Modification of the excessive inappropriate classroom behavior of two elementary school students using home-base consequences and daily report-card procedures.

Abstract

Two experiments investigated home‐based reinforcement contingencies to control excessive behavior in normal classrooms. Subjects were, respectively, a 12‐yr‐old fifth‐grade boy and a 9‐yr‐old fourth‐grade boy, each in a separate classroom and with a different teacher. Following baseline observations in which observers recorded several categories of student behavior and teacher‐student interaction, separate conferences were held including parents of the two children, the principal, teachers, and experimenters. A daily report‐card procedure was agreed on, stipulating a one‐day suspension from school following three successive “undesirable” daily report cards as well as the supervision of home‐based privileges and other reinforcers usually contingent on satisfactory daily reports. Measurements of daily rates of teacher attention indicated no important change in this variable throughout the various experimental conditions. The daily report procedure significantly reduced disruptive classroom behavior. In a second experiment, a teacher‐operated timer cued her own time‐sample observations. Reliability measures revealed that the teacher could accurately measure the child's behavior while she was teaching the class. The procedure was ultimately successfully expanded to the teacher's total contact hours each day.