Classroom Management

1. Classroom Management David Hulac, Ph.D., University of Northern Colorado Amy Briesch, Ph.D., Northeastern university David.hulac@unco.edu

3. Learner Objectives: • This session will help participants • 1. learn methods for promoting desirable behaviors and discouraging problematic behaviors for a diverse group of school-aged students in a classroom, • 2. learn methods for consulting and collaborating with teachers who are looking to improve their classroom management skills, • 3. learn group contingency and self-management skills that can be used for large and small group interventions, and • 4. learn methods for evaluating the effectiveness of classroom management interventions.

4. Impact of First Grade Teacher CapacityBaltimore Longitudinal Data on Top 25% Aggressive First-grade Boys: Risk of Being Highly Aggressive in Middle School (Kellam, Ling, Merisca, Brown, & Lalongo, 1998) Students randomly assigned to classrooms in Baltimore Do we prevent some problems? Slide thanks for Alan Coulter

5. But don’t teachers learn classroom management in schools? Report put out by the National Council for Teacher Quality (NCTQ) found: • Most teacher education programs are not deliberately teaching the science of classroom management in class and clinical settings. • Most programs function under the belief that “instructional virtuosity” will render the need for classroom management moot because all students will be enthralled with the flawlessly executed lesson that they will be unable to act out. • Teachers are encouraged to come up with a philosophy for classroom management based upon their own beliefs about child development.

6. A crisis in education • Classroom management is the #1 problem for teachers (The New Teacher Project, 2013). • Main contributor to teacher burnout (Aloe, Amo, & Shanahan, 2014; O’neill & Stephenson, 2011). • Many teachers have even reported leaving the field due to frustrations with student behavior problems (US Department of Education, 2000-01). • Of course, some do happen to succeed…

7. Effective vs. evidence-based classroom management • Observational, correlational studies conducted in the 1970s of “effective teachers” • Kounin (1970) found that teachers used the same strategies to respond to problem behavior, but “effective teachers” were much more likely to use preventative strategies to head it off • Experimental studies since the 1980s have contributed to the “evidence base” • OUR definition of evidence-based = shown to be effective across multiple controlled research studies Hulac & Briesch, 2018

8. The “Big 5” • Establish, teach, and practice positively-stated expectations • Develop and teach predictable routines • Use positive and specific praise to reinforce students for appropriate behavior • Consistently respond to inappropriate behavior with an appropriate level of consequence • Promote engagement through opportunities to respond and interesting, meaningful content

9. Understand Behavioral Theories and Terminology

10. Functions of behavior • Students perform behaviors to: • Get something tangible • Get to do something they want • Get attention • Avoid something they don’t want • Avoid attention • Internal reinforcement Positive Reinforcement Negative Reinforcement Automatic Reinforcement

11. Concurrent Schedules • When similar reinforcement is scheduled for each of the concurrent responses: • the response receiving the higher frequency of reinforcement will increase in rate • the response requiring the least effort will increase in rate • the response providing the most immediate reinforcement will increase in rate Slide source: http://www.slideshare.net/ebisuganya/schedules-of-reinforcement

12. Concurrent schedules of reinforcement • Think about a cafeteria lunch. Which is going to get thrown away?

13. Structuring the Classroom for Success Preventing Problems Before They Happen

14. Three strategies of prevention • Creating physical structures in the classroom that reduce the likelihood of behavior problems • Teaching students expected behaviors • Engaging in effective teaching behaviors that elicit desired behaviors

15. Classroom density • As density increases: • Attention decreases • Social withdrawal increases • Aggression, dissatisfaction & anxiousness increase • Performance is most pronounced in complex activities McKee & Witt, 1990

16. Classroom arrangement • Lower levels of off-task behavior in rows than clusters, circles, etc. • Held across elementary and secondary settings • Most pronounced when involving students with behavior problems

17. Establish rules and expectations Should be: • Realistic • Age appropriate • Understandable • Positively-worded • Limited in number (i.e. 4-6)

18. Clarify changing expectations • Color Wheel intervention (Skinner et al., 2007) • Rationale: Having multiple sets of rules can be confusing to students. May need to use salient stimuli to help students transition from one set of rules to another

19. Materials

20. Procedures • Red used when transitioning from one classroom activity to another • Teacher provides 2-min and 30-sec warning before moving CW to red • Once CW moved, provide directions for next activity • After providing instructions, turn CW to yellow or green to elicit questions regarding instructions

21. Effectiveness of Color Wheel intervention

22. This should last no longer than 2 minutes Conversation (C) – No Talking. Help (H) – No asking for help. No handraising. Activity (A) – Listening to the teacher talk. Movement (M) – Everybody is in their seat looking at the teacher. Participation (P) – Students look at the teacher and do not talk.

23. Conversation (C) – Students may talk when they are called on. Help (H) – Students must raise their hands to be called on. Activity (A) – Asking questions about what the teacher said. Movement (M) – Everybody is in their seat looking at the teacher. Participation (P) – Students look at the teacher and do not (unless called on).

24. Conversation (C) – Students may talk to each other if the conversation does not exceed 70mb Help (H) – Students must raise their hands to be called on. Activity (A) – Asking questions about what the teacher said. Movement (M) – Students may stand, but must be able to touch their desk. Participation (P) – Students have only necessary materials on their desks and are working on their materials.

25. Establish routines • Specific step-by-step responses that students should exhibit during daily classroom activities in order to ensure that materials, furniture, and bodies are in the right place for the activity • Entering the classroom • Finishing an assignment early • Turning in assignments • Preparing for bus departure • Use Tell  Show  Do  Generalize to teach routines

26. Use precision requests • Includes the student’s name • Includes a description of the observable behavior required • In as few words as possible • Not phrased as a question • Can you bring that book to me? • Delivered in a polite tone

28. Effective communication of requests

29. Increasing opportunities to respond

30. Opportunity to respond • When students can frequently give answers to questions, their engagement increases (Tressel, 2008) • Instructional talk • Positive prompts • Wait time • Balance of positive to negative feedback

31. Instructional Talk • The teacher engages in short lessons, and then provides an opportunity to practice. • Demonstrations, discussions etc. Source: Tressel, 2008

32. Positive prompt • Directed requests for action or response • Recommend 3 to 4 opportunities per minute for a class • Ensure each student has a chance to respond • Prompt choral responses Source: Tressel, 2008

33. Wait time • Allow > 3 s for students to think of the correct answers. Source: Tressel, 2008

34. Response Cards • Students • write-on boards to answer teacher questions, • cover answer by drawing board to chest, • simultaneously revealing when instructed by teacher • Shown to increase participation and response accuracy (Narayan et al., 1990; Gardner et al., 1994), as well as student behavior

35. Opportunities to respond

36. Active supervision • Move around the classroom • Scan the environment • Frequent those parts of the room where behavior problems frequently occur • Ensure frequent interaction with students • Communicate “with-it-ness”

37. Active supervision

38. Providing Students with Behavioral Feedback

39. Effective reprimands • Delivered after a student exhibits a behavior that violates class rules or norms • Most effective if: • Brief • Clearly communicates what the student is doing wrong • Tells the student what s/he should be doing instead • Delivered immediately using a calm, firm, and unemotional tone • Paired with eye contact • Provided in close proximity to the student

40. Effective reprimands

41. Positive verbal feedback (i.e. praise) • Positive attention directed toward a behavior demonstrated by an individual • Most effective if: • Specific (tells the student what s/he was doing correctly) • Contingent (delivered only following the target behavior) • Sincere and believable • Takes into consideration the student’s skill level • Research has shown that teachers use general praise 3-4 times as often as specific praise (Floress & Jenkins, 2015; Reinke et al., 2013)

42. Use of praise

43. Peer-delivered praise • Positive peer reporting • Students identify peers who did something nice for them • Identified students provided with stickers • Tootling • Students write down peers’ prosocial behaviors on cards • Teacher counts up cards at the end of the day • If number of Tootles exceeds a criterion, the class receives a prize

44. Increasing rates of praise • Explicit instruction in the appropriate delivery of praise • Verbal feedback regarding the frequency of praise delivery • Self-monitoring

45. Planned ignoring • When behavior is being reinforced by attention, need to remove the attention • If behavior is not dangerous, consider not responding to it • Most effective if paired with praise of alternative, appropriate behavior (Differential Reinforcement of Alternative Behavior) • Have to anticipate a spike in behavior before improvement

46. Noncontingent attention • When data suggest that attention is reinforcing, provide student with noncontingent attention throughout the day • Reduces the need to misbehave to receive attention

47. Implementing Token Economies

48. Token Economy • Teacher identifies 1-3 disruptive behaviors to be reduced (or appropriate behaviors to be increased) • Teacher provides positive tangible reinforcement (tokens/tickets) when students perform appropriate behaviors • Students may exchange tokens for rewards/prizes (candy, dolls, comics, comics, etc) • O’Leary, Becker, Evans, & Saudargas (1969)

49. Token economy • Decision rules clearly communicate what students need to do in order to earn a token • Makes feedback more concrete and tangible

50. Step 1: Establish behavioral expectations • Create list of all specific target behaviors you wish to see and reinforce each behavior • Face forward • Sit quietly • Frame expectations globally and reinforce any behaviors falling under the umbrella • Work hard • Be nice to others