Behavior Specific Praise and Its Impact on Classroom Disruptions

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2018-07

Department

Program

Masters of Education

Citation of Original Publication

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Abstract

This research explores how the use of positive behavior intervention strategies influences behaviors of students. Specifically, it addresses how behavior specific praise in the classroom affects the frequency of disruptions by nineteen eighth grade students in a low socio-economic middle school. Over a four-week period, this study used a pre-experimental design that was a variant of the one group pretest-posttest design, in that students served as their own controls under baseline and treatment conditions. The intervention increased the frequency of the teacher’s use of behavior specific praise by introducing the concept and using a digital motivator. A repeated measures t-test revealed that the mean number of disruptive behaviors per student was significantly lower during the intervention period (Mean = 4.21, SD = 6.02) than during the baseline period (Mean = 5.95, SD = 7.16) [t (18) = 4.65, p < .001]. The null hypothesis indicated that there will be no significant difference in the mean frequency of disruptive behaviors per student in the classroom environment during a baseline period and a behavior specific praise intervention. As the data was significant, the null hypothesis was rejected.