Changes in Student Participation in Different Instructional Settings

The Junior High School Transition Study investigated student participation in regard to the ways in which students participated in elementary versus junior high school classrooms. Student participation data were taken from individual case descriptions of 24 target students. Student participation was described using six participation patterns identified in previous research. These were: (1) success/multitask, (2) social, (3) dependent, (4) phantom, (5) isolate, and (6) alienate. Findings indicated that a majority of the target students exhibited participation characteristics in grade seven that were similar to those they exhibited in grade six. The students who seemed to show the greatest variation in their participation characteristics in grade seven were those who were rated in grade six as dependent participants. Students who were rated as social participants in grade six continued to show these same patterns of participation in grade seven. However, in grade seven, these students also seemed to be able to complete their work successfully while interacting frequently with other students. As a result, the seventh-grade teachers often described these students as both social and success/multitask participants. The students who seemed to show the least tendency to modify their pattern of participation in grade seven were those who were rated as alienate participants in grade six. Both sixth-and seventh-grade teachers rated very few students as isolate participants. A feature of the seventh-grade classes that seemed to influence students' participation characteristics was whether the teacher established a flexible or rigid rule system. To be successful in these classes with a rigid rule system, students often had to be a phantom participant first and then show other characteristics.