ERIC Number: EJ1051336
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0936-2835
EISSN: N/A
Consequence Choice and Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities: Effects on Academic Engagement
Skerbetz, Mandi Davis; Kostewicz, Douglas E.
Exceptionality, v23 n1 p14-33 2015
The difficulties students identified with emotional and behavior disabilities present sometimes strain inclusive educators. General education teachers often find themselves ill equipped to provide effective support for both students with and without disabilities. An effective intervention that may hold promise for included students with academic and behavior problems involves the use of choice; more specifically, consequence choice, which provides students with the ability to select their own reinforcement. The current study examined the effects of choice of reinforcement via a single-subject multielement design with baseline for four students with emotional disturbance or behavior disabilities educated in an inclusion setting. With an increase in task difficulty, the behavior of two students indicated a functional relation between engagement and choice and two additional students demonstrated a functional relation between the presence and absence of reinforcement. Students did not distinguish academic behavior across the course of the study. The difficulty level of the instructional material, as well as the perceived preference of the reinforcers may play a role in study outcomes. Future directions follow study limitations and implications for inclusion practitioners.
Descriptors: Emotional Disturbances, Behavior Disorders, Disabilities, Inclusion, Reinforcement, General Education, Elementary School Students, Grade 5, Learner Engagement, Time on Task, Difficulty Level, Intervention, Academic Achievement, Mathematics Instruction
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education; Grade 5; Intermediate Grades; Middle Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A