Running head: WEB-QUEST

Web-quest An Assignment Submitted by Name of Student Name of Establishment Class XXXX, Section XXXX, 17 July 12

WEB-QUEST Web-quest What should Ms. Rollison know about behavior in order to help Joseph?

In order to help Joseph, Ms. Rollison should know the reasons for his behavior, she must understand his behavior. Also, she must understand what consequences his behavior creates. If Ms. Rollison deals with the reason behind Josephs behavior correctly or if she understands the probable consequences of his behavior, she may change his behavior for the better. The reason is why a student behaves the way he/she does and the consequence is his/her classmates or his/her teachers reaction that stimulates his/her similar behavior in the future or changes it for the better. So, Ms. Rollison must understand why Joseph behaves the way he does and she needs to consider how to influence the reason for his inappropriate behavior. It is also very important for her to understand what consequences her certain reaction to his misbehavior will create and choose a proper way to respond to his misbehavior. Ms. Rollison will not understand from the first time whether her response will positively influence Josephs behavior, so she needs to observe the effect of the consequence (her certain reaction to his misbehavior) and decide whether to continue implementing her reaction or change it and choose a different line of attack. The most important thing that Ms. Rollison is obliged to do is to understand the reason for Josephs bad behavior. Then, when she understands what makes him behave the way he does, she needs to think about her reaction to his behavior. Therefore, she needs to learn more about the following main behavior principles: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment and extinction; moreover, the teacher has to learn how to implement them correctly. How can Ms. Rollison determine why Joseph behaves the way he does?

WEB-QUEST A functional behavioral assessment (FBA) may be necessary in order to discover the

function of Josephs behavior (why Joseph behaves noisily). The teacher must understand what Joseph gets when he behave the way he does. He may use his troublesome behavior to get attention or to be sent out of the classroom to play outdoors. First of all, Ms. Rollison is obliged to collect all the necessary information about Josephs problem behavior. She needs to speak to his parents, his other teachers and his fellow students to determine how often he behaves badly and how long it usually lasts. Direct observations are also necessary. The teacher has to identify the antecedent behavior consequence connection, to perform the A-B-C analysis. Standard AB-C analysis forms are used for this job. She must also perform such data collection methods as event recording and interval recording. Functional Assessment Matrix will help to understand what Joseph wants to obtain and what he wants to avoid (if he wants to avoid something). When all the necessary is formation has been collected, she will be able to see what function Josephs behavior has. What can Ms. Rollison do to modify Josephs behavior? Ms. Rollison needs to figure out what replacement behavior she wants from him and what methods she needs to use to modify Josephs behavior. She must organize some functionbased intervention process. She needs to understand what type of intervention is the best for Joseph: the skill-based intervention (Ms. Rollison has to teach Joseph a certain replacement behaviour model, which she has chosen for him), antecedent-based intervention (she must modify the antecedent that leads to his bad behaviour) or consequence-based intervention (Ms. Rollison needs to change the consequence of his behavior. As soon as Ms. Rollison discovers that Joseph wants to get his classmates attention, she will understand that she needs to organize consequence-based intervention. She has to tell students to ignore his comments.

WEB-QUEST How will Ms. Rollison know whether the intervention is successful? In order to understand if the intervention is successful, Ms. Rollison needs to evaluate the intervention. She needs to collect the data over several days of implementing the intervention and from the data she will understand whether the intervention helps to modify Josephs behavior. Give a school-based example of two of the following: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, or extinction. Positive reinforcement: a student behaves rudely; a teacher praises this student when he/she behaves properly. Negative reinforcement: a student behaves rudely; a teacher removes something that is unpleasant for this student. For example, because usually he/she behaves badly, his desk is near the teachers, so when he/she does not behave rudely a teacher allows him/her to place his desk back to its initial spot (The IRIS Center for Training Enhancements, 2009). Punishment: a student behaves rudely; a teacher tells him/her that he/she needs to do a certain exercise as a punishment. Extinction: a student behaves rudely; a teacher (if she understands that he/she wants to gain attention) tells his classmates to ignore his behavior and ignores it herself. Discuss at least two benefits of conducting an FBA to address problem behaviors. First of all, a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) is necessary because it helps to

understand a students reason to behave inappropriately in the classroom. FBA helps to discover the function of a students behavior; especially, it is necessary with very problematic students. Another benefit is that using the data from FBA a teacher can understand what intervention method will be most successful with such a student.

WEB-QUEST Watch the video below and fill out the A-B-C analysis form on Kira, the girl in the white shirt. What do you think is the function of Kiras behavior? The A-B-C analysis form on Kira Time Antecedent A teacher asks a question about a good story. +5 Her teacher stops her seconds and continues asking other students. + 15 The teacher lets her seconds speak and asks more questions. Behavior Consequences

Kira starts answering the Her teacher stops her and continues asking other question. students. Kira raises her hand to answer. The teacher lets her speak and asks more questions.

Kira is even more active and she raises her hand.

The teacher lets her answer and continues to ask other questions.

It is obvious that Kira likes attention and the function of Kiras behavior is to obtain her classmates attention. In one of her comments, she says that a good story is the one that has a girl with blond hair and blue eyes just like her. Nigels problem behavior includes cursing, making derogatory comments toward other students, yelling, spitting, and shoving chairs. What type of a measurement system would you use to collect data on Nigels problem behaviors? Explain your answer. I would use a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) to identify the function of Nigels behavior, because he is a very problem student, who disrupts the study process in his class. Also, it is necessary to perform the A-B-C analysis to understand what causes his behavior and what the consequence of his behavior is. It is necessary to understand whether his teacher needs to implement the skill-based intervention, antecedent-based intervention or consequence-based

WEB-QUEST

intervention to modify his behavior. Functional Assessment Matrix will help to understand what Nigel wants to obtain and what he wants to avoid. Look at the matrix below for Nigel. Use this information to determine a possible function of the behavior and to develop a hypothesis statement. From Nigels Functional Assessment Matrix, it is obvious that he wants to avoid his classmates attention, because he spends 85% of his time alone (The IRIS Center for Training Enhancements, 2009) and he does not wants to communicate with his classmates. Also, the matrix reveals that Nigel wants to obtain quite time as it is written in his matrix (The IRIS Center for Training Enhancements, 2009). It is clear that the function of his behaviour is to avoid his classmates attention. Probably he is too shy and it is necessary to help him to overcome his shyness. Look at the graph below. The objective of the function-based intervention was to reduce the instances of Nigels problem behaviors (i.e., cursing, making derogatory comments toward other students, yelling, spitting, shoving chairs) during a twenty-minute smallgroup activity. Is the intervention successful? If you were the teacher, would you keep, modify, or discontinue the intervention? Explain your answers. The first three days show that the intervention was successful, but on the fourth day it started to lose its effectiveness and his problem behaviors were back and they were even worse that before the intervention, and on the seventh day the intervention completely failed and his behavior was much worse that it had been before the intervention. Consequently, it is obvious that it is necessary to discontinue the intervention and his teacher has to implement a different intervention plan.

WEB-QUEST How would you go about evaluating an unsuccessful intervention? Include two specific factors that you would examine and explain why they are important. When evaluating intervention, two factors must be evaluated. They are problem behavior and

replacement. A teacher needs to see if a students problem behavior starts to decrease as a result of a certain intervention plan and if the implementation of replacement behavior is successful; a student continues to behave badly and the intervention is not successful; or a students disruptive behavior is even worse as a consequence of a certain intervention plan. Understanding these factors will help to understand whether a teacher needs to discontinue the intervention that he/she uses or to continue implementing it.

WEB-QUEST References The IRIS Center for Training Enhancements (2009) Functional Behavioral Assessment: Identifying the Reasons for Problem Behavior and Developing a Behavior Plan. Retrieved 17 July 12 from http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/fba/chalcycle.htm