Hawaiian students pre-K through third grade

Hawaiian students often do not experience success in school. When teachers used competitive classroom practices with clear individual winners and losers (what D'Amato, 1993, calls "overt competition"), Hawaiian students often resisted classroom routines. However, D'Amato (1993) found that when teachers modified their practices so that there were not individual winners and losers (what D'Amato, 1993, called "rivalrous approaches to contention"), Hawaiian students were more likely to comply with classroom routines. Teachers used "open" interactional structures that permitted students to overlap in their comments and to build on others' statements, implemented small group instruction, reduced criticisms of task performance, and distributed praise more or less evenly to everyone.

Relevant CIP Cultural Question