1. Pleasant Learning Environments Jonathan Amey

2. Standing on the Shoulders of Others • Glenn Latham • Ogden Lindsley • Libby Street • Murray Sidman • Markle & Tiemann • Kent Johnson • Bill Helsel

3. Outline • Pleasant learning environments • Conducting a motivational analysis • Effective RtI strategies

4. Helsel’s Four Building Blocks Performance Management (1) Binder’s Six Boxes Expectations Tools & Resources Consequences Skills & Knowledge Selection Motives Recycling Pinpoint, structure, train, monitor, feedback, evaluate Systems Analysis Family Systems SkillAcquisition (2) Instructional Delivery Errorless learning Graduated Guidance Shaping Script Fading Mathetics Discrete Trial Error Correction Fluency building CurriculumorProgram Scope & Sequence Reinforcement Contingent & Noncontingent Prevention (3) Motivative Analysis Establishing Abolishing Environmental Management Physical Layout Clean transitions Materials accessible Schedules & Routines Antecedents Physical Barriers Medical concerns Medications Sleeping & eating Intervention (4) Strengthening Types & Schedules of Reinforcement Weakening Extinction Punishment Managing Protective Restraint

5. What Is the Ideal Classroom?

6. Ideal Classroom • Students are productive • Classroom is physically and mentally safe • Promotes success • Classroom is vital and busy

7. How Do We Get There? Creating a Pleasant Environment

8. What Is a Pleasant Environment?

9. A Classroom of Happy Learners!

10. Consider If You Will • Would a happy learner, enthused with intervention, likely make better, faster, easier progress? • probably • Would a willing learner be easier to teach? • Most assuredly

11. Assent and Consent • Assent • to agree to something freely and with understanding • Consent • Legally and ethically required

12. Assent • Come to task willingly • Participate in learning interactions without coercion

13. Withdrawl Assent • Avoid us • Avoid coming to task • Leave during task • Participate far below ability

14. Students Are Behaving - Now What? • More instructional time • Increased teacher effort As teachers improve management skills they must refine teaching skills

15. Instructional management skills need to improve proportionately since there will be an increased level of student on-task behavior and academic productivity Wear good deodorant

16. Principals of Human Behavior • Product of its immediate environment • Strengthened/weakened by its consequences • Responds better to positive than negative • Punished or reinforced? Watch rate over time • Past behavior is best predictor of future behavior

17. Immediate Environment • If students act out, something in classroom is initiating and maintaining it • Identify those things and take data Who likes math? • Goofing off during math gets student kicked out of room. What’s that student going to do more of?

18. All children can learn, even children from dysfunctional families The answers to problems within an environment are to be found within that environment

19. Your Job Is to Create the Most Pleasant Environment Possible Change the Environment and the Behavior Will Change

20. Behavior Strengthened or Weakened by Its Consequences • Not a problem with the student • Teachers often reinforce the very behaviors that disrupt the class • Frequent teacher attention in the form of praise is more effective than rules or reprimands in increasing appropriate behavior

21. Behavior Responds Better to Positive Than to Negative • Teacher attention is a powerful reinforcer of appropriate and inappropriate student behavior • Teachers allow over 95% of all appropriate behavior to go unrecognized • Teachers are typically four to six times more likely to attend to inappropriate behavior than appropriate • Teacher attention to inappropriate behavior increases probability that such behavior will be strengthened and thus occur predictably and with regularity

22. Your Job Is to Identify the Behaviors You Want to Strengthen or Weaken and Deliver, or Withhold, the Appropriate Consequences

23. Whether a Behavior Has Been Punished or Reinforced Is Known Only by the Future Course of That Behavior • What is punishing to one child might be reinforcing to another, and vice-versa. • Take data! • If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten.

24. Your Job Is to Be Patient and Consistent. Wait Two Weeks and See. Record Behavior. If What You Are Doing Works- Keep It. If Not, Go Back to Tool Skills and Change Them

25. Past Behavior Is the Best Predictor of Future Behavior • A-B-C easy as 1-2-3 • Take data!

26. Your Job Is to Remember Past Experiences Don’t Take Away Video Games If He Has Already Proven He Will Become Aggressive

27. Alright, Nice Theory, Now What?!

28. Latham’s Tools for Positive Behavior Change • Staying close • Giving positive consequences • Ignoring junk behavior • Ignoring junk behavior of one person and giving positive consequences for the appropriate behavior of another person

29. Latham’s Tools for Positive Behavior Change • Stop-redirect-give positive consequences • Setting expectations • Using a contract • Time-out • ABC’s of assessing behavior • Consulting skills of staff

30. Staying Close • You create a safe, positive environment and establish yourself as a source of caring, empathy, and positive consequences • The closer you are to a person, the greater the influence you have on them

31. How to Stay Close • Physically- be within arms length, walk and sit with, move toward them • Touch appropriately- pat on back or arm, squeeze shoulder • Facial expressions- emote accurately, show one message • Tone of voice- how you say it counts • Body language- be relaxed, open arms, eye contact, orient to person • Show empathy- mirror feelings (sounds like your happy or yuk, that was hard to do)

32. Giving Positive Consequences • You focus primarily on building up appropriate behaviors with positive consequences • Show behavior you like by giving attention; Establish self as safe to be with; Maintain self control; Have a plan; Practice saying what you like and providing a positive consequence that fits appropriate behavior within 3 seconds

33. Types of Positive Consequences • Verbal praise • Appropriate touch • Tangible items • Privileges and activities

34. “Unless what you are about to say or do has a high probability of making things better, don’t say it and don’t do it” (Latham)

35. Ignoring Junk Behavior • You carefully ignore any age typical behavior that may be annoying • Annoying but not harmful to self,others, or property Examples….

36. Ignore Junk Give Positive to Other • You carefully ignore junk behavior of one person while giving positive consequences for the appropriate behavior of another person Examples…

37. Stop-Redirect-Give Positive Consequences • You stop a person’s inappropriate behavior, redirect them to a different, logically related behavior, and show you like it by giving positive consequences when the person does it

38. Setting Expectations • You let the person know what behavior is expected and what the consequences will be for meeting or not meeting the expectations • Pick a time; A place; Set a pleasant tone; State what specific behavior you expect and what benefits are to person; Model and get person to show expected behavior; Giving instead of taking

39. Designing Expectations • Clearly state context for behavior • Clearly state behavior you want to see (provide model if necessary) • Clearly state consequence for following

40. Examples • Circle time • Individual work • Centers • Snack • Transitions

41. Maintaining Expectations • Praise completion (3-4 per minute) • Students should be able to state teacher expectations to anyone, anytime, anywhere • Display expectations around room • Display schedule

42. Contract • Written agreement with the student that identifies positive expectations and consequences

43. Time-Out • Interrupt student’s behavior to minimize consequences and allow you to attend to appropriate behaviors after the person has maintained a brief period of calm • Time-based… not behavior based! • Need good analysis, remember the disruptive student in math class

44. ABC’s and Consulting Skills • Example of ABC • Use school counselors to help develop parent skills across settings

45. 8 Kinds of Coercion • Criticism • Sarcasm/Teasing • Threats/Force • Arguing • Guilt • Logic • Questioning

46. Results of Coercion • Student will learn coercive behavior • Student will try to avoid coercive behavior by escaping and lying • Student will try to get even • Student will become afraid that they will fail • Student will receive attention for inappropriate behavior

47. Coercion produces only short term compliance followed by long term losses. In the long run, behavior responds better to positive consequences.

48. “My mother used to tell me that to get along in this world you gotta be either oh so smart or oh so pleasant. For a long time I was smart. I recommend pleasant.” (Elwood P. Dowd)

49. The Problem That Presents Is Not Always the Problem to Solve

50. Conducting a Motivational Analysis • Variables that affect the probability of a given stimulus-response relationship • Physiological/Environmental • Increase chance of certain behaviors occurring • Increase value of what happens after behavior occurs