ETLP November

MU Center for SW-PBS
College of Education
University of Missouri

Effective Teaching and Learning Practice (ETLP) #3:

Encouraging Expected Behavior

Resources adapted from:

Objectives

• Explain the importance of both non-contingent and

contingent attention.

• Demonstrate effective Specific Positive Feedback that

concretely describes behavior.

• Be able to connect the school-wide system with your

classroom system to encourage expected behavior.

“Teacher praise has been supported as among one of the most empirically sound teacher competencies.”

John Maag

The Power of Adult Attention

Open Ended

What are some things you noticed from the video?

Adult Attention

Two types of adult attention:

Non-contingent – attention provided regardless of
performance

• Greetings, proximity, smiles, conversations, classroom jobs, etc.

Contingent – provided based upon student
performance of an identified expectation or behavior

• Praise, Specific Positive Feedback, reinforcement, PBIS Reward

points

• Proximity– Communicate privately with individual students; communication across the room is reserved for information intended for entire group only.

• Listening– Pause and attend thoughtfully to the student.

• Tone– Use calm voice when talking with, praising, and reteaching expectations to students.

• Expression– Pleasant facial expressions; avoid expressions that can be perceived as confrontational or disrespectful.

• Use Student’s Name– Begin interactions with student name and use frequently during interactions.

Non-Contingent Attention

Non-Contingent Attention

• Provides time and attention that is not tied to performance.

• Helps to fulfill students’ need to be noticed and valued.

• Sufficient non-contingent attention can decrease frequency of attention-seeking misbehavior.

• Antecedents that help establish positive relationships between staff and students and set the stage for students to display desired academic and behavioral expectations.

Thoughts...

• How can non-contingent attention act as an

antecedent for appropriate behavior?

• What examples of non-contingent attention

are presently in place in your classroom?

The Science of Behavior:
Making Adult Attention Contingent on

Performance of Desired Behaviors

ABC

Antecedent

Behavior

Consequence

Events that

happen

immediately

before and trigger

the behavior.

An observable
act. What the
student does.
The actions or

reactions to

the

antecedents.

The resulting event

or outcome that

occurs immediately

following the

behavior. Impacts
future occurrence

of the behavior.

Contingent Attention

• The student performs the expected behavior before

the teacher responds with attention (ie. attention is
contingent on the behavior).

• Increases academic performance (Akin-Little et al.,

2004).

• Increases on-task behavior (Sutherland, Wehby, &

Copeland, 2000)

• Increases likelihood students will continue to use

the desired behavior in the future (Wright, 2015).

Research Indicates...

• Approval statements for academic responses far outweigh

those for social behavior.

• Teachers often neglect to take advantage of the power of

positive attention.

• Highest rates of attention for social behavior occur in 2nd

grade and decrease dramatically after that.

• Teachers respond more frequently to inappropriate social

behavior than to appropriate social behavior.

• This attention inadvertently maintains or increases the

misbehavior.

Contingent Attention =

Encouraging Expected Behavior

• Motivates students as they are initially learning expected

behavior, andmaintainsexpected behaviors as students
become more fluent with use.

• There are many terms associated with encouraging

student behavior such as; “acknowledgement,” “teacher
approval,” “recognition,” ect.

• “Positive Reinforcement” is the behavioral scientific term

for a contingently delivered stimuli consequence that is
associated with an increase of future behavior.
• Positive Reinforcement can take many forms (social or

attention, tangible items, or activities).

Specific positive feedback is perhaps the most common
term for verbal reinforcement, which provides students
with social attention along with specific information on
their performance.

Specific Positive Feedback

● increases the likelihood of students using the desired

behavior again in the future.

● is essential in order to change and sustain behavior.
● recognizes effort or successes at tasks that are difficult

for the student.

Specific Positive Feedback (SPF)

“When we focus our praise on positive actions, we support a

sense of competence and autonomy that helps students develop

real self-esteem.”

Davis, 2007

*Increases likelihood students will use the recognized behaviors and skills in
the future.
*Decreases inappropriate behavior, and reduces the need for correction.
*Enhances self-esteem and helps build internal locus of control.

Specific Positive Feedback (SPF)

★ Contingent

○ Provided when the student has demonstrated the desired

behavior.

○

★ Immediate

○ Provided immediately so the student can remember what he or

she did that was correct.

○

★ Frequent (then Intermittent)

○ It is critical to provide SPF on a continuous schedule when

students are learning new skills. This means that every time the
student displays the desired behavior, they receive specific
positive feedback.

○ Once the skill or behavior has been learned, you can shift to use

of general praise or intermittent use of specific positive
feedback.

Specific Positive Feedback (SPF)

➢ State the expectation in a positive way (ie. what

should the student be doing)
➢ and the Student Name (if not whole group)

“Nolan, thank you for being responsible by following directions
and getting started right away.”

Specific Positive Feedback (SPF)

➢

Can include a positive consequence:

• Specific Positive Feedback alone may not be sufficiently reinforcing.

• When behavior requires a great deal of effort, pairing verbal

feedback with tangible reinforcement can be helpful.

• When using a positive consequence, always pair with Specific

Positive Feedback.

• Promote ownership; student “earns,” teachers do not “give.”

“Class, because you all showed responsibility and got started so quickly, you

have all earned bonus PBIS points.”

Specific Positive Feedback (SPF)

Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic

• When considering the ABCs of behavior, teachers may assert

they do not believe in giving prompts, positive feedback, or
tangible rewards for behaviors students should already know
and display.

• Some educators fear providing external regulation, in the form

of antecedent or consequential supports, will undermine
students’ intrinsic motivation. Such statements indicate a lack
of understanding regarding the fundamental principles of
motivation and the differentiation between motivation and
regulation. Beyond infancy and early childhood, the
motivation for the majority of human behavior is externally
motivated (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

More Examples

• “Dwayne, you disagreed with Sam, but you stopped and

took some time to think, used appropriate language and
settled the disagreement peacefully. That was very
respectful to Sam and to the rest of our class.”

• “Hey Oscar, thanks for using materials appropriately by

putting them away at the end of the project. That shows
respect for our classroom.”

• “Jasmine, thanks for being responsible by being on time to

class. That’s important at school and when you are on the
job.”

Encouraging Expected Behavior

Positive to Negative Ratio

4:1

Encouraging Expected Behavior

Positive to Negative Ratio

• As teacher praise to reprimand ratios improve,

student on-task levels increase.

• Research indicates that after withdrawing praise

from a classroom, off-task behavior increases up
to 25.5% (Becker et al.).

Encouraging Expected Behavior 4:1 Ratio

• Teachers should interact with students 4 times more

often when they are behaving appropriately than
when they are behaving inappropriately (4:1 ratio)

• 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 sometimes necessary; the

key is the ratio

A Schoolwide System to

Encourage Expected Behavior

Using a reward system is
not the same as bribing a

student to behave

appropriately. A bribe is

something offered or
given a person in a
position of trust to

influence or corrupt that
person’s views or conduct.

PBIS acknowledges and
reinforces students for
following school-wide
expectations and rules.

Reinforcement is delivered

AFTER the appropriate

behavior, bribery is
delivered BEFORE a
specific behavior.

-Akin-Litlle et al., 2004,
Cameron et al., 2001

PBIS Rewards:

• Help staff be accountable for recognizing student

behavior and providing Specific Positive Feedback.

• Provide all staff with an efficient and always

available system for providing reinforcement.

• Give staff a tool to engage in positive interactions

with any student in school.

• Are a universal sign to students–both those

receiving and those watching.

PBIS Rewards “How-To” Links:

• PBIS Rewards Training Documents and Videos

• Google Drive:

MCS Staff Shared Resources→PBIS Teams

Schedules of Reinforcement

How often should students be reinforced?

• Students learning new behaviors need a frequent

scheduleof reinforcement.

• Students who have demonstrated mastery respond to

an intermittent schedule of reinforcement.

• Students who have maintained appropriate behavior

respond to a occasional schedule.

Frequent

Intermittent

Occasional

Instances of
behavior are
reinforced at a

high rate to

quickly build new

behaviors

Timing of

reinforcement is
unplanned and is

delivered less
frequently to

maintain

appropriate

behavior

Reinforcement is

delivered
following a

predetermined
amount of time
that the target

behavior is
exhibited

Schedules of Reinforcement

Classroom Management to Support

Encouraging Expected Behaviors

• Student Movement

• Movement throughout the day helps students to

re-energize their bodies and their brains, helping
them to focus and concentrate better.

• Research has shown that movement during the

school day benefits academic performance and
improves behavior.

Student Movement Strategies

• Gestures

• Add a gesture or motion to vocabulary words.

• American Sign Language (ASL) letter signs.
• Word Motions: “weathering,” the motion could be one

hand making a chopping motion, representing wind or
water chipping away at a rock, “erosion,” the motion could
be one hand moving like a wave, representing the
movement of sediments from one place to another, etc.

• Thumbs up and thumbs down to indicate agreement or

disagreement.

Student Movement Strategies

• Out of Seat

• Create opportunities for students to physically be out

of their seats.
• Go Noodle Breaks
• When voting or answering a multiple-choice question,

students can move to one of four corners.

• Students stand in two lines facing each other, and share

their response to a prompt. After they share, one line
shifts to the left, and the student left without a partner
moves to the head of the line.

• Have several tasks around the room and students can

rotate and complete each task.

PBIS Matrices

• Sherman-Text
• Sherman-Visual
• Springmill STEM
• Spanish Immersion

• Malabar
• Middle School
• Senior High