Graduation Year

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Degree Granting Department

Child and Family Studies

Major Professor

Kwang-Sun Cho Blair, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Heather Peshak George, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Donald Kincaid, Ph.D.

Keywords

behavior specific praise, caught being good game, good behavior game

Abstract

This study evaluated the relative contributions of behavior specific praise statements (BSPS) and the Caught Being Good Game (CBGG) on class-wide appropriate behaviors and examined teacher use of BSPS and corrective feedback. It also evaluated if changes in class-wide behaviors are maintained during follow-up and generalized to non-target academic periods. Data on teacher use of BSPS were also collected during follow-up and generalization probes to examine if the teachers continued to use BSPS during follow-up and generalize their use of BSPS to non-target academic periods. A multiple-baseline design across classrooms with an ABC sequence was used to evaluate the outcomes of the interventions. The results indicated that BSPS was sufficient in two classrooms to increase class-wide on-task behavior for over 90% of students just by explicitly giving attention for appropriate behaviors while the third classroom required implementation of CBGG which provided external reinforcers. Some evidence of generalization and maintenance was observed in all classrooms. All teaching staff's use of BSPS increased during implementation of the BSPS phase, but BSPS use decreased in follow-up, and support for generalization is lacking.

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