Positive Behavior Interventions

Positive Behavior Interventions Managing classroom behavior is one of the tasks most challenging for beginning teachers and even some veteran teachers. A national survey revealed that 20% of first- year teachers did not feel adequately prepared to maintain order and discipline in their classroom (Faul, Stepensky & Simonsen, 2011). I struggle with controlling individuals’ behavior that interrupts the other students learning. A research was designed to show how a specific management strategy helped decrease inappropriate behavior and increase appropriate behavior.

The research combined with my experience in the classroom helped me come to the conclusion of how to promote positive behavior. The study was looking at the effects of teachers prompting appropriate behavior on the off task behavior of two middle school students. Prompts are used as reminders and they can be verbal, visual, gestural, and physical but they should be specific and frequent for them to be effective. The study took place in an urban middle school with 1000 students across grades 5-8.

The two participants in the study was Owen, an 11 year old male in the fifth grade and Tom, a 12 year old male in sixth grade. They were in general education classes and both were academically able to complete the work when not engaging in off task behaviors. Their off task behaviors included getting out of their seat, talking out, making disruptive noises, and talking to peers. Data was collected in the classes where problem behaviors were most likely to occur for each student.

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The dependent variable in the research was direct observation to document students’ on-and off-task behavior and the independent variable is the verbal prompt addressed to each student. The verbal prompt was given only one time at the beginning of class and was alternated every other day and it was “Be respectful, be responsible, and have pride. Do your best! ” The results showed that both students engaged in less off-task behavior when they were prompted than when they were not.

The teachers also commented that they saw an improvement in academic performance during classes when the student was prompted. They believed that prompting increases appropriate behavior and decreases inappropriate behavior. This study shows that prompting is a simple and effective strategy that may be implemented successfully with students who engage in off-task behavior in a general education classroom setting. I would use prompting in my classroom because prompting requires minimal training and effort to implement so it would be an ideal strategy for me to use for managing student behavior.

In my classroom now I have many behavior problems in my last period class. They will talk over me and disrupt me when I was giving directions or trying to explain something to the class. One day I decided to use prompting and I did it at the beginning of class and at the end of class by saying “Today we will not be disruptive and we will be respectful and raise our hands if we have a comment or question” I was very surprised to see how much this improved classroom behavior as a whole.

The students then were able to be on task and actual learn more when they were not disruptive. In conclusion, prompting is shown to increase appropriate behavior and decrease inappropriate behavior. Prompts can be effective even in different settings and not just in the classroom. The article stated that prompts delivered over the phone to encourage people to exercise where effective at increasing exercise behavior (Faul, Stepensky & Simonsen, 2011).

Prompting should be used inside and outside the classroom to improve positive behaviors. Classroom management can become much easier for first year teachers if they use the strategy of prompting combined with other strategies. Reference Faul, A. , Stepensky, K. , & Simonsen, B. (2011). The effects of prompting appropriate behavior on the off-task behavior of two middle school students. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 14(1), 47-55. doi: 10. 1177/1098300711410702

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