The effectiveness of teacher attention as a reinforcer in the conditioning and extinction of classroom behaviors of delinquent girls

The present study was designed to assess the effectiveness of a combination of teacher approval for appropriate behavior and teacher ignoring of inappropriate behavior in modifying the classroom behavior of institutionalized juvenile delinquents.In a classroom at a residential facility for female juvenile offenders, baseline recordings of student and teacher behaviors were collected. After baseline, the teacher introduced three rules specifying appropriate student behavior. Next , in a multiple baseline procedure, the teacher approved of the students\u27 appropriate interrupting and ignored their inappropriate interrupting; later, she also approved of the students not engaging in inappropriate talking and ignored their inappropriate talking.The greatest increase in appropriate interrupting and the greatest decrease in inappropriate interrupting occurred when the experimental treatment of teacher approval and ignoring was applied to them. The greatest increase in not engaging in inappropriate talking and the greatest decrease in inappropriate talking occurred when the experimental treatment of teacher approval and ignoring was applied to them. These results are evidence that the use of teacher supplied social consequences can be an effective behavior modification technique with juvenile delinquents