Award Date

1-1-2006

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Special Education

First Committee Member

Matt Tincani

Second Committee Member

Susan Miller

Number of Pages

223

Abstract

Research indicates that classroom management is one of the greatest challenges and most significant concerns facing teachers today. Teachers, particularly in urban schools, are faced with high rates of student problem behavior. Teachers in urban schools are less likely to be designated highly qualified. Urban districts evidence high rates of teacher attrition that is due, in part, to classroom management. To date, little research is available on how to effectively improve the management skills of general education teachers including students with challenging behavior in their classrooms. A pivotal component of behavior management is effective teaching. Performance feedback with goal setting is identified in the literature as a successful intervention for improving specific aspects of teacher's performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of performance feedback with goal setting on increasing effective teaching behavior; Four teachers from an urban middle school and their students participated in the study. Observations, 15 minutes in duration, were conducted four to five times per week. Teachers were taught to read performance feedback graphs and set goals based on their performance. They also participated in weekly goal setting meetings; The effects of the intervention were assessed using a multiple-probe across participants design. The data addressed eight specific research questions related to the teacher's ability to increase their use of effective teaching behavior and the corresponding impact of teacher behavior on student behavior. Teaching behavior of interest in this study included opportunities for student responses, academic praise, behavioral praise, academic corrective feedback, and behavioral corrective feedback. Student behavior of interest includes percentage of correct academic responses and disruptive behavior; Data were analyzed using the BEST(TM) System. For three teachers, performance feedback with goal setting increased their rate of opportunities to respond and academic praise. Behavioral corrective feedback also displayed an increase during intervention, except for Teacher 4. Behavioral praise remained low, at or near baseline levels. The consistently high percentages of students' correct academic responses across baseline and indicated a ceiling effect while the rate per minute of correct academic responses paralleled increases in opportunities to respond. Results from a social validity survey administered at the end of intervention indicated that teachers liked the intervention and felt it had beneficial effects; Results of the current study suggest that the efficacy of performance feedback with goal setting varied across target behaviors and participants. Future studies should include consideration of complimentary interventions to improve teachers' skills, student achievement, durability and generalization of behavior change, and the effects of intervention on teacher stress and retention.

Keywords

Behavior; Effective; Effective Teaching; Feedback; Goal; Goal-setting; Performance; Performance Feedback; Systematic Observation; Teaching; Urban Education

Controlled Subject

Teachers--Training of

File Format

pdf

File Size

5642.24 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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Rights

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