Reinforcement in the Classroom: The Effectiveness of Reinforcing On-Task Behaviour or Correct Academic Responses

Abstract

An experimental comparison was made of the effectiveness of reinforcing on-task behaviour with the effectiveness of reinforcing correct academic responses for improving both on-task and academic performance in reading lessons. A within-subjects design was used with six subjects, who had been identified as poor readers and as actively disruptive in their Form I classroom. Results showed that reinforcing correct academic responses by awarding points for free class time was sufficient to increase on-task behaviour to a high level and maintain it over a period of 5 1/2 months. On-task behaviour under this condition was at a level as high as when on-task behaviour was directly reinforced. However, there was no support for the hypothesis that reinforcing correct academic responses would produce a greater percentage level of correct academic responses than when time on task only was being reinforced. Possible reasons are discussed, such as the difficulty level of the reading material used. Under both reinforcement conditions, the reading age levels of the six subjects increased over the period of the study, in a range from ten months to twenty months of reading age. It is considered that provision of a structured reading programme was a positive factor in producing these reading age increases.