A Principal's Inservice Training Package for Increasing Teacher Praise

Abstract

This study examined the effects of a school principal's application of a behavioral training procedure, referred to as a Principal's Inservice Training Package, on the praise behaviors of all teachers in his school. A secondary purpose was to describe the subsequent changes in the disruptive behaviors and classwork and homework completion of selected students in each teacher's classroom. A multiple baseline design was applied across praise behaviors to demonstrate independence of these target behaviors. By sequentially applying the inservice training package to individual praise behaviors, the controlling effects of the package were shown. With the application of the inservice training package, the average rate of both specific praise and outside circle praise rose. Follow-up data taken one year later indicated that use of specific praise remained high, while outside circle praise remained higher than baseline. Changes in student behaviors following the introduction of the inservice training package included a decrease in disruptive behavior and an increase in work completion.