graders. The three types of praises consist of verbal reinforcement, encouragement, and social acknowledgment.
The research questions of this study were as follows.
First, Does the peer-praise program effect the school adjustment of elementary schoolers?
Second, Does the peer-praise program effect the social efficacy of elementary schoolers?
The study was used with pretest-posttest experimental design. The subjects of this study were 63 six-grade students who belonged to two classes of an elementary school located in Pusan. One class(31 students) was an experimental group and the other class(32 students) was a control group. Three types of praise activities were applied to the experimental group for 11 weeks. The activities were composed of classroom activities for understanding of the concept of praise, activities for practicing three types of praises. School Adjustment Scale which was developed by Kim Hye-Koung(1999) was administrated to the all subjects as pre-test and post-test. And Social efficacy Scale which was developed by Sim Sang wok(2002) was administrated to the all subjects as pre-test and post-test. To verify the effect of the experiment, MANOVA was conducted.
The main findings of this study are as follows.
First, the experimental group which had been conducted with the peer-praise program showed statistically significant difference in their school adjustment and subordinate elements from controlled group.
Second, the experimental group which had been conducted with the peer-praise program didn't showed statistically significant difference in their social efficacy and subordinate elements from controlled group.
This study shows that the peer-praise program has effect on the Children's school adjustment. It means that the peer-praise program develops studying attitude and improves both interpersonal friend relationship which helps children understand others and emotional empathy which enables them to have altruistic behaviors. It also help them improve communication, and skills for interpersonal relationships.
The peer-praise program applied in the regular school curriculum and the time for discretional activities was worthy of educational method in developing children's interpersonal relationship and sociability for self-growth.