Increasing Teachers’ Use of Behavior-Specific Praise with the Teacher vs. Student Game

Authors

  • Renée E. Lastrapes, Ph.D. (Author) University of Houston-Clear Lake image/svg+xml
    Renée E. Lastrapes, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Educational Research and Assessment at the University of Houston-Clear Lake where she teaches graduate courses in measurement, research design, and statistics, and supervises graduate student research for doctoral dissertations. She has been a classroom special education teacher in California and Louisiana with sixteen years of experience working with students with various disability categories from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Her research interests include formative assessment in the content areas and evidence based behavioral interventions for students with behavioral disorders.
  • Jennifer N. Fritz, Ph.D. (Author) University of Houston-Clear Lake
    Jennifer Fritz, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Clinical, Health an d Applied Sciences, where she teaches courses in behavior analysis and is coordinator of the undergraduate certificate program in behavior analysis. Dr. Fritz also serves as Director of the Severe Behavior Disorders Research Clinic at UHCL's Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities and of the Behavior Analysis Program at Texas Children's Hospital's Autism Center where graduate and undergraduate students learn valuable clinical skills in the assessment and treatment of behavior disorders. Dr. Fritz serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, is the Secretary of the Behavior Analysis Public Policy Group – Texas, and is the Program Chair for the Professional Track of the Texas Association for Behavior Analysis annual conference. In the past, she has served as President of TxABA, as Program Chair of the Autism Track for the TxABA annual conference, and as co-chair of the Autism Track for the Association for Behavior Analysis International.
  • Robert C. Hasson, Ed.D. (Author) Concordia University-Texas image/svg+xml
    Robert Hasson, Ed.D. was a native of Southeast Houston and served as principal of Park View Intermediate School in the Pasadena Independent School District for 17 years. He attended Pasadena ISD schools where he graduated from South Houston High School and earned his undergraduate degree in communication from the University of Houston-Downtown. He went on to earn his master’s and doctorate degrees in educational leadership from the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL). Dr. Hasson was a member of UHCL’s Teacher Certification Council, University Expansion Committee, and University Accreditation Council; and facilitated literacy methods classes and recruiting symposiums for the College of Education. In addition, Dr. Hasson was an adjunct professor with Concordia University-Texas since 2012 and taught a variety of graduate courses in educational leadership. He was the 2016 recipient of the Marily n S. Sims Leadership Service Award from the UHCL Alumni Association. He was active in the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals (TASSP), Phi Delta Kappa International Society, Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, Bayport Aero Club, Boys & Girls Harbor of La Porte, and South Houston High School Alumni Association. He was an outstanding educator and will be greatly missed by his family, friends, and colleagues.
https://doi.org/10.64546/jaasep.385
The purpose of this study was to examine whether the use of a simplified version of the Good Behavior Game called the Teacher vs. Student Game, implemented as an interdependent group contingency, increased teachers’ use of behavior-specific praise (BSP) statements. Two middle school resource teachers and their respective classes participated in the study. Both classes consisted of students with various disability classifications, including emotional and behavioral disorder. Using the group contingency as a way to manage student behaviors, teachers’ rates of BSP statements, general praise statements, and corrective statements were scored. Results indicated that the game increased BSP statements but had little effect on general praise statements and corrective statements.

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Lastrapes, R. E., Fritz, J. N., & Hasson, R. C. (2019). Increasing Teachers’ Use of Behavior-Specific Praise with the Teacher vs. Student Game. Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals, 14(1), 64-78. https://doi.org/10.64546/jaasep.385

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  • Article Type Articles
  • Submitted January 4, 2019
  • Published February 15, 2019
  • Issue Winter 2019
  • Section Articles
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