The effect of instructional framing on children’s task completion and classroom compliance

To help children achieve academic goals, teachers must have specific, easy to administer, effective classroom management techniques. In the present study the potential of the “framing effect” for classroom management was explored. The term “framing effect” refers to the finding that people’s choices are affected by changes in how a situation is described or “framed”. Framing studies with adults have consistently shown that decisions made by adults are affected by the manner in which information is presented to them. The present study extended framing research from adult contexts to children in the classroom. It examined whether the way in which a teacher frames an instruction, makes a difference in children’s decisions to follow instructions. Approximately 100 grade three and four students were instructed by their teachers (a) to complete an academic task and (b) to comply with a behavioral request, in two separate experiments. The teachers used unframed, and positive and negative framed instructions, including both individual and group consequences. The resulting student behavior was recorded. Analysis of group means was done using a-priori contrasts to determine if there was a treatment (framing) effect. Results confirmed the hypotheses that framed instructions would result in a reliably higher rate of task completion and behavioral compliance than unframed instruction. Improvement rates in task completion and behavioral compliance ranged from 20% to 30% over the five classes, and 20% to 70% in 32 out of 40 contrasts in individual classrooms. There was no reliable difference in task completion or behavioral compliance between positive or negative framing or between group or individual consequences. Exploratory analysis indicated no reliable sex difference. Qualitative analysis indicated teachers were unanimous in their impression that the framed instructions were effective in increasing children’s appropriate responses to instructions. Future research might include the investigation of sex differences in framing response at various grade levels, investigation of the effect of the use of a time limit as a framing component, and the relationship between different framing components and personality constructs.Education, Faculty ofEducational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department ofGraduat