Date of Graduation
Fall 2015
Degree
Master of Science in Education in Special Education
Department
Counseling, Leadership, and Special Education
Committee Chair
Linda Garrison-Kane
Abstract
Increasing behavior specific praise and the opportunities to respond (OTR) in a classroom increases the likelihood that students will engage in learning activities and socially appropriate behavior. This study was focused to investigate the effects of on increasing para-educator's use of positive praise and the opportunities to respond in small group reading lessons. This study employed four single-subject withdrawal designs were employed in this study. Two were ABAB, the third was ABABC, and the fourth was ABCAC. The interventions consisted of the para-educators receiving training in the area of behavior specific positive praise and opportunities to respond. After each lesson para's evaluated their performance by listening to 5 minutes of the small group lesson and recorded a frequency count of behavior specific praise both academic and social and OTR. Para's received feedback from the special education teacher after the selfevaluation was completed. Results indicated that para-educators increased their rates of praise on average of 35 total specific praise and increased OTR on average of 28 per session across the four sites.
Keywords
behavior specific praise, self-evaluation, opportunities to respond, para-educator training, autism
Subject Categories
Special Education and Teaching
Copyright
© Jordan Christopher Politte
Recommended Citation
Politte, Jordan Christopher, "Increasing Rates of Specific Praise and OTR Provided by Para-educators in Special Education Classrooms" (2015). MSU Graduate Theses. 1554.
https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/1554
