assignment

Selection

Explanation

Source: Primary or Secondary

Primary

Information Classification:

(Self-contained study/ Research findings / Professional Association/ Unanalyzed Data / Compiled Statistics, etc.)

Research findings

How and why is this information pertinent to your selected topic?

The goal of the study looked to identify a potential strategy for addressing the behavioral deficiencies commonly displayed by students classified as mild intellectually disabled as well as any other student determined to have behavioral issues within the classroom setting. Specifically, the study determines if formal corrective feedback influences on the off-task/on-task behavior of mild intellectually disabled students. With this information, we know about treatment choices (strategies) that we can use to change the task refusal behaviors of a student with special needs and increase his compliance with activities and demands.

Selection

Explanation

Issues / Topics Covered

Formal corrective feedback, off-task behaviors, on-task behaviors, specific types of off-task behavior.

Author(s):

George, Kevin

Research Question(s) addressed:

RQ1: Is there a significant difference between the frequency of off-task behaviors when formal corrective feedback is not applied and the frequency of off-task behaviors when formal corrective feedback is applied?

RQ2: Is there a significant difference between the frequency of on-task behaviors when formal corrective feedback is not applied and the frequency of on-task behaviors when formal corrective feedback is applied?

RQ3: Does formal corrective feedback have a stronger or weaker effect on specific types of off-task behavior?

Research Subjects: (pre-K, 9th graders, elementary school students, etc.)

Fifteen tenth graders classified as Mild Intellectually Disabled (MID).

Research setting:

(Public school, 3rd grade class, Charter school, adult learning center, etc.)

Public school

Methodology:

Mixed research methodology

Findings:

The study’s results revealed that formal corrective feedback had a significant effect on the off-task/on-task behavior of students classified as being mild intellectually disabled.

In this study, the effect appears to translate into a significant decrease in off-task behavior and a significant increase in on-task behavior for all students. This study reduced students’ off-task behavior and improved their on-task behavior through improving their understanding of what they were doing wrong behaviorally in the classroom.

Conclusions:

Formal corrective feedback effects students’ off-task behavior as well as students’ on-task behavior. The behavioral frequency recordings collected revealed a reduction in off-task behavior and an increase in on-task behavior during the phase of the study in which formal corrective feedback was provided to each student.

Formal corrective feedback appeared to have a strong effect on the off-task behaviors of daydreaming/work delay, preoccupied with object or task, laughing out, talking out and sleeping. Formal corrective feedback appeared to have a weak effect on the off-task behavior of improperly seated/out of seat.

Special Circumstances/Limitations:

The number of participants available (fifteen students) limits the amount of data available for collection and establishment of more definitive results.

The exposure of the participants to other teachers and classroom settings in addition to the setting of the study (social science class) could have impacted the study significantly.

For consistency purposes, the classroom teacher made all observations. Due to the fact that the one teacher conducted all observations, accuracy may be an issue.

Future Implications:

The knowledge to be gained from the

action research conducted as a part of this study will extend the current understanding of the effect of corrective feedback on the off-task/on-task behavior of students categorized as MID. This extended knowledge will benefit teachers of all students, and specifically those working with students classified as MID. This small-scale study that generated significant findings may lead to the same study being conducted on a larger scale.

How and why is this information pertinent to your selected topic?

The goal of the study looked to identify a potential strategy for addressing the behavioral deficiencies commonly displayed by students classified as mild intellectually disabled as well as any other student determined to have behavioral issues within the classroom setting. Specifically, the study determines if formal corrective feedback influences on the off-task/on-task behavior of mild intellectually disabled students. With this information, we know about treatment choices (strategies) that we can use to change the task refusal behaviors of a student with special needs and increase his compliance with activities and demands.

Selection

Explanation

Source: Primary or Secondary

Primary

Information Classification:

(Self-contained study/ Research findings / Professional Association/ Unanalyzed Data / Compiled Statistics, etc.)

Research findings

How and why is this information pertinent to your selected topic?

The study examined the effects of a function-based intervention implemented with a student, Shawn, who had attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, internalizing behavioral problems, and a speech and language impairment.  The function-based intervention included a communication system, a self-monitoring component, and extinction. Through this study, we know about interventions that are effective in reduce off-task behaviors of a child with special needs. Therefore, we can use those interventions in our research.

Selection

Explanation

Issues / Topics Covered

function-based intervention, off-task behavior

Author(s):

Stahr, Brenna

Cushing, Danielle

Lane, Kathleen

Fox, James

Research Question(s) addressed:

The research questions were not found in the article.

Research Subjects: (pre-K, 9th graders, elementary school students, etc.)

a 9-year-old African American that received special education services under the category of other health impaired in a fourth-grade classroom fourth-grade classroom.

Research setting:

(Public school, 3rd grade class, Charter school, adult learning center, etc.)

A self-contained school serving students with emotional and behavioral problems.

Methodology:

Mixed research methodology

Findings:

Functional assessment data indicated that Shawn's off-task behavior was maintained by attention (positive reinforcement) and escape from tasks (negative reinforcement). A function-based intervention including a communication system, a self-monitoring component, and extinction resulted in improvements in Shawn's behavior. The classroom teachers and Shawn rated the intervention favorably.

Conclusions:

Results of descriptive functional assessment procedures indicated that Shawn's off-task behavior was maintained by both attention (positive reinforcement) and escape (negative reinforcement). An intervention package including a communication system, a self-monitoring component, and extinction was designed to meet both these functions, in addition to addressing his anxiety and speech and language problems. A multiple-baseline design with a withdrawal component indicated that the intervention was effective in increasing on-task behavior in language arts and math. When the intervention was introduced in both settings, on-task behavior increased to twice that of baseline in language and five times that of baseline in math.

Despite the limited data on implementation and the variable implementation, student outcome data suggest that the intervention met the intended objective of increasing Shawn's on-task behavior. Social validity data also indicate that the intervention was generally acceptable to the therapist, lead teacher, paraeducator, and Shawn. 

Special Circumstances/Limitations:

Only a comparatively small amount of the treatment integrity data was collected, thereby preventing a more precise estimate of the extent to which all components of the intervention were implemented as designed. 

Data were collected using partial-interval recording, which may have overestimated the level of engagement. A more conservative approach would have been to assess engagement using a whole interval recording procedure. 

Although on-task behavior improved in math, the level of academic engagement was still below 80%, the average academic engagement level of typically developing students. Therefore, although levels of engagement improved and the participants viewed the intervention as socially valid, there was still room for improvement in math. 

Although results suggest that the intervention was associated with higher levels of task engagement, this study did not assess student achievement.

Future Implications:

This study contributes to the literature indicating the effectiveness of a specific intervention package based on the assessed function of a student's challenging behavior. In that sense it lends further validation to the effectiveness of interventions based on careful, systematic functional behavior assessments. Also, this study further contributes to the empirical base of techniques effective with ADHD students implemented by natural environment agents under naturalistic classroom conditions, specifically addressing this issue in a student with multiple disabilities (ADHD, anxiety, and speech and language delay). As in this study, future behavioral intervention research can be substantially enhanced by evaluating interventions within both traditionally defined subject parameters (i.e., DSM diagnoses of behavior disorders) and more function-based assessment schemata (i.e., subjects whose behavior function is determined through systematic behavioral assessment) that are then matched to intervention components.

How and why is this information pertinent to your selected topic?

The study examined the effects of a function-based intervention implemented with a student, Shawn, who had attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, internalizing behavioral problems, and a speech and language impairment.  The function-based intervention included a communication system, a self-monitoring component, and extinction. Through this study, we know about interventions that are effective in reduce off-task behaviors of a child with special needs. Therefore, we can use those interventions in our research.