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Abstract
Dependent group contingencies were used to increase the on-task behavior of general education students in third and fourth grade classrooms. The class-wide intervention allowed students to gain access to preferred items/activities (identified via a stimulus preference assessment) contingent upon being on-task at "unknown" random times during math instruction. A multiple baseline design across classrooms was used to evaluate intervention effects. During baseline, mean levels of on-task behavior were 35% and 50% in the third and fourth grade classes, respectively. These means rose above 80% for both classrooms during the intervention phases. In addition, social validity measures suggested that the procedure was feasible for classroom staff to implement, acceptable to students, and produced few, if any, adverse effects on student social standing.
KEY WORDS: classroom intervention, dependent group contingencies, on-task behavior
In classroom settings, student on-task behavior is crucial to effective learning. Although there have been many studies demonstrating the utility of behavioral interventions to increase the on-task behavior of one or a few students at a time (e.g., Ervin, DuPaul, Kern, & Friman, 1998; Flood & Wilder, 2003), less research exists on the use of class wide interventions to increase on-task behavior. Class wide interventions might be preferable to individual interventions because of their efficiency and generalized effects. This may be particularly true for general education teachers, who often have 30 or more students in a classroom. These large numbers often make individually-based interventions more difficult to implement. One particularly promising approach for working effectively with large classes is group contingencies (Turco & Elliott, 1990).
When one or more components of a behavioral intervention are shared by more than one student, group contingencies are said to be employed. Three broad types of group contingencies (independent, interdependent, and dependent) have been discussed in the literature. Independent group contingencies involve the use of the same target behavior, the same criteria for earning access to reinforcement, and the same reinforcer across students. However, each student earns access to the reinforcer contingent upon his or her own behavior. With interdependent group contingencies, a group of students receive access to reinforcement contingent upon the behavior of the entire group. Dependent group contingencies involve providing the group with access to reinforcement contingent upon the behavior of one or a...