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Does Positive Reinforcement Impact On-‐Task Behavior?

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Does Positive Reinforcement Impact Students’ On-Task Behavior?

Caroline Coble

Kennesaw State University


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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine if positive reinforcement shows an increase in my

students’ on-‐task behavior. There will 6 Pre-‐K students that I will focus on during the

duration of this study. Students’ engagement was charted throughout the day during many

different activities all while positive reinforcement was being used. The results of my study

showed no improvement in students’ on-‐task behavior. This proved to me that positive

reinforcement was not the best choice for a behavior plan, for the students in my class this

year.

Introduction

Classroom management is something that is very important in all grade levels,

especially for such young students building their “learning” future. Many of my students

have never been in any type of school situation or around anyone besides family. It is

important to me that we can all work together on forming a type of classroom management

that works and the students enjoy and learn from as well. With a classroom management

system that works correctly, students will be able to self-‐monitor and correct behaviors

with fewer reminders by the teacher or teaching assistant. The main concern I have with

my behavior plan now is that my children seem to know the rules but need constant

reminders from teachers, which takes away from important learning time in class. I would

like to cut down on teacher corrected behaviors and give students something positive as a


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reward for having conscious discipline. This would in turn allow for more teaching time

and students knowing what to do and how to behave.

Literature Review

Choi and Lee (2008) did a study on a web-‐based program with prospective teachers

giving them examples of scenarios and questions about classroom management. A web-‐

based program was given to the teachers, and they were asked questions in essay form

before and after having taken the class. Most teachers know classroom management is a

great concern in all schools. Effective classroom management is said to be “an essential first

step in becoming a good teacher” (Ayers, 2009). In this study by Choi and Lee participants

agreed that learning multiple perspectives of classroom management had been beneficial

in helping devise a plan that would work for their particular students and classrooms.

Awang (2010) did a study of positive behavior enhancement strategies and

concluded that, “positive and negative behaviors are contextual, subjective and have a close

link with socio-‐cultural norms” (Awang 2010 p 204). This informs us why certain behavior

is accepted by certain culture but rejected in another. In this study schools were

encouraged to “have a good relationship with stakeholders: home-‐school, inter-‐agencies,

and inter-‐school partnerships.” The seemingly most important of these relationships is the

home-‐school partnership which refers to the parental/familial involvement in school

activities. Parents need to know what is going on with their child specifically at school This

goes the same way for the school, teachers need to know what is going on in children’s

home life.


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Savas’ (2012) study on the contribution of family cooperating in Early Childhood

further proves how important parental involvement is. “Teachers are in need of parental

support for maintaining and controlling behaviors inside and outside school” (Savas 2012 p

13). Teachers and parents need to be on the same page and understand what is going on

both at school and at home. School can be difficult for many students, and parents need to

be involved and work with students to complete task. If parents and teachers can work

together on the behavior of a child, more consistency and better behavior will ensue. “If

parents do not support the teachers or they stand out against the attempts of a teacher, the

expected behavioral changes are very hard to be permitted… by the students” (Savas, 2012

p 17).

“The fact remains that there is no one proven deterrent for disruptions in the

classroom” (Victor, 2005 p 2). Every child is different as is every teacher as well as every

classroom. Classroom management and the way teachers handle these disruptions is

something that has to be tweaked to meet the needs of each teacher and their class. “A good

number of teachers react to inappropriate behavior by shaming, verbally reprimanding,

threatening, embarrassing, suspending and expelling the student” (Awang, 2013 p 13).

These are things that should be avoided at all cost. If students constantly hear negatives

from the teacher they will get down on themselves. If teachers try to show more positive

attention to students

In a study by Smith (2009), he linked the ideas of behavior management and literacy

in pre-‐school classrooms. He states that behavior is not the only issue in early-‐childhood,

but that these young students need a diversion to be able to behave more properly.

Students need to be engaged in material and these negative behaviors would cease taking


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place. “Another parallel between literacy and behavior management is the use of routines”

(Smith, 2009 p 149). Routines are very important for academic purposes but also critical in

the terms of procedures and processes included in the behavior management of a class.

Positive classroom management is extraordinarily important in early-‐childhood

classrooms. Morris’ (2013) study suggests that the early-‐childhood years provide a

gateway for learning in the future. Your experiences as a child and the way classrooms are

run affect the rest of your educational career. These early years are especially important in

improving educational outlook to those students who come from disadvantaged

backgrounds. This is only the case when a classroom is a positive environment that is well

managed and runs efficiently. Many issues can arise in an early-‐childhood classroom, “Not

surprisingly these diversions have a ripple effect on the entire classroom of children”

(Morris, 2013 p 3). Morris’ study focused on building positive relationships with students,

setting clear rules, working with children on anger management, etc. “The establishment of

behavioral supports for pre-‐schoolers who are at risk is a critical component of early-‐

childhood programming and preventing behavior problems” (Stormont, Smith and Lewis,

2007 p 282). Stephen Bapesh suggests that teachers take time and understand the

physical appearance of students as they enter the classroom. This will give teachers a

better idea of how students are feeling coming into class and in what way to approach them.

“Classroom environment and behavior deals very much with the attitude of the teacher

involved” (Feuerborn, 2012 p 219). These positive relationships increase the manageability

of the classroom environment and teachers are shown a great deal of respect. Teachers

should always conduct themselves in a mature manner with students and show them


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respect in order to receive it. “Effective discipline means that the classroom is relatively

free of confusion and disorder, and anti-‐social behavior” (Mills, 1997)

According to research by Paciotti “a caring and well managed classroom is integral

in the achievement of struggling learners” (Alder, 2002; Elias & Weissberg, 2000; Jensen,

2000; Paciotti & Covington, 2007). In this study Paciotti finds that if teachers show

enthusiasm, have a fun loving spirit and show interest in their students, they have many

more high performing learners. Especially children in the early-‐childhood years respond

very well to positive reinforcement and this seems to be the optimum way to manage a

classroom in early years. If teachers try and use authoritarian methods with young children

it tends to scare them, and they shy away form the teacher and are timid to learn. (Paciotti,

2007) Simonsen agreed that “increasing the number of behavior specific praise statements

was associated with task behavior” (Sutherland, Wheby, and Copeland, 2000) In Krasch’s

study on “Mrs. Johnson” he too found that creating a increased ratio of positive – negative

interactions with students significantly improved her classroom environment. (Krasch,

2009). In Australia, schools have started using a school-‐wide behavior management plan.

“In SWPBS (School Wide Positive Behavior System) significant efforts are made to swing

the acknowledgement-‐correction balance in favour of acknowledgement (praise and

reward). The goal is for teachers to achieve a ratio of 4:1 positive acknowledgements to

corrections” (Sugai, Horner &Todd, 2000).


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Methodology

The study I am going to conduct is dealing with classroom management. My class is

made up of 22 Pre-‐K students from low-‐income families. We are a Title I school and all

students at my school receive free and reduced lunch. The population of my school is over

70% Hispanic. In my class there are two Caucasian children, three African American

children, one Asian child, one child that is mixed and fifteen Hispanic children.

The question I will be focusing on is “Does positive reinforcement increase on-‐task

behavior in the classroom?” I will be focusing my study on 6 specific children that often

have difficulty with classroom routines and procedures. I will be researching and gathering

data on these students to see if when I implement this proposed behavior plan, using

positive reinforcement, there will be less teacher corrective statements and more time of

students being on task and following directions.

Classroom management is an essential part of running an effective classroom. It is a

key aspect of children learning in an optimum environment for acquiring knowledge. As a

new teacher, classroom management is still a new concept for me, and I am eager to learn

more as classroom management ideas are always evolving.

The Pre-‐K years are the very foundation of students’ educational future. If children

are constantly reminded to behave a certain way and never praised for when they are

doing something right, they may always require a cue to behave in the correct way. One of

my goals as a teacher is to show my young students the idea of self-‐conscious discipline

where a teacher is not constantly telling you what to do, but instead you make these

choices on your own.


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The research question my study will focus on is “Does positive reinforcement

increase on-‐task behavior in the classroom?” I will start by introducing the new behavior

plan to students and show them how it works. The plan will consist of students each having

a library envelope. When students are on task, (as noted by the teacher), they will be asked

to put a popsicle stick in their individual envelope and throughout the week try and collect

as many sticks as possible. Students’ envelopes will be located in individual cubbies in the

front of the room to avoid any confusion. It will be noted that students cannot lose the stick

once they earn them but the better behaved and more on task they are, the more sticks

they can earn. On Friday of each week students will be able to cash in their popsicle sticks

for items out of my behavior binder. The behavior binder will consist of class coupons for

such things as shoes off during seatwork, show-‐and-‐tell, and sit with the teacher at lunch

etc. Different coupons will require various amounts of sticks, with the most desired

coupons requiring the highest quantity of popsicle sticks.

The data that I will be collecting for this study will be taken throughout the day

during seatwork, carpet time, calendar and small group. I determined I needed to chart my

students’ engagement at least 20 times per day. The 6 students I am focusing my work on

will have an engagement chart each day that I will tally on task or off task behavior. If the

student is following directions and on task with what is at hand I will mark on one side of

the chart and if the student is off task and I have to verbally remind them to get back on

task, a tally will be placed on the opposite side of the chart. (Appendix A-‐ Engagement

Chart) I will also conduct qualitative research by journaling and reflecting through this

process based on the students’ behaviors. This combination of quantitative (tally marks)


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and qualitative (journaling) data should give me a good indication of the improvement of

student conscious discipline and less teacher corrected behaviors.

At the end of my study I will look back through the weeks of journal entries and

engagement charts with tally marks and see whether there was any significant

improvement in on task behavior, a decline, or if the students really were not impacted by

this change in behavior plan at all. From this I hope to gain knowledge of how positive

reinforcement impacts the students in my classroom. If students seem to benefit from this

behavior plan and there is more quality learning time for all students then this will be a

behavior plan I keep in place. If there is no noticeable improvement in students’ on task

behavior then I will continue to look for the behavior plan appropriate for my class this

year that will optimize their learning. “The importance of teaching appropriate behaviour

resonates strongly with the early childhood care ethos and early childhood education

practices” (LeBel & Chafouleas, 2010).

Results

Quantitative Data

The quantitative portion of my data was collected to see how many times the

students in my study were either on task or if they were off task. In order to keep track of

how many times a day each student was on or off task an engagement chart was created

(Appendix A) specific to each day and each student. I began the engagement charting for 2

weeks with the behavior plan I had already in place. This was done so I could have an idea

of how students’ behavior was to start with. My study then began for 4 weeks (pending

weather) implementing the new positive reinforcement behavior plan and continuing to


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chart my students’ engagement. Figures 1 shows on task behavior with the original

behavior plan that was in place, while figure 2 shows on task behavior while using positive

reinforcement. Figures 3 and 4 show the off task behavior starting with the old behavior

plan followed by off task behavior while executing positive reinforcement.

The average number of on task tally marks before using the positive reinforcement

was 10.3 and when the positive reinforcement aspect was added to the behavior plan the

average on task tally marks was 10.8. This shows a slight increase in on task behavior as a

whole but when each child was looked at individually the results varied. While looking at

averages the mean for off task behavior before positive reinforcement was 6.5 and after the

positive reinforcement was added the mean was 7.7. Using this data it seems there was

more of an increase of off task behaviors once positive reinforcement was introduced.

To show the positive reinforcement portion of this data students had individual

library envelops they placed popsicle sticks into each time they were found to be on task,

following directions, sitting quietly, etc. while other students were off task. Popsicle sticks

were then traded in for class coupons that varied by amount of sticks earned. Figure A and

B will show the two weeks we used this positive reinforcement and how many times the six

students that were studied got to place popsicle sticks in their envelopes.

Based on the results of my quantitative data I don’t think that positive

reinforcement had a positive impact in my classroom. My Pre-‐K students were not

motivated by a physical reward to improve their behavior. These six students that were

studied did not seem to care that they did not earn a coupon to use in the classroom. The


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findings showed me I need to find another way to motivate the students in my classroom

and that positive reinforcement is not the best behavior plan.

Figure 1 on task

Figure 2 on task


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Figure 3 off task

Figure 4 off task

Figure A) Week 1 Hubert 6 Trenton 6 Anteaus 14 Jayden 8 Steven 10 Richard 12 Figure B) Week 2


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Hubert 4 Trenton 6 Anteaus 6 Jayden 8 Steven 9 Richard 9

Qualitative

The qualitative portion of this study was done by journaling each day during my

planning period at the end of the day. I reflected on the day as a whole and on each of my

students individually. I found myself writing many of the same things over and over during

journaling and that the same things would happen day in and day out. From simply

journaling I had come to the conclusion my positive reinforcement was not having a

positive impact on students on task behavior and after computing my quantitative data I

found this to be true. These six students I chose to do my study on were ones that originally

had behavior problems and even with changing the behavior plan I would find myself

writing that the same behaviors they displayed before a change in the behavior plan would

still surface daily. Figure C will show all of the journal entries I made complied into one

document on Wordle. Wordle used the material I had written and created a image with the

words that were most frequently used in larger font. It was a great tool to show me what

ideas and thoughts kept occurring during the journaling process.

Figure C- Wordle


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Conclusion

After completing all of my data, both quantitative and qualitative, I have come to the

conclusion that positive reinforcement did not have a positive impact on the students in my

Pre-‐K class and their on task behavior. The students who seemed to have trouble staying

on task before I added positive reinforcement in our daily behavior plan still seemed to

have trouble with their behavior and on task abilities as well. There were certain days

during the study which students on task behavior would improve or decline but as a whole

positive reinforcement did not have any constructive improvement with my students.

Based on the information I have gathered from my research, I feel I still need to

discover the behavior plan that will work best with students. In my classroom positive

reinforcement may be fine when used in combination with another behavior strategy but it

cannot be the sole design used. My action research substantiated the concept that positive


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reinforcement does not work for all young students. It may be a great strategy to use in

other classrooms but my students did not benefit from only positive reinforcement in the

classroom.

For future research I think I would like to use a larger group of students to study. I

would also choose a mixture of both female and male students. In the research I just

conducted I only used male students and I feel this placed a limitation on my data.

Journaling each day was a great way to stay up to date with thoughts and feelings about the

research and I would like to keep an organized schedule with forthcoming research. I will

continue to search for the best behavior plan for my students this year and for years to

come.

Appendix A Daily Engagement Chart


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Student Name

On Task

Off Task

1

2

3

4

5

6

References: Awang, M., Jindal-‐Snape, D., & Barber, T. (2013). A Documentary Analysis of the Government's Circulars on Positive Behavior Enhancement Strategies. Asian Social Science, 9(5), 203-‐208. doi:10.5539/ass.v9n5p203


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Feuerborn, L. (2012). Teacher Perceptions of Student Needs and Implications for Positive Behavior Supports. Behavioral Disorders, 37(4), 219. Fields, B. (2012). Getting the balance right: The challenge of balancing praise and correction for early school years children who exhibit oppositional and defiant behaviour. Australasian Journal Of Early Childhood, 37(4), 24-‐28.

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Smith, J. (2009). Blending Effective Behavior Management and Literacy Strategies for Preschoolers Exhibiting Negative Behavior. Early Childhood Education Journal, 37(2), 147-‐151. doi:10.1007/s10643-‐009-‐0326-‐z

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