Brief report: Compliance in the classroom: Using the „thumbs up” procedure to increase student compliance to teacher requests

✍ Scribed by Margaret Glass; Daniel Houlihan; Michael Fatis; Howard Levine

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 416 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1072-0847
• DOI: 10.1002/bin.2360080406

✦ Synopsis

This study assessed the effectiveness of a program designed to increase compliance with teacher commands in a regular 5th grade math class. A reversal design (A-B-B'-A-B') was employed. The teacher used a discriminative stimulus to signal the students as to the availability of an opportunity to earn a point towards a reinforcer. To receive the point the students were required to return the signal and initiate compliance. The entire class was involved in the program; however, data were recorded on two students, one identified by the teacher as noncompliant; the other served as a control. The results indicated that the program was effective in increasing initiation of compliance to teacher commands. However, serious questions were raised about the generalizability of such a program.

As noted by Engleman and Colvin (1983), classroom compliance occurs when the learner does what the teacher directs. As such, compliance is an integral part of education. Without compliance to teacher requests, directed learning experiences would be inefficient and difficult to provide (Hamlet, Axelrod, & Kuerschner, 1984). Noncompliance is also a major component of many major behavior problems found in the classroom (e.g., Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Conduct Disorders, and Oppositional Defiant Disorders; see Houlihan, Sloane, Jones & Patten, 1992 for a complete review). If not effectively treated in childhood, many of these behaviors are likely to persist beyond school into adulthood (Forehand, 1977;Forehand & Atkeson, 1977).

Many studies have successfully treated noncompliance in the home and in clinical settings (Hobbs, Forehand,