Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Publication Date

11-25-1973

Abstract

The effect of modeling on the performance of rule-governed language behaviors of 208 male and female, Anglo and Chicano, sixth grade students was experimentally investigated. These students, from four elementary schools, were randomly assigned either to a no-model control group or to one of forty-eight experimental modeling groups. Live, audio-taped and written models, who were (or were characterized as) either adults or peers and Anglos or Chicanos, modeled sentences in response to twelve pictorial stimuli. Each of the modeled sentences contained semantically related valuational-preference categories, a prepositional phrase and a relative clause. The six dependent measures were: Valuational Category, Other Value, Combination Values, Relative Clause, Prepositional Phrases and Length. No reinforcement to either the models or the subjects was provided and no instructions to imitate were given to the subjects. The subjects' performance of the specified behaviors was measured in imitation and generalization phases. Following exposure to the model, subjects were asked to compose and write sentences in response to the same twelve pictures. Immediately following this phase, the subjects were then asked to compose and write a sentence about each of twelve new and different pictures. By reference to the no-model control group, a clear modeling effect was revealed for each of the three valuational category measures, for the relative clause and the length measures in the imitation phase. In the generalization phase, a modeling effect was found for one valuational category, for the prepositional phrase measure and for the length measure. No effect was revealed for sex of subject nor for ethnicity of the model or subject. Age of model was significant in terms of the relative clause measure in which adult models had a greater effect than peer models. Mode of modeling had a significant effect on the valuational categories' scores in the imitation phase. Live and audio-taped models had significantly greater effects than written models. The results suggested that modeling alone could affect rule-governed language behaviors of middle-childhood students. Only slight evidence was available to support the contention that attentional variables such as mode of modeling and age and ethnicity of model affect the modeling phenomena and are important to social learning theory.

Project Sponsors

The Student Research Allocations Committee at the University of New Mexico

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Educational Leadership

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy

First Committee Member (Chair)

Mary Bierman Harris

Second Committee Member

Dean Guy Brodkey

Third Committee Member

John Thomas Zepper

Fourth Committee Member

Rodney Wilson Young

Fifth Committee Member

Ignacio Ruben Cordova

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