Group Contingencies In Special Education

Transitioning from one location to another, organizing required materials, completing assigned tasks, and applying prior knowledge in different settings are all important skills that students must learn in order to function independently within the school environment. While educators have long recognized these skills to be a priority for all students, findings suggest that they are perhaps even more so important for students with disabilities as these skills become critical to their independence and future success (Gardner & Wolfe, 2014). Moreover, an aspect that is especially essential for special educators to consider for their students is the influence of prompting and the capability for independent task performance. For instance, although
Dependent group contingencies provide classwide consequence (e.g., privileges, rewards, punishment) dependent upon the behavior(s) of a single student or a targeted group of students meeting the criteria (Litoe & Pumroy, 1975). Independent group contingencies apply the same criteria and consequence to the entire class or group of students but reinforcement is contingent on each individual student’s own behavior (Litoe & Pumroy, 1975). With interdependent group contingencies, all students in the class will receive the consequence only if the entire group as a whole meets the set criterion (Litoe & Pumroy,
(2014) investigated the effects of the well recognized classroom management strategy known as, Good Behavior Game (GBG), on classwide off-task behavior in two ninth-grade basic algebra resource classes. GBG is a variation of interdependent group contingency with the specific procedures of identifying target behaviors, posting rules, identifying reinforcers, dividing classes into equal teams, stating infractions by rule violators or identifying examples of behavior that meets predetermined criteria, recording rule infractions or achievement points, and using scheduled interval to reward the team with the fewest infractions or most points (Flower et al., 2014). The intervention was implemented by two special education teachers to their respective classrooms which included ten students with a variety of disabilities. The results of the study showed that classwide off-task behavior decreased during the intervention phase when compared to the baseline and reversal phases. Both students and teachers responded positively to the intervention and the findings support previous research stating the effectiveness of GBG as a classroom management strategy (Flower et al.,