Date of Award

Summer 8-2017

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Daniel H. Tingstrom

Committee Chair Department

Psychology

Committee Member 2

Brad A. Dufrene

Committee Member 2 Department

Psychology

Committee Member 3

Joe Olmi

Committee Member 3 Department

Psychology

Committee Member 4

Keith C. Radley

Committee Member 4 Department

Psychology

Abstract

Tootling is a procedure where students report their classmates’ positive and prosocial behavior. The present study examined the effects of tootling on students’ disruptive and academically engaged behavior in three general education high school classrooms. An A-B-A-B withdrawal design was used to assess the effects of the intervention. Students wrote tootles anonymously on paper slips and placed them into a marked container. Unlike previous tootling studies, a randomized independent group contingency procedure was used to reward the students to reduce the number of steps required to implement the intervention. At the end of the class period, teachers randomly drew three of the submitted tootles and rewarded those students whom the tootles were written about. Teachers also randomly drew and rewarded two students who submitted a tootle. All three classrooms displayed decreases in disruptive behavior and increases in academically engaged behavior during intervention phases. Effect size calculations for both disruptive and academically engaged behavior indicated strong effects. The results of this study suggest that a modified tootling procedure utilizing a randomized independent group contingency can be an effective intervention for teachers to improve the behavior of students in a high school setting.

Masters thesis: http://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/114/

ORCID ID

0000-0002-1045-0625

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