This article considers the impact of a major government initiative to reward and promote excellence in teaching and learning in higher education. The proposal to create Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in England's universities and colleges of higher education was first announced in 2003. A two-stage bidding process took place over…

Truancy is a growing problem for both individual pupils and school systems in general. Traditionally, truancy has been thought of as a "symptom" of other problems faced by the student. The advent of behavior modification offers a new way of viewing truancy as a discrete behavior capable of modification by the application of scientifically-derived…

Contingency contracting, as a viable treatment modality for the rehabilitation of drug abusers, has been investigated, and promising results have been attained. During the past two and one-half years drug abuse treatment and paraprofessional training models have been developed. Treatment for drug abuse has been facilitated within the natural…

This summary covers the experiences of the staff of the Unified Studies Program at Boston State College from September 1973 through August 1975. Included is: (1) the planning phase, (2) team building, (3) staff, (4) administrative support, (5) potential students, (6) compromises, (7) funding, (8) use of the learning contracts, () contract hours,…

After a two-week introductory period, participants in the Unified Studies Program at Boston State College will engage in a study of eight important institutions chosen by students at a planning session in November. Each institution will be dealt with for one full week. After the spring vacation, small groups (4 or 5 people) will engage in…

The Unified Studies Program began at Boston State College in September of 1974. Its model is based on team-teaching, learning contracts, small interdisciplinary seminars, and other open-classroom and unified educational learning/teaching techniques. Boston State College had been compelled to shift its academic assumptions because of financial…

Evaluated was a pilot study on the use of behavior modification with 116 delinquent boys (8- to 15-years-old) committed to a residential treatment center. Upon assignment to classes, each S was placed on an individual contract which, when completed, was worth points redeemable for such things as candy and potato chips. Ss were administered the…

In recent years, there has been much research on bullying in the United Kingdom. In 1990, the author, a school counselor and teacher, organized an antibullying workshop at a large secondary school. Since then, the school has been developing a schoolwide antibullying policy comprising various strategies, including an antibullying contract and a…

The Adolescent Diversion Project, an alternative to court processing for juvenile offenders, employs intervention strategies of behavioral contracting and advocacy. Youth (N=73) were assigned to one of three conditions: (1) the control group receiving usual court treatment; (2) the family condition involving a trained undergraduate volunteer who…

The Mutual Agreement Programing (MAP) process, as currently used in corrections, provides for the use of a legally binding contract between the inmate and the Paroling Authority. The contract outlines future inmate performance in the areas of skill training, education, institutional behavior, treatment, and work assignment or employment. It also…

Over a period of three years an experimental program was conducted at Southwest Texas State University to help increase the number of successful completions of admission contract conditions by transfer students with low grade point averages. An increase in the number of students successfully meeting the required grade point average of…