R. Vance Hall

Classwide Peer Tutoring

The purpose of this article is to discuss classwide peer tutoring as an effective instructional procedure. The article is organized into three major sections: (a) general principles of instruction, (b) description of classwide peer tutoring procedures, and (c) review of effectiveness data concerning classroom process (i.e., ecological and behavioral factors) and student achievement outcomes. It concludes with a discussion of the procedure and areas of future research and application.

Experiments with token reinforcement in a remedial classroom

Abstract This report describes results of the first year of an after-school, remedial education program for low-achieving 5th and 6th grade children in an urban poverty area. The remedial program incorporated standard instructional materials, mastery of which was supported by token reinforcement. Experimental analyses carried out with individual students showed the token reinforcement to function as such. The effects of the program on the academic achievement and report card grades of the children in the remedial group were found to be significant when compared with the gains of a control group who had no remedial program.

Parent-Tutoring Procedures: Experimental Analysis and Validation of Generalization in Oral Reading Across Passages, Settings, and Time

A study that involved parents as reading tutors was carried out at home during the summer with four elementary children, three with learning disabilities. One purpose was to determine the effects of tutoring in the basal reader on reading rates at home. Another purpose was to determine potential generalization effects as a result of parent tutoring on different academic tasks at home and, later at school, on different and similar tasks. A combination multiple-baseline and reversal design tested for replication and generalization effects. Increases in correct rates were noted for the targeted variables across conditions. The results indicated that parents tutoring with school basal texts during the summer produced marked increases in reading rates that generalized at home to different academic tasks and at school to different and similar tasks. This suggests that parents, when using specific tutoring procedures, can increase their childrens academic skills.

Behavior analysis and education: An unfulfilled dream

This paper presents the authors view of why the promise for education visualized by early behavioral researchers is as yet unrealized. It points out that behavior analysis has had an important impact on special education but has had much less influence on teaching practice in regular classrooms. This is not seen as the fault of educators who have failed to embrace procedures developed by behavior analysts. Rather, the author contends, behavior analysts have failed to develop procedures that fit the ecology of the regular classroom. Those developed often require too much additional effort thereby punishing those who attempt their use. Another factor hindering widespread adoption is that behavior analysts have failed to disseminate their procedures and have not participated widely in undergraduate training of teachers. The paper concludes by noting that our success in special education provides a model for behavior analysts interested in regular education. By developing procedures that result in increased academic performance for entire classrooms without punishing the teachers who implement them, by making those procedures available commercially and by publishing in journals teachers read, and finally by participating more widely in undergraduate training, the unfulfilled dream of what behavior analysis has to offer education can be achieved.This paper presents the authors view of why the promise for education visualized by early behavioral researchers is as yet unrealized. It points out that behavior analysis has had an important impact on special education but has had much less influence on teaching practice in regular classrooms. This is not seen as the fault of educators who have failed to embrace procedures developed by behavior analysts. Rather, the author contends, behavior analysts have failed to develop procedures that fit the ecology of the regular classroom. Those developed often require too much additional effort thereby punishing those who attempt their use. Another factor hindering widespread adoption is that behavior analysts have failed to disseminate their procedures and have not participated widely in undergraduate training of teachers. The paper concludes by noting that our success in special education provides a model for behavior analysts interested in regular education. By developing procedures that result in increased academic performance for entire classrooms without punishing the teachers who implement them, by making those procedures available commercially and by publishing in journals teachers read, and finally by participating more widely in undergraduate training, the unfulfilled dream of what behavior analysis has to offer education can be achieved.

Comparison of Two Common Classroom Seating Arrangements.

Saul Axelrod, PhD, is a professor of special education at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122. R. Vance Hall, PhD, is a professor of education at the University of Kansas, and is also director of the Juniper Gardens’ Childrens’ Project, 2021 N. Third Street, Kansas City, Kansas 66101. Ann Tams, MA, 6108 Balboa Street, Merriam, Kansas 66203, is a rehabilitation counselor in the public schools of Kansas City, Kansas. Educational literature has indicated some concern for the effects of vaious seating arrangements on student performance. Such literature has claimed, for example, that the learning environment of brain-injured youngsters should be free of excessive stimulation (Strauss and Lehtinen 1947). These authors have suggested that classrooms should have uniformly painted walls, no windows or pictures, and individual, isolated desks facing the wall. I n one study the investigators found that a first-grade boy’s (P14’s) study level increased when the boy who sat next to him in a U-shaped seating arrangement was removed and replaced with a female classmate. Later, when P14’S seat was changed so that he sat between two boys, his study level decreased, but it again increased when a girl was placed on either side of him (Burdett et al. 1970). The results of another study demonstrated that when a contingent-teacher-attention procedure increased the study behavior of a disruptive child, the behavior of a class-

In-Class Spelling Performance Effects of Home Tutoring by a Parent

The effects of a parent tutoring her children in spelling were assessed. In two experiments, weekly spelling scores of two boys were recorded. Following a Baseline phase, the parent tutored her sons at home each week on their spelling words. In-school spelling scores increased for both boys. Reversal procedures and comparisons to the class means were used to show that the increases were due to the home tutoring procedures. In Experiment I, gradual decreases in the number of tutoring sessions for one boy resulted in the continuation of high spelling scores. Complete withdrawal of tutoring procedures for the second boy also resulted in the maintenance of the higher spelling scores.

Performance-Based Assessment of Depriving Environments: Comparison of Context/Response Interactions Within Inner-City and Suburban School Settings

It is widely accepted that depriving environments contribute to retarded academic development, particularly in minority group and poverty children (cf. Begab, Haywood and Garber, 1981a, 1981b). Yet, there is wide dissatisfaction with the often contradictory evidence supporting this view, and paradoxically, the processes by which environmental retardation occurs are not known or well documented (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Brophy, 1979; Schoggen and Schoggen, 1981). This has not been due to the lack of basic theoretical models concerning behaviour or academic delay. Both ecologically and behaviourally oriented researchers have elaborated models based upon environment, organism, response interaction (Kantor, 1959; Skinner, 1953; Barker, 1961) and open to empirical investigation (e.g. Bijou, 1981). But to date, data on momentary interactive processes and their relationships to developmental milestones in normal and problematic children or as a result of direct intervention, remain the exception, rather than the rule.

The School Principal as a Behavior Modifier1

AbstractThree experiments were conducted in which a school principal implemented behavior modification programs with elementary school children. The behaviors dealt with were tardiness, absenteeism, and disruptions. Treatment conditions consisted of the principal: delivering tokens with monetary back-ups; assigning tasks; and engaging in activities with the children. In Experiments I and III returning to baseline conditions revealed that the principal was controlling the behaviors in question. In Experiment II a multiple-baseline design provided evidence that the principal was responsible for the observed increases in school attendance. AU three experiments resulted in changes in the Ss’ behavior in the desired direction.

Use of a Concurrent Treatment Design to Analyze the Effects of a Peer Review System in a Residential Setting

An experiment was carried out in which the recording practices of individual case managers at a residential treatment facility were improved using feedback from the overnight therapists at the facility. The overnight therapists, who were not associated with the daytime management of the individual clients, conducted weekly reviews of the data that were compiled by case managers during the day. Four particular standards were observed across each case manager, and specific written feedback was delivered to the case manager who was responsible for compiling the data for each child. The written feedback referred to the presence and accuracy of particular details for each program, including introductory cover pages, labeled experimental conditions, operational definitions, and adequate interobserver agreement. The experiment analyzed and verified the feedback procedure through concurrent treatment of different elements across I I cases. The results suggested that significant changes in the recording practices of therapists can be accomplished through feedback generated by the night therapists of the agency.

Productivity in the Public Sector: A Discussion of the Issues

There has recently been much public and political discussion about the efficiency and effectiveness of productivity programs offered by public sector organizations. One possible solution is to implement positive productivity programs for employees and managers. This article presents a discussion of seven critical questions from both an “outside” productivity consultants perspective and an “internal” city personnel directors perspective.