Whole-school or whole-class programs designed to promote positive behavior can enhance the likelihood that effective teaching and learning occur for all students. This practice guide is intended to help elementary education educators, as well as school and district administrators and parents, implement and support effective prevention-focused…

Disruptive behaviors requiring intervention occur across multiple school systems, including individual students and classrooms. Such behaviors, including talking aloud in class, getting out of one's seat, or more serious behaviors, can be frustrating for other students as well as teachers, who are trying to help students meet ever-increasing…

Functional behavior assessment (FBA), although mandated by federal law in situations involving students with emotional and behavioral disorders, is not well defined in the literature in terms of how it should best be undertaken in widespread practice in schools. Functional behavior assessment can be defined as a process for determining the reason…

This guide is intended to help elementary school educators as well as school and district administrators develop and implement effective prevention and intervention strategies that promote positive student behavior. The guide includes five recommendations and indicates the quality of the evidence that supports them: (1) Identify the specifics of…

This article uses a question-and-answer format to provide early childhood educators with specific strategies for organizing both the physical classroom environment and the instructional environment to prevent problem behaviors such as running, fighting, getting distracted, or difficulty with transitions. Sample classroom layouts, a sample daily…

Twenty suggestions are offered to help eliminate bullying behaviors in the school setting. Among suggestions are to include class discussions on bullying; to formulate a no-bullying class rule; provide social skill instruction; reinforce positive behaviors; report bullying; supervise potential bullying situations; provide positive ways to gain…

Eight theme articles discuss discipline in the classroom, including a definition of student management, ways to recognize and ward off problems, and how to cope. (JOW)

Twenty suggestions for building community and empowering students stress the role of community in facilitating inclusion, influence, and openness. Suggestions include mapping the community, finding common threads, conducting community interviews, matching compelling literature with student characteristics, conducting classroom meetings, providing…

Five ways of preventing behavior problems in children with learning disabilities are described: (1) consider the classroom environment; (2) develop effective methods for managing behavior, including a workable set of classroom rules; (3) use scheduling to prevent behavior problems; (4) use lesson planning as a behavior management tool; and (5)…

Targeted to special education teachers, this article discusses why students fight and presents strategies for preventing fights among students, including: implementing rules, rewards, and consequences; providing effective instruction; providing a safe and attractive classroom environment; and heeding early warning signs. Strategies for managing…

Ways that preschool environments can be organized to avoid behavior problems are discussed, along with the implications of these arrangements for students with disabilities who are making the transition from preschool to elementary school settings. Also noted is the relationship between environmental arrangement and direct contingency management…

Survey results show that planning and constant vigilance are the price of effective teaching. Effective classroom management involves awareness, good organizational skills, preparation, letting students know what is expected of them and following through, and the ability to diagnose student problems. (CT)

This paper suggests that the management strategies of posting classroom rules, classroom arrangement, teacher movement in the classroom, and external reinforcement systems may more likely be used as setting events to enhance the effects of teacher coercion rather than as potential setting events to enhance positive reciprocal interactions.…

Questions to ask when a behavior modification program is not working address the classroom environment, time factors, importance of emphasizing the positive, appropriate reinforcers, time lag before receiving reinforcement, criteria for reinforcement, reinforcer satiation, schedules of reinforcement, shaping to reduce inappropriate behaviors, and…

This paper focuses upon disruptive child behavior in the classroom. The goals of the paper are to give information about the dynamics of disruptive child behavior and to present practical, cost-effective behavior management strategies that teachers can use in remediating such behavior. (Author/BE)