Abstract

Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) in the United States are often underserved by the education system, which contributes to their academic difficulties and poor student outcomes. Research on Positive-to-Negative (PN) response ratios suggest that maintaining a high ratio helps decrease inappropriate behaviors and improve academic outcomes for students with EBD. The current study investigates the effects of a high PN ratio on the behavior of an educator of students with EBD by utilizing a tracking app to help meet a target PN ratio. One preservice special education teacher working as a paraeducator was recruited to participate in the study. The paraeducator was asked to meet PN ratio goals of 2:1, 5:1, and 10:1. Visual analysis of the data collected throughout the study indicated that each successively higher PN ratio was met by the paraeducator suggesting that access to the tracking app was functionally related to the paraeducator's ability increase her PN ratio goals. This is consistent with previous research suggesting that self-monitoring is an effective procedure to increase the use of praise and it extends access to effective interventions by adding real-time, app-based monitoring to the list of effective supports for educators. The limitations and implications of the study are discussed alongside the potential implications for practice suggested by these findings.

Degree

EdS

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2023-08-14

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd12919

Keywords

Praise, reprimands, emotional and behavioral disorders, praise ratio

Language

english

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