Key Concepts/ Vocabulary
Inclusion: the practice of placing students with disabilities into regular education classrooms and assigning primary responsibility for the educational programming with the regular education teacher.
Generalization: the occurrence of the behavior of interest under different non-training conditions. For example, if a student learns a skill in school - he will be able to use that skill at home. We would say that this skill has generalized.
Maintenance: the extent to which the learner continues to perform the target skill after the intervention or instruction has ended.
Self-management: the personal and systematic application of behavior change strategies that result in the desired change in one's own behavior.
The function of schooling is often thought of as teaching students the skills they will need to become successful members of society. One of the primary skills valued by our society is the ability to function independently. This skill is often not displayed by children who have special needs in many aspects of their life. In addition, typically developing students need to perform academic and social behaviors in an independent fashion without teacher prompts. Children who are able to judge their own behavior as appropriate or inappropriate may behave more effectively when an adult is not present. Even though a successful classroom or behavior management plan is working in school, a child’s parent or next teacher may not be capable of successfully implementing the program in the same fashion. Further, when children are in control of their own behavior, adults can spend more time teaching other tasks. Finally, the ability for children to manage their own behavior may facilitate generalization and maintenance of newly acquired skills in inclusive settings.
Self-management procedures have been used widely in educational settings with both typical children and children with disabilities to achieve these goals. Preschool children through high school students both with and without disabilities have participated in interventions using self-management procedures with positive outcomes (Cooper,Heron, & Heward, 1987; Hughes, & Lloyd, 1993; Lam, Cole, Shapiro, & Bambara, 1994; Nelson, Smith, Young, & Dodd, 1991; Reid, 1996).
In the cartoon Mr. Woodhead, Mr. Woodhead can be overheard saying to a student:
" Today I want you to practice some self-monitoring and self-management. The student replies with great surprise, " You want me to manage my behavior?" Mr. Woodbine says " Yes!" The student replies with great indignation, " Then what are you going to do all period!". (Wood, 1992).
This cartoon is an excellent illustration of one of the hopeful outcomes of self-management strategies. In order to teach self-management strategies to children we first must agree upon what self-management is and what it is not.
Self-management is the outcome of a person systematically using behavior change strategies to change their own behavior. Technically, to qualify as self-management, the person must plan the strategy, implement the strategy by reinforcing or sometimes punishing their own behavior and by evaluating the outcomes of the self-management strategy. Some authors have suggested that self-management only occurs if:
a) a desired change in the target behavior occurs; or b) the behavior of interest would not have changed without the self-management strategy having been employed. (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 1987)
Skinner (1953) wrote that self-management involved two responses, the first being the controlling response and the second being the controlled response.
An example of the controlling and the controlled response follows:
Sunday evening, Tommy writes a note to himself and places it on his bathroom mirror to bring his math homework to school on Monday. (This is the controlling response).
On Monday morning Tommy sees the notes and puts his math homework in his backpack to take to school. ( This is the controlled response ). In this example, self-management has occurred because Tommy has taken charge of his own behavior.
On the other hand, if Tommy’s mother puts the note to take the homework to school on Tommy’s bathroom mirror and this note reminds Tommy to take the homework to school, self-management has not occurred. Tommy’s mother has prompted that behavior.
There are several key steps to teaching students to use self-management strategies. The first key component in teaching self-management strategies is that the skill needs to already be in the child’s
repertoire. In other words, it is not appropriate to ask a child to monitor his own behavior for a skill which is still in the acquisition stage. For example, Tommy is still learning how to do long division. He is not quite sure how to complete the more complicated division problems. It would not be appropriate to ask Tommy to self-monitor how many problems he gets correct on the daily worksheets as he still needs a great deal of teacher feedback. Teachers should allow students to select their own target behaviors from among those skills that are already in the student’s repertoire, but with which the student may not be fluent. Some students may need more guidance than others. The teacher should then explain and teach self-management strategies. These strategies may include observation of ones own behavior, recording that behavior, monitoring the behavior and the delivery of consequences.
After the students understand and have practiced the aforementioned skills, the teacher should teach students to select a criterion as a point of comparison to evaluate their own behavior. For example, Tommy’s criterion for completing math problems may be 20 problems completed correctly in 5 minutes.
Once this criterion has been established, the teacher should help students develop a menu of reinforcers. This menu should contain realistic, safe and inexpensive items or privileges to be obtained by the students for meeting their performance criterion during their self-management. Often students will press to include unreasonable items on the menu. Examples of reinforcers for younger students and older students may include extra time using available computers, opportunities to help the teacher in the classroom, or extra time in some desired activity (always with the approval of the teacher). Younger students may like to earn privileges such as being the line leader. The teacher should provide a number of practice sessions with corrective feedback for appropriate use of self-management strategies. It is important to reinforce the appropriate use of the self-management tactic and not the specific skill the student is self-monitoring or self-evaluating. For example, the teacher should say " You really did a good job tracking your math homework," not " You got three math problems correct!".
It is critical in the early stages of a self-management program to assist the students to evaluate their own behavior based on their own recordings of performance. It is at this stage that students may be found “stretching the truth " regarding their performance. A random check by the teacher for " truth in reporting" goes a long way toward accuracy in recording.
Self-management strategies fall under the term " self control" as a broader construct. There have been several self-control procedures demonstrated in the literature for children with disabilities. Some of these terms are "self-assessment", "self-monitoring", and " self-evaluation. Self- assessment is a primary component of any of the more complex self-management programs. Basically, self-assessment means does the student understand whether or not he is performing the behavior of interest. For example, I was once trying to teach a group of children to stay on task during an independent seatwork time. I walked up to one child and said " Are you working?" The child, who had been working quite diligently, but who assumed since I had asked him whether or not he was working that something must be wrong, said " No." I replied, " Yes, you are working? See you are writing the answers to the problems and finishing the paper." You may often have to teach students what being " one task" or what "completing one’s homework" means in order to teach them to monitor their own behavior. Examples of completed work or explicit descriptions of the desired behavior may be necessary for the student to understand whether of not he is performing the skill, prior to asking him to self-assess.
Self-monitoring describes a process of the student assessing whether or not a he has performed a particular behavior and then recording the result. Self- monitoring requires the student to self-assess and self-record accurately. Two different types of self-monitoring are often employed. The students may be asked to self- record their attention to the task or their academic performance.
In self-monitoring attention to task, the student is asked to record whether or not they are paying attention and to self-record when cued. These cues usually are given by a tape recording, which sounds a beep at a variable interval during the students work period in the classroom. The student may then be instructed to mark a chart for every interval and to tally the number of intervals of " paying attention" at the end of the work time. In the self-monitoring of academic performance, the student is asked to record productivity, ( how many problems completed); accuracy of responding ( how many correct) or whether or not the student has followed the steps in a particular strategy. Once again the student may be cued by the teacher, or a tape recorder sounding a variable signal to self-record, whether or not he is performing the behavior of interest. Students using either the strategy of self-recording attention to task or self-monitoring academic performance often use charts, graphs or tally sheets to record their performance.
Self-monitoring has been shown to increase accuracy over didactic instruction and didactic instruction plus reinforcement. Numerous studies have demonstrated the usefulness of self-monitoring procedures with a wide range of students.
The following includes several steps for teaching students to use self-monitoring programs.
The teacher and student should work together to identify the target behavior. A wide range of behaviors respond to self-monitoring programs. Behaviors to be targeted may include completing class assignments in a timely manner, ( be sure to specify the time period), returning completed homework, behaving appropriately in class ( no shouting out of answers, no poking of peers in the class, not running about the classroom), or simply paying attention to the work at hand. Target behaviors should be stated objectively and specifically. They should be observable and able to be measured.
Once the target behaviors have been selected, discuss the descriptions of the target behaviors with the students using their own words. For example, " on task " behavior may be translated to " reading and writing and answering questions". " Off task" behavior may be translated to " looking around during the lesson" or " talking to friends during practice time". It is important that students understand the behaviors to be recorded.
With the students the teacher should decide whether or not to use a tally sheet, a simple card with just checkmarks under a "yes" and " no " column or a more elaborate recording system. A time frame should be determined for the self-recording process. It is better to begin with students recording their behavior over short periods of time and then expand the time framework as students become more accomplished.
Practice the self-monitoring system with the students. Set up practice trials in which the student can receive teacher feedback regarding whether or not he is using the self-monitoring system correctly. The skills involved in self-monitoring may have to be taught in a systematic fashion. Remember, students need to know what the target behavior is and how to count its occurrence.
It is critical that students report accurately on their self-recording sheets. It is important that teachers randomly observe, check and give feedback to students regarding the accuracy of their self-recording efforts.
It is imperative that teachers give systematic and frequent feedback as to the accuracy of the self-monitoring of their students. It is also important that teacher monitor the accuracy of the work if the students are self-monitoring academic performance. Students should not be allowed to practice mistakes.
Self-evaluation is a self-control strategy which incorporates components of self-assessment and a final component in which the student verifies with the teacher whether or not he has accurately evaluated his performance. As with the other self-control procedures, a target behavior is selected and a self-recording strategy is planned. In this process the student notes whether or note he has performed the behavior, marks a checksheet or tally sheet to indicate this performance and in the final step meets with the teacher to receive feedback as to whether or not the teacher agrees with the student’s evaluation. Students then receive reinforcement (either in the form of social praise or points to be later exchanged for a reinforcer or other privilege).
It is important to note that the teacher only gives the student feedback as to whether or not his evaluation matches the teacher’s evaluation. It is possible that the student could report that he has been off task the entire period, match with the teacher who has also noted that he has been off task and still receive a point toward the established reinforcer since he has accurately reported his behavior.
In self-evaluation programs, it is the accuracy of the student’s self-assessment that is the behavior of interest. Interestingly, very few investigators report instances of students taking advantage of this negative reporting aspect. Most students seem to respond to knowing what is expected of them and measure up to the truthful reporting strategy when they know they will have to match their evaluation with the teacher’s report.
Encourage students to describe appropriate behaviors in their own words
Only have students evaluate skills they have acquired.
Establish a menu of reinforcers
Write a sequence for the strategy including:
Teach and reinforce even small steps toward the students’ total and independent use of the self-management program
Fade teacher prompts and reinforcers
Use self-management with individual students or classroom groups
Make sure the student understands the procedures. Be sure to use explicit instructions. It will help both you and the students understand what is expected.
Use common sense when matching students to this strategy. It is important not to give students who are very physically or verbally aggressive the option of managing their own behavior. ( Kerr & Nelson, 1998).
Self-management programs have been used with very young children as well as elementary and high school age students. Assuming that the students have acquired the skill in which you are interested, self-management programs work very effectively to have students become more fluent in those skills.
For preschool students from about the age of four and older (with an appropriate level of verbal skills), a teacher might devise a special notebook depicting the child at work or play. Next to photographs of the child playing in an appropriate manner, the teacher may print the words " I asked my friends to share with me". The teacher might include a " happy face" for " Yes" and a " sad face" for " No" next to these stimulus items and ask the child to mark which answer indicated whether or not he got his friends to share with him. The teacher would then match her responses with the child’s and reward to the child for accurate reporting. Remember, children need to be taught the steps in this procedure before you can expect them to use it.
For elementary and secondary students, self-management systems may be as simple as using a notecard on the student’s desk to self-record instances of on-task behavior. Cards can be turned in to the teacher at the end of the period for verification. Some self-management systems need to be portable so that the students may carry them from school to home and back. Small notebooks fit easily into backpacks and do not look unlike any other school material.
For older students it is very important that they have a say in the design of the self-management program, in the selection of the behaviors to be recorded and the reinforcers to be earned. Do not forget that the self-management program should be faded as soon as the student’s behavior has improved and maintained.
Cooper, J.O., Heron, T.E., Heward, W.L. ( 1987 ). Applied Behavior Analysis, Columbus, Ohio: Merrill.
Hughes, C., & Lloyd, J.W. ( 1993). An analysis of self-management. Journal of Behavioral Education, 3(4) 405-425.
Kerr, M.M., & Nelson,C.M. ( 1998). Strategies for managing behavior problems in the classroom.( 3rd ed.). Columbus, Ohio: Prentice Hall.
Lam, A.L.,Cole,C. L. Shapiro, E.S. & Bambara, L. M. ( 1994) . Relative effects of self-monitoring on-task behavior, academic accuracy and disruptive behavior in students with behavior disorders. School Psychology Review, 23(1), 44-58.
Nelson, J. R., Smith, D.J., Young, R.K., & Dodd,J.M.( 1991). A review of self-management outcomes research conducted with students who exhibit behavioral disorders. Behavioral Disorders, 16(3), 169-179.
Reid, R. ( 1996). Research in self-monitoring with students with learning disabilities: The present, the prospects, the pitfalls. Journal of Learning Disabilities. 29(3), 317-331.
Skinner, B.F. ( 1953). Science and human behavior. New York: Macmillan