Effects of Academic Ranking to Students Social Interaction

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Learning Behavior

Could it be possible that a student’s lack of social skills can affect his or her learning ability in school? If so, an answer to the problem concerning the need of students acquiring appropriate social skills is available for further research and action. Preliminary research on the impact of a student's lack of social skills on their academic skills in school has identified a relationship. That is, there exist a relationship between a student’s lack of social skills and academic skills in school.

According to the view-point of Burrhus Frederic Skinner (n.d), one of the most outspoken behaviorist psychologist and is the forerunner of the “behaviorist theory” which postulated that learning has nothing to do with the mind rather learning occurred with the acquisition of new behavior. Skinner’s theorized that people behaved the way they do because this kind of behavior has had certain consequences from the past. Skinner believed, based on his infamous laboratory test experimenting with rats using a stimuli and response (S-R), that if we could change the behavior of a rat, than we should be able to change the behavior of humans.

Skinner stated that there are five main obstacles in learning: (1) fear of failure; (2) lack of directions; (3) lack of clarity in the direction; (4) positive reinforcement is not used enough; and (5) the task (assigned) is not broken down into small enough steps. Skinner (1968) suggests that with all of the obstacles out of the way, any age appropriate skill can be taught using his 5 principles: (a) have small steps; (b) work from most simple to most complex tasks; (c) repeat the directions as many times as possible; (d) give immediate feedback; and (e)give positive reinforcement. The researcher examined the interplay of Skinner’s “behaviorist” theory and its affect on whether there exists a relationship between a student’s lack of social and academic skills in high school. The theory of behaviorism is not a comprehensive theory as it excluded discussions about the human mind and did not factor it into any consideration.

In Wehby, Symons, & Canale (1998), students engaged in inappropriate classroom behavior because they lacked the basic educational foundations to be in the classroom and as a consequence, these students, to avoid looking unintelligent in front of their classmates or peers, engaged in inappropriate behavior they know will get them tossed out of class, into detention, suspended from school, or created aversive interactions with the teacher resulting in the teacher avoiding the student (and unlikely to provide direct education instructions).

The lack of social skills has been identified as inappropriate student classroom behavior, inattention during instructional periods, aversive relationships and interactions with educators and fellow classmates, and disruptive classroom behavior. The lack of social skills has produced negative consequences in the student’s class work and homework assignments; examinations, tests, and quizzes; the lack of organization surrounding school work; tardiness and absenteeism, and the inability to maintain or sustain social relationships among classmates. In addition, the impact of the lack of social skills on the student academic skills has shown to exist in the student’s ability to engage in proper studying skills, problem-solving, decision-making, content mastery, performance skills, and task management skills.

Relation between social and academic skills

It was found that several factors can lead to the student’s lack of social and academic skills. Gresham and Elliott (1984) defined social skills as a learned behavior that a student is taught that will enable him/her to interact with persons in ways that elicit positive responses and assist in avoiding negative responses. Academic skills are being defined as the basic and complex cognitive skills that are the primary educational outcome of elementary and secondary schooling. Diperna (2006) stated that during the past two decades, researchers have tried to determine the factors contributing to students’ failure in the classroom relating to academic achievement.

Diperna and Elliott (1999) assumed that a student’s academic achievement and success in classroom learning included their attitude and behavior that goes beyond the foundation of the educational setting. Diperna and Elliott (2000) attempted to identify and describe some factors that may contribute to a student’s academic success as “enablers” – interpersonal skills, study skills, motivation and engagement. However, the one limitation in their research was that the academic “enablers” were explored in isolation rather in relationship to one another.

Parke, et al. (1998) affirmed that there is a link between social skills and academic performance. Social skills and academic competence influenced each other consistently over-time, a pattern where academic competence casually influenced social competence, which in turn casually influenced academic competence (Parke, et al. 1998). Some researchers have concluded that academic achievement can be predicted from indicators of social adjustment. Ray and Elliott (2006) tested whether a student’s self-concept, social skills and social support influence academic achievement. The participants varied in race, sex and grade level. Attempting to explain their finding, Parke, et al. (1998), suggested that the behavioral pattern and skills that the student brings to the educational setting are likely to carry over to the classroom learning environment. Secondly, the student’s ability to concentrate and direct its attention during classroom instruction, while varies student to student, impacts the student cognitive tasks and interaction. A third explanation can be related to interpersonal relationship between the teacher and child. (Parke, et al. 1998). The relationship between social competence and academic success is not a simple one. It has been researched that there is a reciprocal relationship between social and academic mastery (Welsh, et al. 2001). Students learn much about fairness, injustice and problem solving through play. Logue (2007), suggested that many children grow into social competence through negotiation, taking turns, and internalizing rules, playing and modeling for these students, these students faced learning of negative consequences for negative social interaction between their teachers and classmates.

Based on their research, DiPerna and Elliott (2000) as well as others (Greenwood, 1991; Wentzel, 1993; Wigfield & Karpathin, 1991) identified four specific academic enablers: interpersonal skills, study skills, motivation, and

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