THE EFFECTS OF SELF-FEEDBACK OR THE COOPERATING TEACHER AS THE SOURCE OF FEEDBACK FOR TRAINING PHYSICAL EDUCATION STUDENT TEACHERS IN APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of source of feedback on selected teacher behaviors in training student teachers in applied behavior analysis. The two sources of feedback considered in the study were: (1) the student teacher recording his own behavior, and (2) the student teacher and the cooperating teacher recording the student teacher\u27s behavior. Three teacher behaviors were selected to be practiced by the student teacher. These included: (1) increasing the percent of positive statements to total statements, (2) decreasing the percent of negative statements to total statements, and (3) increasing the percent of specific content information statements to total statements. The ten subjects for the study were student teachers in elementary physical education. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups. Group I subjects experienced self-feedback plus feedback from the cooperating teacher regarding the selected behaviors; Group II subjects experienced only self-feedback regarding the selected teacher behaviors; and Group III subjects served as the control group and received traditional feedback. The research design for the study was a multiple baseline across behaviors design. Cooperating teachers and student teachers were trained to collect data for the behavior categories using event recording. Raw data were converted to percentages and plotted on graphs by baseline and intervention phases for each teacher behavior observed for each subject. The findings of the study were reported by using graphs to chart multiple baselines across behaviors for each subject. In addition, a descriptive narration of each subject\u27s behavior was reported. Comparisons were made of the selected teacher behavior changes for each subject within a group and for changes of the teacher behaviors among groups. A comparison among groups using the Kruskal-Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance by Ranks was also made. The findings included: (1) All subjects in Group I consistently changed in the desired direction for the three selected teacher behaviors. (2) Inconsistencies of direction were found for all three teacher behaviors for subjects in Group II. (3) Inconsistencies of direction were found for Group III subjects regarding the behaviors increasing positive statements and decreasing negative statements. All Group III subjects altered behaviors in the desired direction regarding specific content information statements. (4) All three groups increased the mean percent of positive statements during intervention with Group I showing the greatest increase. (5) Groups I and III showed a decrease in the mean percent of negative statements made during intervention. Group I showed the greatest decrease. Group II showed no change during intervention regarding a decrease of negative statements. (6) All three groups showed an increase regarding specific content information statements. Group III showed the greatest increase. (7) Results of the Kruskal-Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance by Ranks showed a significant difference among groups for increasing positive statements at the .001 level of confidence, for decreasing negative statements at the .001 level of confidence, and for increasing specific content information statements at the .05 level of confidence