Republic of the Philippines

LEYTE NORMAL UNIVERSITY

Tacloban City

LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION TO BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT

Behavior Management is a term now familiar in most schools and households to

describe a set of procedures and techniques for dealing with children’s behavior
problems. Like many often heard items, it triggers reactions that range from complete
rejection of behavior management as an educational change method to total
embracement of it as an intervention model. Perhaps some of the strong attitudes people
have toward behavior management stems from its reliance on principles of behavior
modification.

The term behavior modification usually elicits strong opinions from people. At
one extreme it is viewed as the panacea for curing all society’s ills, whereas at the other
extreme it is viewed as a coercive and manipulative tool that is no better than the
brainwashing techniques that captors inflicted on prisoners of war. The reality is that
behavior modification is neither. Instead, behavior modification in the classroom is
concerned with the identification of maladaptive behaviors that interfere with learning and
assisting children in developing more adaptive behaviors.
Walker and Shea (1995) described the following four procedures for applying behavior
modification by teachers in classrooms:

1. Observe and clarify the behavior to be changed.

2. Select the present potent reinforcers at the appropriate time.
3. Design and impose, with consistency, an intervention technique based on the
principles of reinforcement.
4. Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention

DEFINING BEHAVIOR

To maintain a preventive, proactive mentality, teachers need to have a set of

principles that explains the nature of human behavior. Behavior simply refers to what
individuals do- their observable actions. Behaviors can be verbal or nonverbal.
Verbal behaviors are action of which the use of language is an important part-
they are what person says-asking or answering a question, commenting on something,
telling a joke, and so forth. Nonverbal behaviors are physical actions. Some nonverbal
actions serve a communicative function such as smiling, head nodding, or raising one’s
eyebrows in response to another’s to another’s gesture or comment. Other physical non-
behaviors entail more gross movements that serve other functions than communication
such as running, throwing ball, putting on shoes, and so forth. Some activities, such as
working on a crossword puzzle, require both verbal and nonverbal behavior
(Sarafino,1996). The key aspects of behavior are that it not only requires action emitted
by a living organism but also that it is performed as a way to interact with various elements
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 Republic of the Philippines
LEYTE NORMAL UNIVERSITY
Tacloban City

of the environment. Consequently, being blown forward by a strong gust of wind would
not be an example if behavior because both living and nonliving organisms would respond
similarly (Cooper, Heron, & Heward,1987).

Things That Are Not Behavior

Perceptions of reality are based on our past experiences, and those past experiences
necessarily differ from person to person.
• First, using subjective terms changes the focus from the child’s behavior to the
child
• A second problem with using subjective terms such as lazy is that a teacher may
set in motion a self-fulfilling prophecy whereby the child comes to be believe he is
lazy and acts accordingly; then the adult who hung the label on the child says, “I
told you so”.
• The third and most important reason for describing children’s behavior objectively
is that it enables both the teacher and child to more easily detect improvements in
the child’s behavior.
• Fourth, subjective words may initiate an escalating chain of events that could have
been avoided if objective terms had been used. Over time the use of subjective
labels may lead to more arguments and misbehavior and, most important, may
inhibit a child’s progress (Maag,1996). Therefore, teachers should always strive to
describe children’ behavior in objective terms.

THE NATURE OF LEARNING

The nature of learning has been pondered and discussed since the early days of
philosophers such as Socrates and Aristotle. Entire textbooks also have been devoted to
this issue. According to Bower and Hilgard (1981), the study of learning came from two
philosophical sources: (a) the inquiry of knowledge (how we come to know things) and
(b) the exploration of the nature and organization of mental activity.

Table 1-1. Subjective and Objective Descriptions of Inappropriate and Appropriate

Behaviors

Inappropriate Behaviors

Subjective Description Objective Description

Is lazy Does not finish all 10 math problems
Uses bad language Says “shut up” when asked to put books away
Is immature Cries when doesn’t get to be first in line
Is manipulative Asks Ms. Jones to listen to music after Mr.Smith says
“no”
Acts oppositional Has to be told three times to stop talking to classmate

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 Republic of the Philippines
LEYTE NORMAL UNIVERSITY
Tacloban City

Appropriate Behaviors

Subjective Description Objective Description

Is polite Says “thank you” after receiving a compliment
Acts friendly Smiles when talking to others
Has good work habits Sits up straight, keeps eyes on teacher, raises
hand before talking
Get along well with others Asks children to play games at recess
Exercises self-control Finishes work without being asked

Probably the best and simplest indicator of whether learning has occurred is to note any
changes in children’s behavior.

Changes in children’s behavior are best observed within the environmental context in
which they occur. The reason is because learning is interactive-it arises from the
interchange of many environmental factors including physical features of a setting,
individuals interacting in the setting, tasks demands, and materials, to name a few typical
elements. One of the fundamental ways for understanding the interaction between
behavior and environment variables is called “three-term contingency”.

THREE-TERM CONTINGENCY

Behavior does not occur in a random or unorganized fashion-it occurs as part of a

series of events. The world is an orderly place in which each event happens in relation to
other events. This relation between events is called contingency. Contingencies are
identified by analyzing and modifying antecedents and consequences that contribute to
the type of behavior exhibited by a child. Antecedents and consequences are defined by
their sequential relation to a behavior of interest to us.

Antecedents are the circumstances that exist in the environment before a behavior is
exhibited. Antecedents exists for all behavior and serve as a cue or prompt for an
individual to behave in a particular way.

Consequences change the environment shortly after a behavior is displayed.

Consequences affect the future performance of behavior by serving to either increase,
decrease, or maintain it. There are two forms of consequences: (a) a new stimulus is
presented or added to the environment or (b) an already present stimulus is avoided,
terminated, or removed from the environment. This arrangement, along with the effect of
antecedents described previously, is illustrated in Table 1-2.

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 Republic of the Philippines
LEYTE NORMAL UNIVERSITY
Tacloban City

A-----------------B------------------C

Antecedents Behavior Consequences

people events appropriate reinforcement
inappropriate punishment

Table 1-2. Example of the A-B-C Model to Analyze Behavior

Antecedent Behavior Consequences

Teacher asks Nancy a Nancy gives correct answer Teacher tells Nancy she
question gave a great answer
(stimulus presented)

Billy calls Jimmy a Jimmy hit Billy Billy stops calling Jimmy
jerk a jerk (stimulus presented)

Spelling Test Freddy gets a Freddy sent to nurse

stomachache (stimulus avoided)

REINFORCEMENT AND PUNISHMENT

The consequence presented in Figure 1-1 are categorized either reinforcement or

punishment. The definitions of both terms are deceptively simple. Reinforcement
increases the probability that the behavior it follows reoccurs in the future. Punishment
decreases the probability that the behavior it follows reoccurs in the future. The key
consideration in these two definitions is that reinforcement and punishment are not things
but effects. If something increases a behavior, then reinforcement took place, if something
decreases a behavior then punishment took place

A reward is something that is given to a person for some accomplishment. Other words
for reward is “merit” or “prize”. A reward may or may not be a positive reinforcer.

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 Republic of the Philippines
LEYTE NORMAL UNIVERSITY
Tacloban City

References

Alberto, P.A., & Troutman, A.C. (1995). Applied behavior analysis for teachers (4th
ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill.
Axelrod, S. (1983). Behavior modification for the classroom teacher (2nd ed.). New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Axelrod, S. (1996) What’s wrong with behavior analysis? Journal of Behavioral
Education, 6, 247-256.
Bower, G. H., & Hilgard, E. R. (1981). Theories of learning (5th ed.) Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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