Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T08:11:54.615Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Are Disruptive Behaviours Reduced When Levels of On-task Behaviours Increase? An Across Settings Study of a Class of 12- and 13-Year-Old Pupils—II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

E. McNamara
Affiliation:
Lancashire County Council, Schools Psychological Service
M. Jolly
Affiliation:
Lancashire County Council, School Support Team

Extract

In recent years an impressive body of research has accumulated indicating that behavioural management strategies can promote the levels of on-task behaviour of classes of disruptive secondary school pupils. These successes have led to the explicit, self-evident claim that levels of off-task behaviour have concomitantly been reduced—and the implicit claim that levels of disruptive behaviour have also been reduced: for disruptive behaviour constitutes a subset of off-task behaviour. However the promotion of on-task behaviour with a corresponding reduction in off-task behaviour is a necessary but not sufficient outcome to claim that disruptive behaviour has diminished. It may be the case that innocuous off-task behaviours have been reduced but disruptive off-task behaviours remain. From a further data analysis of a previous study (McNamara and Jolly, 1990) it is claimed that when disruptive classroom behaviour is dealt with by the promotion of on-task behaviours the total amount of all types of off-task behaviours, from innocuous to grossly disruptive, is reduced. Analysis of data for individual pupils reveals that the whole class aggregated data conceal considerable inter-pupil variability for low incidence off-task behaviours.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Harrop, A., Foulkes, C. and Daniels, M. (1989). Observer agreement calculations: the role of primary data in reducing obfuscation. British Journal of Psychology 80, 181189.Google Scholar
Henderson, H. S., Jenson, W. R. and Erken, N. F. (1986). Using variable interval schedules to improve on-task behaviour in the classroom. Education and Treatment of Children 9, 250263.Google Scholar
Lawrence, J., Steed, D. and Young, P. (1984). Disruptive Children: Disruptive Schools? London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Lowenstein, L. F. (1975). Violence and Disruptive Behaviour in Schools. Hemel Hempstead: National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers.Google Scholar
McNamara, E., Evans, M. and Hill, W. (1986). The reduction of disruptive behaviour in two secondary school classes. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 56, 209215.Google Scholar
McNamara, E. and Jolly, M. (1990). The reduction of disruptive behaviour using feedback of on-task behaviour: an across setting study of a class of 12- and 13-year-olds. Behavioural Psychotherapy, 18, 103119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, J., Martindale, A. and Kulp, S. (1975). An evaluation of time sample measures of behaviour. Journal of Applied Analysis of Behaviour 8, 463469.Google Scholar
Test, D. W. and Heward, W. L. (1984). Accuracy of momentary time sampling: a comparison of fixed, and variable, interval observation schedules. In Focus on Behaviour Analysis in Education. Heward, W. L., Heron, T. E., Hill, D. S. and Trap-Porter, J. (Eds). Charles E. Merrill Publications Co.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.