The Effects of Self-Monitoring on Teachers’ Use of Specific Praise

Abstract

Teachers typically enter the field with limited training in classroom management, and research demonstrates that training alone does not result in improved practice. Typically, researchers have relied on time-intensive training packages that include performance feedback to improve teachers’ use of classroom management practices; however, initial evidence suggests that self-management may be an effective and efficient alternative. In this study, the authors directly compared the effects of three different self-monitoring conditions (tally, count, and rate) and no self-monitoring on five middle school teachers’ rate of specific praise using an alternating treatments design. The authors also included baseline and follow-up phases to descriptively explore the effects of self-monitoring across time. Results indicate that noting each instance of specific praise by either tallying or using a counter resulted in optimal performance, and teachers preferred using a counter. Additional study results, limitations, and implications are discussed.