| This study investigated the effects of students' participation in the establishment of classroom rules on their compliance behavior in the classroom.;The research focused on (1) the effects of student compliance behavior on: opportunities for participation in rule making, discrepancies between student and teacher attitudes about rules, and expected outcomes of joint participation in rule making by students and teachers, and (2) the effects of participation levels in rule making on: student attitudes toward school and student desire to participate in the rule making process.;The study was conducted in six fifth grade classrooms, student N = 118, in a small urban community in Oregon. Data about attitudes and expectations, participation, and compliance behavior of students were collected using the Pupil Control Inventory and the Coping Analysis Schedule for Educational Settings. Additional information was obtained from interview schedules and questionnaires designed by the researcher.;Questionnaire, interview, and observation data were tabulated using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance and post hoc comparison procedures. The PCI was scored and a composite score derived for placement of individual teachers on the humanistic-custodial continuum.;Results of this study indicated that levels of compliance behavior were not affected by (1) student levels of participation in rule making, or (2) discrepancies between student and teacher attitudes about rules, and expected outcomes of joint participation in rule making. Neither did levels of participation in rule making affect student attitudes toward school or their desire to participate in the rule making process.;The conclusion that participation in rule making is not important in the classroom must be drawn with caution. In this study, no instances of the "social integrative" behavior often associated with democratic participation were observed. If schools are meant to transmit the democratic ethic, this finding must be considered important.;The failure of this study to produce significant findings can be attributed to several factors. Two of these may be (1) that fifth grade students are compliant for reasons associated with their age and developmental stage, and (2) the instruments used in this study were not sufficiently sensitive to the subtleties of classroom participation around rule making. |
