SCHOOL-WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS AND SUPPORT: ADDRESSING THE BEHAVIOR OF ALL STUDENTS Classroom PBIS: Acknowledgement and Relationship-Building KENTUCKY CENTER FOR INSTRUCTIONAL DISCIPLINE

Expectation Participation at In-service Activities and Assignment Completion Peer Collaboration Action Planning and Follow Through Activities Be Respectful Listen, process and ask reflective questions Reflect on each staff member’s experience and expertise Support your colleagues by offering your best ideas Consider the benefits of completing activities and seeking peer coaching Be ResponsibleContribute to learning of all Follow through with assignments Be a peer coachUtilize the activities and seek to apply your learning Training Matrix

Training Objectives Review the research on acknowledgement of behavior and building relationships in the classroom Understand why we need to acknowledge appropriate behavior Generate examples of acknowledgement strategies to use in the classroom

Agenda (90 minutes) Opening/Objectives (5 minutes) Acknowledgement of Student Behavior (45 minutes)  Activity #1: Self-Assessment Building Relationships (15 minutes) Activity # 2 (20 minutes)  Group Discussion Summary/Next Steps (5 minutes)

Pre-Assessment Prior to this training session, your classroom has been observed and the ratio of positive to negative interactions has been recorded and provided to you Through today’s training, consider how you can increase the overall number of positive acknowledgements and improve your ratio

Introduction A continuum of strategies designed to increase desirable, appropriate behavior in the classroom is essential Strategies should be evidence-based and practiced with fidelity Strategies may be:  Contingent (i.e., acknowledgement/ reinforcement)  Non-contingent (i.e., relationship-building)

Acknowledgement/Reinforcement A system that provides immediate, intermittent, and long-term reinforcements, given by adults in the building, to any students displaying desired school-wide expectations, behaviors, or associated rules

Purposes of an Acknowledgement System Foster a welcoming and positive environment Focus staff and student attention on desired behaviors Increase the likelihood that desired behaviors will be increased Reduce the amount of time spent correcting student misbehavior

Why Focus on Acknowledgement? Effective acknowledgement can increase:  On-task behavior  Correct responses, work productivity, accuracy  Attention and compliance  Cooperative play (younger students) Fosters intrinsic motivation to learn which comes from mastering tasks Has vicarious effect with benefits that may be long lasting Simonsen, B., Fairbanks, S., Briesch, A., Myers, D. & Sugai, G. (2008 ).

Research-based Strategies to Acknowledge Appropriate Behavior Examples… Verbal praise Group contingencies Token economy Behavioral contracting

Praise Definition: A positive statement given when a desired behavior occurs to inform students what they did well Brophy completed a functional analysis of praise and determined a comprehensive list of guidelines for effective praise His study also examined attributes of ineffective praise A concise outline of Brophy’s findings is provided in a handout

Effective Praise Be specific (avoid “good job”) Dependent on meeting expectations Immediate Teacher-initiated Focus on improvement and effort Increase praise when students are learning something new Compare student to self, not to other students Vary frequency to meet individual student needs Brophy, 1981

Effects of Praise on Behavior Increased on-task behavior (Ferguson & Houghton, 1992) Increased student attention (Broden, Bruce, Mitchell, Carter, & Hall, 1970) Increased student compliance (Wilcox, Newman, & Pitchford, 1988) Increased positive self-referent statements (Phillips, 1984) Increased cooperative play (Serbin, Tonick, & Sternglanz, 1977)

Effects of Praise on Academics Increased students’ correct responses (Sutherland & Wehby, 2001) Increased work productivity and accuracy (Craft, Alber, & Heward, 1998; Wolford, Heward, & Alber, 2001) Increased language and math performance on class work (Roca & Gross, 1996) Increased academic performance (Good, Eller, Spangler, & Stone, 1981)

Activity # 1: Self-Assessment Complete Using Effective Praise Self- Assessment Once the Self-Assessment is completed, discuss use of praise with teachers at your table Brainstorm strategies for increasing the use of effective praise Be prepared to share

Research-based Strategies to Acknowledge Appropriate Behavior Examples… Verbal praise Group contingencies Token economy Behavioral contracting

Group Contingency Group contingencies are used when a common expectation is set for a group and a common positive outcome is earned by engaging in the desired behavior  Dependent (smaller subset of students)  Interdependent (all students)  Independent (each student)

Token Economy Token economies are used when students earn tokens (e.g., points, marbles, tickets, etc.) contingent upon expected behavior Tokens can be cashed in for reinforcers The ticket system used by many PBIS schools to support student behavior at the school-wide level is an example of a token economy

Behavior Contract A behavior contract is a written document that specifies expected behavior and outcomes for engaging or not engaging in expected behavior More typically used with individual students than with whole class or small groups of students

Relationship-Building The use of thoughtful interactions designed to improve or enhance the teacher-student relationship

Building Relationships According to research, there is a 31% reduction in discipline problems in schools where staff members develop positive relationships with students (Marzano & Marzano, 2003) The best predictor of whether students will be able to accept themselves as valuable and capable is the extent to which they have been unconditionally accepted by others (Rogers, 1959)

Non-Contingent Attention Providing positive attention to students that is not related to specific behavior Making students feel valued Opportunity to ensure that every student knows an adult cares about him or her personally

Non-Contingent Attention: Examples Verbal  Say hello and use their names  Show interest in their interests  Have a conversation  Work hard to connect with more difficult students Non-verbal: high-fives, hand shakes, pats on the back, etc.

The Goal Maintain a 4 to 1 ratio of positive to negative interactions  Interact with students 4 times more often when they are behaving appropriately than when they are behaving inappropriately Interactions with students are considered positive or negative based on the behavior in which the student is engaged at the time attention is given

Negative interactions are not wrong and are sometimes necessary; the key is the ratio Positive interactions can be provided in a variety of ways: verbal praise, nonverbal acknowledgement, non-contingent attention, group contingencies, token economies

Why Should I? 4 to 1 ratio works not only in schools but also in successful businesses and marriages Business Teams  High performance: 5.6 to 1 ratio  Medium performance: 1.9 to 1  Low performance: 1 to 2.7 (Losada, 1999; Losada & Heaphy, 2004)

Why Should I? Researchers predicted whether 700 newlywed couples would stay together or divorce by scoring their positive and negative interactions during one 15-minute observation between husband and wife. Ten years later, the follow-up revealed that they had predicted divorces with 94% accuracy. Marriages that lasted: 5.1 to 1 ratio Marriages that ended: 1 to 1.3 ratio Gottman, 1994

Classroom Continuum of Strategies Free & Frequent (everyday) Intermittent (on occasion) Strong & Long Term (quarter, semester) Verbal Praise Smile Stickers Rubber Stamps Thumbs up Home Notes Tickets (school-wide) Token Economy (delivery of tangible) Phone Calls Special Privileges Computer Time Social/Free Time Special Seat Group Contingency Field Trip Special Project Recognition Ceremonies Honor Roll

Activity # 2: Discussion 1. If a school-wide system of recognition is already in place, why is it important to also develop a classroom continuum of recognition? 2. Give examples of how a classroom plan for acknowledging appropriate behavior might align with a school-wide system of recognition. 3. What response can you give to faculty who say it’s cumbersome or too much work to implement both a school-wide system and a classroom system of recognition?

Post-Assessment Post-assessment will occur in approximately 4 weeks During that time, someone will visit your classroom during instructional time and chart your total number of positive and negative interactions. Data will be recorded regarding the overall number of positives and the ratio of positive to negatives.

References Broden, M., Bruce, C., Mitchell, M., Carter, V., & Hall, R.H., (1970). Effects of teacher attention on attending behavior of two boys at adjacent desks. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 3, Brophy, J. (1981). Teacher praise: A functional analysis. Review of Educational Research, 51, Craft, M.A., Alber, S.R., & Heward, W.L. (1998). Teaching elementary students with developmental disabilities to recruit teacher attention in a general education classroom: Effects on teacher praise and academic productivity. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 31(3), Ferguson, E. & Houghton, S. (1992). The effects of contingent teacher praise, as specified by Canter’s Assertive Discipline programme, on children’s on-task behaviour. Educational Studies, 18(1),

References Good, C.E., Eller, B.F., Spangler, R.S., & Stone, J.E. (1981). The effect of an operant intervention program on attending and other academic behavior with emotionally disturbed children. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 9(1), Gottman, J.M., (1994). Nonlinear differential equation models of marital interaction. In S. Johnson and L. Greenberg (Eds.), The Heart of the Matter: Perspectives on Emotion in Marital Therapy, pp Losada, M. (1999). The complex dynamics of high performance teams. Mathematical and Computer Modeling, 30 (9-10), Losada, M., & Heaphy, E. (2004). The role of positivity and connectivity in the performance of business teams: A nonlinear dynamics model. American Behavioral Scientist, 47 (6), Marzano, R. J., & Marzano, J. S. (2003). The key to classroom management. Educational Leadership, 61(1), 6–13. Phillips, R.H., (1984). Increasing positive self-referent statements to improve self- esteem in low-income elementary school children. Journal of School Psychology, 22(2),

References Roca, J.V., & Gross, A.M. (1996). Report-do-report: Promoting setting and setting-time generalization. Education and Treatment of Children, 19(4), Serbin, L.A., Tonick, I.J., Sternglanz, S.H. (1977). Shaping cooperative cross-sex play. Child Development, 48(3), Simonsen, B., Fairbanks, S., Briesch, A., Myers, D. & Sugai, G. (2008). Evidence- based practices in classroom management: Considerations for Research to practice. Education and Treatment of Children, 31(3), pp Sutherland, K.S., & Wehby, J.H. (2001). The effect of self-evaluation on teaching behavior in classrooms for students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Journal of Special Education, 35(3), 2-8. Wilcox, R., Newman, V., Pitchford, N. (1998). Compliance training with nursery children. Association of Educational Psychologists Journal, 4(2), Wolford, P.L., Heward, W.L., & Alber, S.R. (2001). Teaching middle school students with learning disabilities to recruit peer assistance during cooperative learning group activities. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 16(3),