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Establishing a positive peer climate in elementary school classrooms is an important goal for educators because peer dynamics are thought to affect academic learning. Thus, it is important to (a) understand the relationship between children's peer dynamics and academic functioning, and (b) identify teacher practices that influence both peer processes and academic outcomes. In this pilot study, we explored whether specific teacher strategies that promote positive behaviors in children and positive peer dynamics influence children's better academic enablers, as well as whether they do so indirectly via improving peer sociometric ratings. Such teacher strategies may be particularly relevant for supporting children who demonstrate impairment in both social and academic domains, such as children at risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Thus, we also examined whether these relationships differ for children with elevated ADHD symptoms and peer problems (i.e., target students), relative to classmates (i.e., non-target students). Participants were 194 children in the classrooms of 12 teachers (grades K-4) who participated in an open-trial pilot study of the school-based version of the Making Socially Accepting Inclusive Classrooms (MOSAIC) program. In the fall and spring of a school year, we assessed children's sociometric ratings received from peers, and academic enabler skills as rated by teachers. Throughout one academic year, we obtained assessments of teachers' use of MOSAIC strategies (observed and self-reported). Results showed that, after accounting for fall academic enablers, the teacher strategy of CARE time (involving one-on-one interaction with the student to build the teacher-student relationship) was positively associated with spring academic enablers. However, findings did not support the hypothesized indirect effect of peer sociometric ratings on the relationship between teacher strategy use and academic enablers, or the moderated indirect effect by target student status. Implications for future research and classroom interventions are discussed.

PsycInfo: 2200 Psicometria & Estatística & Metodologia; 2227 Medidas Educacionais; 3500 Psicologia Educacional; 3560 Dinâmicas da Sala de Aula & Ajustamento dos Alunos & Atitudes Pretendeu-se avaliar o grau de concordância criança-educador relativo à presença de relações de amizade entre crianças em idade pré-escolar inferidas através dos relatos dos educadores acerca dos companheiros de brincadeira preferidos da criança e das avaliações sociométricas das crianças do grupo. Este estudo englobou 44 salas de educação pré-escolar, perfazendo um total de 764 crianças (401 meninos e 363 meninas) (Midade= 60.86 meses, DP = 8.79), das quais 64 tinham necessidades educativas especiais. Testaram-se os efeitos das características da sala (e.g., tamanho do grupo, interações educador-crianças), do educador (e.g., experiência profissional) e das crianças (e.g., idade) no nível de concordância educador-crianças, medido através do coeficiente kappa. Os resultados demonstraram um maior grau de concordância educador-crianças em salas com grupos mais pequenos, quando as crianças têm desenvolvimento típico e quando as crianças são mais velhas. De futuro, seria importante desenvolver mais estudos sobre esta temática e desenvolver programas de desenvolvimento profissional de forma a promover o conhecimento do educador acerca da estrutura social da turma. The goal of this study was to evaluate teacher-child agreement about the presence of friendship relations among preschool-aged children, using teachers’ reports of preferred playmates and children’s sociometric ratings. This study was conducted in 44 preschool classrooms and 764 children participated (401 boys and 363 girls) (Mage = 60.86; SD = 8.79), of which 64 had special education needs. The effects of classroom (e.g., group size, teacher-child interactions), teacher (e.g., professional experience), and child characteristics (e.g., age) on teacher-child agreement, as measured by the kappa coefficient, were tested. Results showed higher teacher-child agreement in smaller groups, with older children, and with typically developing children. Further studies would be important on this topic as well as promoting professional development programs to improve teacher’s knowledge about the social structure of the group.