Evaluating the effectiveness of teacher greetings to increase on-task behavior at a class-wide level in elementary classrooms
Abstract
There is currently limited research detailing the effects of teacher greetings on increasing on-task behavior at a class-wide level in the general education setting. Teacher greetings are used as a feasible and effective classroom management strategy to improve rapport between students and teachers, increase on-task behavior, and reduce disruptive behavior. Results from previous research conducted by Allday et al. (2007) and Allday et al. (2011) found that providing noncontingent reinforcement in the form of a teacher greeting was effective in improving on-task behavior at an individual level. Therefore, the goal of this study was to replicate previous studies and examine the effect that teacher greetings pose at a class-wide level. Specifically, this study measured whether teacher greetings increased class-wide on-task behavior in two elementary classrooms (fourth and fifth grade) in a rural school in Central Oklahoma. Results from this study indicate that by applying noncontingent reinforcement in the form of a teacher greeting, the class-wide on-task percentage increased from an average of 70.4% to 82.5% in Classroom A. In Classroom B, the class-wide on-task percentage increased from an average of 65.2% to 83.5%.
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- OSU Dissertations [11222]