School Psychology Commons^™

Praise That Empowers: Training Preschool Teachers To Linguistically Adapt Behavior-Specific Praise For Hispanic Students, Claudia Abril Ochoa

Dissertations

Children’s engagement in early ages is critical for promoting behavioral, academic, and social-emotional outcomes. However, engagement in classroom activities may be difficult for young children who have not mastered the primary language used in early childhood education settings (i.e., English). Research regarding engagement in English Language Learners (ELLs) in preschool settings, as well as cultural and/or linguistic adaptations of classroom interventions to serve this population is limited. Behavior-specific praise (BSP) has been an effective strategy to improve behavior in preschool classrooms. The current study used a multiple-baseline design across three Head-Start teachers to test the efficacy of in situ training …

Test Driving Proximity Distances For Teacher Implementation Of Effective Instruction Delivery, Kenneth Joseph Ross Ii

Dissertations

Student noncompliance can disrupt teacher instruction and affect students’ ability to learn in the classroom. Interventions can be provided to teachers within the PBIS tiered system to address noncompliance. One intervention that addresses noncompliance, Effective Instruction Delivery (EID), has been demonstrated to increase levels of compliance above baseline levels. Despite the effectiveness of evidence-based interventions such as EID, there are significant concerns with ensuring the feasibility of evidence-based interventions to match the needs of teachers in the classroom to reduce teacher burn-out. A possible strategy to promote high levels of fidelity is to allow teachers to test drive interventions before …

Social Sprouts: A Play-Based Packaged Intervention - Improving Peer Interactions In Early Childhood Classrooms With A Novel Group Contingency, Brittany D. Garza

Master's Theses

Teaching prosocial skills such as positive peer interactions in early childhood settings not only promotes behavioral health but reliably predicts future learning outcomes. The literature suggests that decreasing levels of challenging behavior may improve peer interactions, and a feasible class-wide strategy that can address this combination of needs effectively is a group contingency. The current study investigated the effect of a novel group contingency, Social Sprouts, on both positive peer interactions and disruptive behavior. This study utilized a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design in three Head Start classrooms to evaluate the effect of this packaged intervention delivered just before and during …

Connecting For Success: Evaluating The Frequency Of Check & Connect Meetings On Student Behavior, Kaylee S. Mckinney

Master's Theses

Dropout prevention efforts commonly address risk factors including chronic absenteeism, which continues to be a nationwide concern. Check & Connect is a student engagement intervention that aims to improve graduation rates and mitigate several risk factors of dropout. Previous research has failed to address if the frequency of Check & Connect meetings results in varied effectiveness of the intervention. The current study aims to evaluate the effects of modified frequency of Check & Connect meetings on academic engagement, term grade average, absences, and office discipline referrals through the use of a multiple baseline across participants design. Results revealed that students …

The Examination Of Teacher Mentorship Design For Mentees, Cagla Cobek

Dissertations

Teacher stress has been documented as a problem for today’s educators. Improving teachers’ well-being through mentorship programs is promising in the literature. Therefore, this study examined a daily check-in mentorship program for teachers experiencing moderate stress. The researchers examined the changes in mentees’ daily stress levels, perceived stress, sense of self-efficacy, and use of proactive classroom management strategies. Mentees and mentors were also asked to complete ratings of the social validity of the mentorship program. Three mentees and mentor dyads working in an elementary and middle school in a Southeastern school district in the USA participated. A nonconcurrent Multiple Baseline …

The Demand For Educational Functions Of Study Tour Products: From Students’ Perspectives, Yaqi Yu, Azizan Marzuki

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

Few academic studies have comprehensively examined the actual demands of students regarding the educational function of study tours. This paper develops a demand index system based on three dimensions: cognitive, affective, and behavioral demands. A questionnaire survey was administered to 397 students. Initially, student demands were categorized using the Kano model. Subsequently, the “dependence” and “expectancy” characteristics were analyzed through the dissatisfaction index (DI) and satisfaction index (SI). The impact of fulfilling each demand on dissatisfaction and satisfaction levels was then determined. The results indicated that among the three dimensions, there were 7 must-be demands, 6 one-dimensional demands, 8 attractive …

Promoting Preschool Teachers’ Maintenance And Generalization Of Behavior-Specific Praise Through Multitiered Consultation, Claudia Abril Ochoa

Master's Theses

Teachers struggle to provide behavior-specific praise (BSP), which is associated with appropriate classroom management and decreases in student’s problem behavior. The current study used a multiple-baseline design across three Head Start teachers to test the effectiveness of the multitiered consultation model in increasing teachers’ BSP. The Head Start center provided a universal training in classroom management strategies, including BSP. Three teachers who were not implementing this strategy consistently (i.e., less than five instances in a 10-min observation) received Tier 2 supports including goal setting paired with a simple prompt. Data about teachers’ use of BSP was collected class-wide at a …

Evaluating The Treatment Utility Of Universal Screening For Social-Emotional And Behavioral Risk, Rebecca Wagner Lovelace

Dissertations

Universal screening is a proactive method used by schools to identify social-emotional and behavioral (SEB) difficulties experienced by students to inform necessary intervention supports and practices. Early detection of SEB problems in young children is imperative to effective treatment, but there is currently little guidance and research to support effective use of universal screening data, particularly for SEB risk, to inform treatment. The current study followed up on studies that examine the use of universal screening to inform intervention decision making (e.g., treatment utility) for SEB risk. An alternating treatment design was used to assess treatment effectiveness of matched and …

Emailed Prompt Package To Increase Alternative School Educators’ Use Of Behavior Specific Praise, Chelsea Johnson

Dissertations

Alternative school educators are often placed in alternative education settings with minimal training or support to manage disruptive behaviors in the classroom. To combat this, school-based consultation may be provided to assist alternative school educators with classroom management strategies. However, face-to-face consultation may be limited due to the numerous responsibilities placed on school-based consultants. Behavior specific praise (BSP) is a strategy that is recommended, but often provided at low rates. To address these barriers, previous literature has examined the use of emailed prompts to increase treatment integrity, feasibility, and acceptability of a variety of evidence-based interventions. A concurrent multiple baseline …

Using Behavior Bingo To Increase Academically Engaged Behavior In A General Education Elementary School Population, Faith Elizabeth Hamilton

Master's Theses

Spending instructional and work time addressing disruptive behaviors in the classroom is a common complaint of many teachers. The literature suggests that group contingencies are beneficial for improving behavior on a classwide and individual level. The current study investigated Behavior BINGO, a group contingency intervention whose research is in its infancy, and its effectiveness on increasing academically engaged behaviors and decreasing disruptive behaviors on a classwide basis. This study utilized a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design in three 2^nd grade, general education classrooms in a public school.

The Classroom Password Group Contingency With Randomized Reinforcers, Emily Maxime

Master's Theses

From the principles of reinforcement and punishment established by operant conditioning, there have been a variety of different behavior modification methods explored. Group contingencies are one of these behavior modification procedures that can be applied at a class-wide level by teachers who are seeking to improve student behavior as a group or individually. The three types of group contingencies are independent, interdependent, and dependent group contingency. Additional components, such as randomization within a group contingency, have been seen to further the effectiveness of behavioral strategies. A novel independent group contingency that has recently been investigated and demonstrated some promise as …

The Examination Of A Teacher Mentorship Intervention On Junior Teachers' Stress And Self-Efficacy, Cagla Cobek

Master's Theses

This study examined a daily Check-In/Check-Out mentorship intervention for junior teachers. Changes in junior teachers’ stress level and their sense of self-efficacy were measured. Researchers collected data from three junior teachers and mentor dyads in a Southeastern school district. A Multiple Baseline Design across three teachers was used in this study to examine the impact of the daily mentorship intervention. The results suggested that daily Check-Ins and Check-Outs with mentor teachers decreased all three junior teachers’ daily stress. The intervention did not impact significantly on junior teachers’ perceived stress and their sense of self-efficacy. Overall, this study supports a promising …

Comparing Effects Of Praise Rates On Classroom Behavior, Brittany Pigg

Master's Theses

High-quality academic instruction, and, in turn, student success, are correlated with effective classroom management (Gage, Scott, Hirn, & MacSuga-Gage, 2018; Johnson, 1997; Stronge, Ward, & Grant, 2011; Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1993). Students are spending up to 50% of their instructional time engaged in non-instructional activities such as classroom procedures, transitions, and discipline (Codding & Smyth, 2008). However, academic activities should account for at least 70% of classroom time (Little & Akin-Little, 2008). Praise, a simple classroom behavior management procedure, includes statements commending behavior and is intended to increase the future probability of the behavior that warranted praise. Behavior-specific praise …

A Meta-Analysis Of Implementation Planning: The Effects On Teachers’ Treatment Adherence And Quality When Implementing Behavioral Interventions, Taylor Ben

Master's Theses

The purpose of the current study was to systematically review the literature investigating the use of Implementation Planning (IP) as a consultation method to improve teacher’s treatment integrity when implementing behavioral interventions. IP consultation is hypothesized to improve treatment implementation adherence as well as the quality of implementation related to the chosen behavior intervention(s). A secondary hypothesis of this review was that cooccurring student behavior would improve as teachers’ level of treatment integrity improved. An initial literature search produced 48 articles from which four studies met the inclusion criteria. Thus, all included studies were single case designs, used IP as …

Meta-Analysis Of Effective Instruction Delivery, Halley Blanchard

Dissertations

Effective instruction delivery (EID) is a combination of antecedent and consequent strategies used to increase child compliance with adult instructions. The current meta-analysis sought to evaluate the effects of EID as an independent and combined treatment component across studies, as well as evaluate the reported treatment acceptability across studies. Additionally, moderator analyses were conducted to determine the impact of interventionist type (i.e., parent or teacher), implementation setting, child age, and child diagnosis on the effects of EID on child compliance. The analysis generated large effect sizes for EID across studies and high levels of treatment acceptability. The effects of EID …

Assessing The Contributions Of Proximity To Effective Instruction Delivery, Kenneth Ross

Master's Theses

Effective instruction delivery (EID) is a component of the Compliance Training for Children (CTC) Model developed by D. Joe Olmi from the School Psychology program at the University of Southern Mississippi that is designed to increase childhood compliance to adult-delivered directives. EID has been observed to be an effective strategy for increasing compliance in children (Bellipanni et al., 2013; Derieux, 2021; Ford et al., 2001; Griffin, 2007; Wimberly, 2016). Additionally, the contributions of the individual components of EID, such as demanded eye contact (Everett et al., 2005; Faciane, 2004) and contingent praise (Everett et al., 2005), have been investigated over …

A Meta-Analysis Of Antecedent Exercise On Children’S Classroom Behaviors, Chelsea Johnson

Master's Theses

The purpose of the current study was to systematically review the literature investigating the effects of antecedent aerobic exercise on students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Eighteen studies met inclusion criteria, which included single case design studies and group studies, participant age, and an exercise intervention. Tau U was used as the procedure to calculate an effect size for A-B contrasts for single case design studies and effect size ranged from small to moderate for multiple variables such as disruptive behavior and academically engaged behavior. Hedges g was used to calculate an omnibus effect size for all single case design …

Stability Of Universal Screening Over Time: An Examination Of The Student Risk Screening Scale, Rebecca Wagner Lovelace

Master's Theses

Universal screening is a proactive method to identify students that are at risk for social-emotional and behavior (SEB) problems and provide information to schools to support early intervention for at risk children. Current recommendations for practice indicate screening should be conducted at three time points during the school year. Previous studies suggest that this recommendation is not empirically based and fewer screenings per year may be sufficient for identifying students at risk. The current study seeks to extend the literature regarding the stability and consistency of screening scores over time by analyzing ratings from the Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS) …

The Effects Of Segmenting Worksheets And Behavior Specific Praise On Independent Seatwork With Elementary Students, Lauren Peak

Dissertations

While the education system has seen many changes over the years due to COVID-19, one constant is that students must complete independent seatwork at certain times throughout the day. As teachers accommodate the many students in their classroom, an intervention that could increase students’ amount of academic production when doing independent seatwork would be mutually beneficial. For students, the increased contact with learning opportunities would provide the students means to increase fluency for that skill. Examining the effects of segmented and whole worksheets on production would, therefore, create additional learning opportunities.

This study sought to assess the effectiveness of the …

Implementation Planning To Increase Treatment Integrity For Check-In/Check-Out With An Electronic Dbrc, Caitlyn Weaver

Dissertations

The present investigation assessed the effectiveness of Implementation Planning (IP) as a strategy for improving the treatment integrity of a commonly implemented behavioral intervention, Check-In/Check-Out (CICO). An electronic daily behavior report card (E-DBRC) was used to monitor intervention effectiveness for three students across a non-concurrent multiple-baseline design. IP was not associated with consistent improvements in treatment integrity for teachers who served as mentors within the CICO intervention. Teacher treatment integrity improved for one student’s teacher but had no sustained functional relation for the other two teachers. Student behavioral data were collected to determine if the implementation of CICO was associated …

Using Contingent Praise To Increase Visual Engagement In An Asynchronous Online Learning Environment: An Eye Tracking Study, Andrew Rozsa

Dissertations

As more students move to online learning, this results in not only new barriers but new opportunities in academia. The purpose of this study was to examine how behavior-contingent praise affects visual engagement with an online video lecture when using WebGazer, a publicly available eye tracking software, with a user’s integrated webcam. A second aim of this study was to examine if using WebGazer with an integrated webcam was a valid alternative to hand scoring when collecting visual engagement data. Results of WebGazer measurement indicated a moderate effect size for three participants in the presence of contingent praise, and …

Programming Maintenance For The Mystery Student Intervention, Sarah Litten

Dissertations

The current study evaluated the effects of the Mystery Student Intervention (MSI) in university and community-based preschool settings on the appropriate and disruptive behaviors in the classroom utilizing a randomized independent group contingency. This study extended the literature base of the MSI, which was previously conducted in Head Start classrooms by Pasqua (2019), and Pasqua and colleagues (2021) which determined the MSI to be effective at reducing disruptive behaviors in the classroom setting. A nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across three classrooms was used. This study also sought to further extend the literature by evaluating programmed maintenance using a partial sequential …

Interview-Informed Synthesized Contingency Analyses On Challenging Problem Behavior: A Single-Case Meta-Analysis, Lauren Layman

Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to conduct a thorough review of the literature on the Interview Informed Synthesized Contingency Analysis (IISCA) developed by Hanley et al. (2014) and its subsequent treatments. A total of 39 articles were identified as including an IISCA to assess the function of participants’ destructive problem behavior. Twenty-nine articles also conducted function-based interventions designed from the results of the IISCAs. Within those 39 studies, 235 participants participated in 293 synthesized contingency analyses (SCA) and 111 treatment evaluations. Results indicated that 95.56% of SCAs in the included studies were reported to be differentiated. Likewise, Tau-U …

Preventing Food Fights: A Meta-Analytic Review Of Single Case-Design Research In The Cafeteria Setting, Mary Ware

Dissertations

Disruptive behavior is one of the most prevalent problems in schools, with nearly 50% of all disruptive behavior occurring in non-classroom settings (e.g., cafeteria; Colvin, Sugai, Good, & Lee, 1997). However, the extent to which intervention strategies exist to address these behaviors in these settings is unknown. The purpose of the current study was to conduct a meta-analytic review in order to identify, review, and determine the effectiveness of interventions implemented within the cafeteria setting. Eighteen articles were identified through a comprehensive database search and application of inclusion criteria were included. Overall results determined that interventions implemented in the cafeteria …

Using Praise To Increase Visual Attending In An Asynchronous Online Learning Environment: An Eye Tracking Study, Andrew J. Rozsa Iii

Master's Theses

With the emergence of online courses in the mid-1990s, the number of students enrolled in online courses has been growing at an exponential rate (Schwirzke, Vashaw, & Watson, 2018). This trend brings with it new problems, such as familiarity with evidence-supported behavioral techniques that will maintain student engagement and improve likelihood of academic success in online learning environments. The purpose of the present study was to examine how the use of praise may affect visual engagement with video lectures with the assistance of commercially available eye tracking technology. A secondary objective of the study was to identify how praise affects …

The Effects Of Parent-Implemented Demanded Eye Contact As A Component Of Eid On Child Compliance, Halley Claire Blanchard

Master's Theses

Effective instruction delivery (EID) is an eight-step strategy that has been shown to be effective at increasing child compliance across classroom and clinical settings (Everett et al., 2005; Ford, 1998; Mandal et al., 2000; Scoggins, 2005). Component analyses investigating the relative importance of eye contact components of EID have obtained mixed results in clinical settings (Everett et al., 2005; Faciane, 2001; Faciane, 2004). Additionally, applied studies evaluating the effectiveness and treatment integrity of interventions delivered through telehealth have been largely behavior-analytic in nature (Lee et al., 2015; Seuss et al., 2013; Stich & Samaha, 2015; Wainer & Ingersoll, 2014). The …

Matching Equation: Teacher Rates Of Praise And Reprimands, Meleah Ackley

Master's Theses

Previous matching equation literature has demonstrated variability in student behaviors matching onto available reinforcement rates. While some studies have found that student on-task behaviors matched contingent teacher attention around half the observations (Martens et al., 1990), other studies have found that first grade students’ on-task behavior matched contingent teacher attention more than half of observations (Shriver & Kramer, 1997). However, no studies in the current literature have used teacher behaviors as the primary dependent variables (i.e., B1 and B2 in the matching equation). The current study sought to extend the Generalized Matching Equation (GME) further into the classroom, given the …

The Effects Of Segmenting Worksheets On Independent Seatwork With Elementary Students Delivered In A Remote Manner Using Parents As Interventionists, Lauren Peak

Master's Theses

Students have a limited amount of time each day to complete independent assignments. These assignments prioritize the learning opportunities provided to students. Learning opportunities or the chance to practice with feedback is highly effective, and additional repetition enhances the learning experience. By increasing student's time-on-task, they will be provided more learning opportunities. This study sought to discover if segmented work could increase the number of problems completed, digits correct per minute and on-task behavior. An alternating treatment design across four participants allowed for the comparison of segmented worksheets and whole worksheets. Additionally, parents served as the interventionist in this remote …

Predicting Parent Attendance For Group-Delivered Pcit Workshops In Head Start Centers, Jennifer Tannehill

Dissertations

Group PCIT was offered to parents of Head Start children as part of a larger study that investigated the Impact of a Preschool Obesity Prevention (IPOP) Program Enhanced with Positive Behavioral Supports. The dependent variable (DV) in this study was number of group PCIT sessions attended. The independent variables were marital status, income, education level, parenting practices measured by the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire-PR, and responses from the Caregiver Feeding Style Questionnaire. Predictions were made regarding the impact each of these variables had on attendance to group PCIT sessions. An ordinal logistic regression model was used to analyze the data. No …

Test-Driving Interventions For Teachers: A Proactive Method For Improving Treatment Integrity, Stefanie Schrieber

Dissertations

Test-driving is an antecedent method utilized to improve the extent to which teachers adhere to implementation procedures of student interventions (i.e., treatment integrity). The current study aimed to extend the literature on the test-driving intervention with three teacher-student dyads in a high school setting using a multiple baseline design. Teacher/student dyads were recruited based on teacher referral to the schools’ behavioral consultants. Recruited teachers began in a consultation-as-usual phase, where procedures were implemented consistent with the problem-solving consultation model (e.g., problem identification, problem analysis, treatment implementation, and treatment evaluation). Teachers who demonstrated 50% or lower adherence to treatment components were …