While many studies have documented the negative consequences of excessive television watching, few behavioral programs have investigated techniques for reducing television viewing. A 13-year-old girl who watched from 6 to 9 hours of television daily was provided a behavioral program featuring a token-actuated timer in an attempt to reduce her…

Discussion of staff development in distance education focuses on the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) for developing instructional design skills in subject experts. Contingency theories of management are examined, literature on CBAM is reviewed, and use of CBAM in a course team approach for course development is described. (22 references) (LRW)

Two contingency systems, individual and group, were evaluated for their effects on children's behavior during small group meetings. A group of 48 children, ages 8-14, attended a seven-week residential camp program operated on a token economy system. Ratings of the campers' behavior were made by the counselors on a five-point rating scale at the…

Response-cost refers to a procedure whereby a positive reinforcer is lost or some penalty is invoked following a specific misbehavior. In an alternate procedure called Differential Reinforcement of Other Responses (DRO), a reinforcing stimulus is delivered when a particular response is not emitted for a specific interval of time. This study…

Assessed teachers' (n=89) acceptance of Good Behavior Game (GBG), interdependent group contingency. Found GBG as acceptable as positive reinforcement and response cost. Neither target children's ages, behavior problem severity, nor stated procedure rationale affected ratings. Found positive relationship between acceptability and use of positive…

The effects of two interdependent group contingencies, group-average and group-individual, on math performance and verbal interaction were investigated. In a group-average contingency the average performance of the members of the group must meet a set criterion level. In a group-individual contingency each member of the group must meet a set…

A point system was introduced at an elementary school in British Columbia whereby: (1) students lost points for their entire class when they misbehaved; and (2) point totals were openly posted daily and weekly. The method proved effective in improving the behavior of the whole school population. (Authors/PP)

Considers approaches to dealing with user attitudes toward newly implemented information systems (IS), and suggests that behavioral management strategies relevant to IS fall into three categories: (1) empirical/rational; (2) normative/reeducative; and (3) power/coercive, based on "planned change" theories. An integrative contingent model…

This article reports on research funded as a "Best Practice" project by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) designed to use action research to progress the government agenda for healthy schools. The project involved teachers working with university researcher. The outcome is five small research reports consisting of two…