Professional physical educators can facilitate, encourage, and promote a significant contribution to the social institution of youth sports through the roles of positive acceptance, active participation, and research. A positive attitude of acceptance relative to the impact and influence of youth sports on the profession as well as on society in…

Four treatment procedures were evaluated for effectiveness in reducing self injurious behavior (SIB) of 22 severely handicapped students. Treatment procedures included contingent restraint, reinforcement withdrawal, differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior, and ommission training (rewarding the S for not emitting the SIB response).…

The effects of a competency based intervention strategy on selected behaviors of student teachers in physical education were investigated to determine if there was any subsequent change in two categories of pupil behavior. Subjects received a competency based package, which included specific instructions, a reading sheet, graphic feedback, cues,…

This manual for classroom teachers is designed to teach the application of contingency contracting procedures in the typical instructional setting. A "contingency contract" is an agreement between teacher and student whereby the student, upon demonstration of specific task achievement, receives a reward: permission to participate in a "reinforcing…

In order to clarify the conditions under which material rewards have a detrimental effect upon children's later interest in the rewarded task, the effect of a reward for drawing was measured with 24 preschool children ranging in age from 34 to 40 months. The children were grouped as high or low in initial interest on the basis of observation of…

This article describes the use of the precise feedback and negative reinforcement to ameliorate problems at a community health center. Both procedures were successful in improving the performance (returning toys to their appropriate places) of undergraduate paraprofessionals involved in an educational program for disadvantaged children. The study…

This manual, designed to orient new assistant teachers to the principles and routines of the Pennsylvania Research in Infant Development and Education (PRIDE) project, a center-based program enrolling 43 children ages 12-38 months, contains a brief section giving background information on the project and the project's specific guidelines for…

This paper presents a study designed to produce a change in the behavior and self-esteem of a 9-year-old boy who had been diagnosed as having learning disabilities and poor visual-motor ability. The boy was described by his teachers as having a very short attention span and as exhibiting disruptive behaviors, such as ignoring teacher requests,…

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate how an early assessment of self-competency can be combined with an effective program for preventing maladaptive affective (self-competency) and academic skills. Eleven third graders participated in this study of three interventions. Feedback of multisource data, teacher praise (positive reinforcement),…

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of social reinforcement by the teacher on the classroom behavior of economically disadvantaged adolescents. The study also investigated the length of time necessary to demonstrate marked changes in behavior and the effect of social reinforcement on non-target class members. Subjects were six…

In order to investigate the effect of reinforcement on learning, 21 disadvantaged black children, 4 to 5 years of age, were divided among three treatment groups. Group I children received only feedback (information) as to the correctness or incorrectness of their responses. Group II children received a raisin for each correct response, and group…

A multiphase program (Delinquency Intervention Program in the Carbondale Community High School), aimed at developing and defining means of identifying and reorienting delinquent-prone youths in a high school-community setting, has used university graduate students as "Big Brother" type counselors to work with delinquent prone youths and to effect…

The extent to which a teacher served as a model for the verbal style of his students was examined with the use of a modified form of the Observation Schedule and Record 4V (OScAR). Four students from each of 24 first grade classes were separated into groups on the basis of frequency of teacher and peer reinforcement. Verbal characteristics of…

The results of a group of studies, the objective of which was to clarify the conditions that account for the effectiveness of verbal approbation, are reported. Among the most significant findings were: (1) that the reinforcement properties of verbal approval are susceptible to distortion, misinterpretation or enhancement and must be applied in a…

Reported are five studies related to the effects of a token reinforcement system based upon principles of operant conditioning on academic performance of trainable mentally retarded (TMR) children, conducted over a 9-month period in an entire school for TMR students. Study 1 investigated the effects of a school-wide reinforcement program on…