There is a body of evidence that has linked teachers' verbal feedback to pupils with pupil behaviour. In this study teacher verbal behaviour that was directed towards those pupils that the teachers had nominated as being especially difficult to teach was examined. A series of lessons was observed in a secondary school. The quality and quantity of…

Experimental and ethological studies were undertaken to clarify the role of positive and negative evaluations in the control of the child's performance on laboratory and classroom learning tasks. The results indicate that "social reinforcers" are effective to the extent that they communicate to the child unambiguous information on the adequacy of…

This investigation was concerned with the effects of negative evaluations by an adult on elementary school children's social interactions and performance. A two-component theory of evaluation called for experimental creation of evaluative comments which involved two degrees of strength of criticism and two degrees of helpful information provided…

This study evaluated the effects of visual performance feedback (VPF) on teacher use of behavior-specific praise. In addition to receiving individual VPF, teachers participated in group consultation focused on increasing competence in the use of behavior-specific praise. Three general education elementary teachers and six students participated in…

After measuring the amount of disruptive behavior exhibited by nine kindergarten children, delayed feedback paired with contingent access to play was found to be most effective in reducing disruptive behavior. (Author)

A description is given of a training program for students preparing to be tutors. Tutors are taught to apply clearly specified motivational principles as a part of the tutoring process. (JD)

A study of modeling behavior shows that undergraduate students who received negative feedback about their ability on a particular task tended afterward to imitate the poor models. (Editor)

This study examined effectiveness of posted numerical feedback on disruptive hallway behavior occurring among middle school students. Posting alone was found to have little effect on student behavior, but paired with verbal praise and feedback, posting was associated with more positive effects on student behavior and noise levels. (Author/PB)

An elementary physical education teacher describes a successful behavior improvement program implemented at his school. Students earned points (tokens) for good behavior and physical education achievement. They lost points for inappropriate behavior. Donated prizes were awarded based on accumulated points. (IAH)

A study of teacher reactions to pupils during reading group instruction found that: (1) there are no significant differences between Black and White teachers in their responses to pupils' academic activities; and that (2) Black students get significantly more negative feedback from teachers than do White students. (Author/MJL)

This study found no significant difference in effectiveness of several methods of training regular classroom teachers to use operant management techniques. Training methods tested were 1) group inservice training with no feedback, 2) inservice training with feedback from observational data, and 3) inservice training with feedback from videotapes.…

Process reinforcement is proposed as a reinforcement method that is more comfortable, personal, comprehensive, and interactive than traditional behavior modification. Process reinforcement strengthens desired behaviors by engaging learners in a one-on-one examination of how they achieved correct responses and by practicing comfortable eye contact…

Extensive research has been conducted examining the effects of teacher expectations on student performance, revealing reasonably consistent patterns of differential behavior by teachers toward high and low expectation students. Few theories which integrate isolated research findings into a causal sequence have emerged, however. One such model…

This paper reports the findings of a field test of the motivational-instructional procedure group conferences to promote self-directed prosocial behavior. The field test was carried out in eight Wisconsin multiunit schools. Each school or unit developed its own list of prosocial behaviors which was used to measure the progress of all pupils.…

This study examines the effects of using response cost in combination with positive reinforcement procedures in helping two second grade students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder maintain their attention in the classroom. This involved the loss of reinforcers/points contingent upon inappropriate behavior in the classroom, in addition…