Elementary school teachers enrolled in the Self-Actualizing Education training course were tested prior to and following the ten-week in-service course to measure to what extent teachers improved interpersonal communication skills in discussions with students. Teachers' positive responses (e.g., listening, owning personal feelings, offering choices to students), teachers' negative responses (e.g., judging, lecturing, rescuing), teacher talk vs. student talk, and the frequency of student misbehaviors were considered. Audio tape recordings were made of teachers as they dealt with student problems in a group discussion and in an individual discussion. Also, student misbehaviors were recorded during a 15-minute observation time. The data were evaluated using analysis of variance. The results showed that in discussions with individual students, teachers increased positive responses and decreased teacher talk. In addition, the number of student misbehaviors increased after the training course. No other changes were found to be statistically significant.

The purpose of this thesis was to assess the influence of the teachers' classroom behavior on students' classroom behavior. Three hypotheses were made as the teacher systematically increases positive responses and decreases negative responses in the classroom, 1) the total time spent with the misbehaving student will decrease, 2) student non-attentive behavior will decrease and student attentive behavior will increase, and 3) there will be an inverse relationship between teacher negative responses and student attentive behavior. Student subjects were selected randomly from a previously selected group of misbehaving students; teacher subjects were 12 volunteers from a Junior High School who wanted to learn more about classroom behavior management. During the treatment process, teachers were to attempt to 1) decrease the amount of teacher negative reaction, 2) increase the amount of teacher positive response, and 3) to implement the various types of methods, procedures, and principles learned in the training course. Six trained observers were used to collect data over a 3-month period. A baseline of classroom behavior was established while the teachers were simultaneously involved in a classroom behavior management training course. Both student and teacher behaviors were computed and graphed on a logarithmic graph. All three hypotheses were confirmed at or beyond the .05 level of significance. Results were discussed in terms of the relationships that exist between the variables, and how they apply to the hypotheses.