Behavior Game Good Behavior Game

Behavior Game

Good Behavior Game

The Good Behavior Game is a class room management tool designed by Harriet H. Barrish, Muriel Saunders, and Montrose M. Wolf of the University of Kansas in1969 as an interdependent group-oriented activity to suppress inappropriate classroom behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to explain how the Good Behavior Game works and examine some of the research studies on the game, their applications, and their results.

Melody Tankersly (1995) reports that the Good Behavior Game has been shown through systematic replication and extension to be successful in reducing levels of inappropriate social behavior by using peers as the change agents. The game is a team-based behavior management technique. Students are encouraged to control their own behavior and the behavior of their peers. Structured on team competitiveness, the game promotes proper classroom behavior by rewarding teams that do not exceed a standard for inappropriate behavior, resulting in students characteristically support their team members to engage in appropriate behavior to avoid losing the game. The game has been effective in reducing disruptive classroom behaviors such as talking out and wandering about as well as in raising academic performance.

Through most of the replications of the study the general procedures of the game have been consistent with the format originally introduced by Barrish and her colleagues according to Tarnkerly (1995). To begin the target behaviors you would like to change must be defined and the time period these behaviors are most problematic must be determined. Next the standards for winning are decided and the rewards are established. Then students are taught the rules for playing the game. Next, the classroom is divided into teams and team names are written on the chalkboard. If any student breaks a rule when the game is in effect, the teacher makes a mark by the name of the team of which the disruptive student is a member. At the end of the period in which the game is played, any team with fewer marks than the established goal wins. Members of the winning team(s) receive rewards daily. In addition, teams that meet weekly goals receive rewards at the end of the week.

In the original study conducted by Barrish, Saunders and Wolf (1969) out of seat and talking behaviors were targeted in a fourth grade classroom with 24 students. The class was reported to contain several "problem children." Baseline rates of inappropriate behavior were established and the class was divided into two teams. The game was applied only during the periods for math and reading. The researchers found that the game significantly and reliably modified the disruptive behavior of the students. The experiment demonstrated that the effect could be replicated across subject matter and class periods, and the game had a continuing role in maintaining a reduced level of disruptive behavior.

A number of follow up studies have been done to determine the effectiveness of the Good behavior game in different situations. V. William Harris and James a. Sherman (1973) replicated the study in two classrooms, one a fifth grade and one a sixth grade. In these replications consequences for an entire team were successful in reducing disruptive out-of-seat and talking behavior. Several components of the game were evaluated in terms of their importance for the reduction of disruptive behavior. Each of the following contributed, in varying degrees, to the game's control over disruptive behavior, permission to leave school early, the number of marks chosen as a standard for both teams to win, and the division of students into teams.

Spencer J. Salend, Catharine J. Reynolds and Eileen Margaret Coyle (1989) implemented the Good Behavior Game with three classes of severely behaviorally disordered students. The findings indicated that the game was effective in simultaneously decreasing a variety of inappropriate behaviors including inappropriate verbalizations, touching, negative comments cursing and drumming.

The Good Student Game was also found to be an effective classroom management tool for meeting the needs of today's diverse classrooms by Allison E. Babyak, Gayle J. Luze, and Debra M. Kamps (2000). The game was applied to three classrooms composed of student with attention problems, learning and/or behavioral difficulties, limited English proficiency, and giftedness. Data collected in all three classrooms demonstrated increases in the percentage of time students were in seat and quiet during independent work periods.

Barry L. McCurdy, Amanda L. Lannie, and Ernesto Barnabas (2008) incorporated a non-classroom setting to investigate the impact the Good Behavior Game on the disruptive behaviors of students in grades K -- 6 in an urban school cafeteria. The modified design which they refer to as the Lunchroom Behavior Game was applied across three lunch periods. Results showed a decrease in the level of disruptive behaviors following the implementation game in each lunch period and a decreasing trend for two of the three lunch periods.