The Who, What, Where, When, and Why of Self-Monitoring of Student Behaviour

Abstract

This article analysed 44 studies between 1991 and 2003 which report on the effectiveness of self‐monitoring in improving academic, behavioral and social skills of students with a range of disabilities. Using prior reviews by Reid (1996), and Webber, Scheduermann, McCall and Coleman (1993) as a model, study variables were tabulated and analysed. Strengths, weaknesses, and factors which increased the effectiveness of self‐monitoring were discussed.Analysis of study variables found self‐monitoring of attention, productivity or accuracy effectively increased a range of dependent variables, with productivity producing the greatest reactivity under certain circumstances. However, reactivity was idiosyncratic to participant, setting, and task variables, and teachers should consider student preferences and class pragmatics when choosing monitoring conditions.