The study found that in the absence of a history of negative consequences, an all-positive management system for eight first- through third-grade children with academic and/or classroom behavioral problems was not sufficient to maintain on-task rates of academic accuracy. The addition of negative consequences immediately improved on-task behavior…

Four normal preschool children and four with comprehensive academic and behavior problems were taught to judge the quality of their academic work in a classroom, and to prompt or cue their teachers to comment about the quality of that work. (Author)

The article reports on ways in which the Preparation through Responsive Educational Programs (PREP) project developed and conducted process and outcome assessment in a behavioral program for junior high students with behavior and learning problems. (Author/DLS)

Nine poor spellers (8-13 years old) received four alternating experimental treatments during a 16-week spelling program. Results indicated that student-directed instruction that incorporated visual and verbal cues was most effective in increasing children's spelling accuracy. (Author/CL)

This study examined how reinforcer rate, quality, delay, and response effort combined to influence the choices of six adolescents with emotional disturbance and learning difficulties and the feasibility of an assessment methodology based on matching theory for determining differential responsiveness to reinforcer and response dimensions. Results…

This study examined the effect of delayed reinforcement on mathematics performance by four fourth graders and the effect of programming stimuli common to reinforcement conditions on the maintenance of their performance. Participants exhibited similar levels of responding during intermittent and continuous reinforcement. Responding continued for a…

A classwide peer tutoring procedure was implemented in an urban elementary school classroom of 23 students, to improve students' spelling performance. Results indicated the untrained or collateral tutoring behaviors increased the academic response frequencies of three tutees and the weekly spelling achievement of one target tutee. (Author/DB)

Stimulus control technology was used to instruct seven students in grades five and six who demonstrated difficulty with fraction ratio and decimal relations. Students were trained to match pictorial representations of fractions to printed counterpart fraction ratios and to match printed decimals to pictorial representations of counterpart…

This study found that, after self-management training and implementation of self-managed individual and group contingency procedures, 16 sixth-grade students having homework difficulties in mathematics made substantial improvements in amount of homework completed. Students who selected their own goals did better than students who were given a…

Four experiments evaluated flash card use for teaching number facts to elementary-school students with learning difficulties. Effective treatments involved: re-presenting a missed problem after the next item; using error-contingent reprimands; seating the tutor and student knee-to-knee, rather than with a desk between them; and a combination of…

Four high school students, including one with mild mental retardation and one with learning disabilities, completed a driver education curriculum that used direct instruction and precision teaching by peer tutors. Peer tutoring was associated with immediate increases in correct responding and a simultaneous and rapid deceleration of errors.…

A study examined the integrity with which four general education teachers implemented an intervention designed to improve the academic performance of elementary school students. The teachers markedly increased the integrity of the delivered treatment when they were provided with performance feedback and students' performance improved as integrity…

Two studies involving three adolescents with severe emotional disturbance/behavior disorders and learning difficulties examined effects of problem difficulty and reinforcer quality upon time allocated to two sets of arithmetic problems. Results have implications for understanding the effects of problem difficulty and reinforcer quality on behavior…

Three underachieving fifth-graders were trained in a tutoring procedure to use a self-control package (self-scorecard with goal options and reinforcer menu) to increase arithmetic proficiency. All possible classes of generalization were evidenced. Social validity data showed that the children's arithmetic performance either surpassed or approached…

This study, with 4 parent-child dyads in which the children (ages 9 to 11) exhibited substantial homework problems, found that goal setting and contingency contracting produced significant improvements in children's homework accuracy. Two of the subjects showed substantial improvements in on-task behavior. Parents rated the procedures highly.…