Free‐time as a Reinforcer in the Management of Classroom Behavior

A dass of twelve third-grade students in a rural school of two grades per teacher was observed to determine the frequency of student-teacher contacts for each student. Requiring each child to go to a play area when he completed his work resulted in changing the distribution of these contacts so that the better students used fewer teacher contacts. In addition, the number of completed assignments of all students increased and data are presented which imply that the poorer students of the dass received more of the teacher's available time than previously. The application of this procedure to special pupil populations would probably be very useful. A number of advantages and limitations of the procedure are described.Many teachers face too many students representing too broad a range of academic achievement. Particularly is this true in rural settings where two or more grades may be taught by a single teacher. By the time a student completes the first and second grades, a legacy of everwidening class spread is passed on to each successive teacher. Under these conditions, teachers may attend to the "good" students and ignore the "poorer" students because the former are more rewarding students to instruct. Also, the good students are more likely to make more demands on a teacher's time.The result is that poorer students get less education and often fall even farther behind, thus adding another increment to the spread of class achievement.Hall ), Madsen, Becker, and Thomas (1968), and Thomas, Becker, and Armstrong (1968 have shown that teacher contacts with or teacher attention to students reinforce student learning behavior. That is, when teacher contacts or attention depend on the good behavior of the students, students behave well.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

A NOTE ON A SIMPLE PROCEDURE FOR REDISTRIBUTING A TEACHER'S STUDENT CONTACTS¹

Sanders¹,

Hanson

1971

“…As suggested by previous investigators (e.g., Iwata, 1987;Lalli et al, 1999;Roane, Fisher, & Sgro, 2001), the addition of an arbitrary positive reinforcer can sometimes be sufficient to reduce problem behavior that is maintained, partially or solely, by negative reinforcement. Previous studies (e.g., Osborne, 1969) noted that breaks from demands might operate as either negative reinforcement in the form of escape from work or positive reinforcement in the form of access to preferred activities. More recent studies (e.g., Golonka et al, 2000;Zarcone, Fisher, & Piazza, 1996) have demonstrated that breaks from demands that consist of escape to an enriched environment (i.e., one that includes access to preferred activities, adult attention, or both) can be a more potent reinforcer than breaks that consist of escape to an environment that is devoid of potential positive reinforcers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Assessment of Antecedent Events Influencing Noncompliance in an Outpatient Clinic

Call

Wacker

Ringdahl

et al. 2004

Several studies have shown that various factors can influence noncompliance, including task novelty, rate of presentation, and task preference. This study examined the impact of selected antecedent variables on noncompliance in an outpatient clinic setting. In two experiments involving 6 typically developing children, the consequences for noncompliance remained constant. During Experiment 1, demands that included noncontingent access to adult attention were contrasted with the same demands that did not include attention within a multielement design. In Experiment 2, demands were altered by decreasing the difficulty or amount of work or providing access to attention. In both experiments, results indicated idiosyncratic responses to the manipulated variables, with decreases in noncompliance observed following introduction of one or more antecedent variables with 5 of the 6 participants. These results suggested that noncompliance can be reduced via changes in antecedent variables, including adding potential positive reinforcers to the task situation, and that it is possible to probe variables that alter noncompliance in an outpatient clinic setting.

“…However, the use of those consequences involved co-ordination with the teacher aides, who had responsibility for the students at recess and at noon, and with the safety patrol to ensure adequate supervision at crosswalks for those students who were dismissed early. In cases where these arrangements are impractical, it is possible that providing students with other "cost-free" consequences might also be effective, such as free time within the classroom (Osborne, 1969), being able to be first in line for lunch, or the opportunity to participate in special projects (Barrish, Saunders, and Wolf, 1969).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Homework Assignments, Consequences, and Classroom Performance in Social Studies and Mathematics1

Harris

Sherman

1974

Elementary school students who frequently answered questions incorrectly in class were given daily homework assignments in social studies and math, but they rarely completed the assignments accurately and their classroom performance in social studies and math was only slightly better than when they did not have homework assignments. However, consequences provided for accurate completion of homework assignments increased the number of students completing homework and the accuracy with which homework assignments were completed. Further, assignments of homework with consequences for accuracy were associated with more accurate classroom performance.Students are often assigned homework on the apparent assumption that it will improve their academic performance and foster development of independent study skills. A number of articles have described the presumed advantages or disadvantages of homework assignments on the attitudes of students, teachers, and parents about homework assignments (e.g., Check, 1966;Langdon and Stout, 1957;Maertens, 1968;Schiller, 1954). Although several authors have reviewed the experimental literature on the assignment of homework (e.g., Goldstein, 1960;Otto, 1950;Swenson, Cost, and Taylor, 1955), there seems to be little agreement as to whether the assignment of homework is useful. Abramowitz (1937), Anderson (1946), Foran and Weber (1939), Hines (1957), Schain (1954), andSteiner (1934) The purposes of the two present experiments, in social studies and math were: (1) to evaluate the effects of assigning homework on students' subsequent classroom performance, (2) to develop methods of increasing the number of students who completed homework assignments at a reasonable level of accuracy, and (3) to evaluate the effects of assigning homework on students' subsequent classroom (WINTER 1974)