Date of Award

Spring 5-2018

Degree Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Evan Dart

Advisor Department

Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if the implementation of Planned Activity Checks (PACs), which were a newly proposed method of behavioral observation which had been implemented by teachers in an elementary or high school setting, had the same results as a direct research observation in the classroom. The current system in place for behavioral assessment is a direct observer, either a social worker or counselor, coming into the classroom and directly observing a single student or a group of students for the entire class period. Most observations fall into three main categories: standardized rating scales, systematic direct observation, and direct behavior ratings. In this study, we conducted direct observation in a high school classroom during a 20-minute time segment with 15-second intervals, concurrently while teachers performed PACs at every 5-minute time segment for the same 20-minute observations. This study increased knowledge on: whether the data found between teachers and observers are cohesive and whether the teachers find this socially acceptable to implement into their daily classroom routine. Results indicated that the teachers’ observation and implementation varied from the direct observation by 15% and the social acceptability was rated per category on acceptability between 4 and 5.

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