Efficacy of teacher‐implemented good behavior game despite low treatment integrity
Rough-around-the-edges Good Behavior Game still cuts classroom disruptions in half for students with severe behavior challenges.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Joslyn and colleagues worked with four teachers in a restrictive alternative school.
The students were in grades 6-12 and had serious emotional and behavioral disorders.
Teachers ran the Good Behavior Game every day for four months.
The researchers watched how often the teachers followed each GBG step.
They also counted student disruptions before, during, and after the game.
What they found
Disruptions dropped by at least half in every classroom.
The gains held even though teachers followed only 60-70 % of the GBG steps.
Students kept the improvements when the game ended.
Low fidelity still gave big behavior change.
How this fits with other research
Spilles et al. (2026) extends this work. They added team competition and saw bigger social gains in typical third- and fourth-grade rooms.
Jones et al. (2019) used a different group contingency in an alternative high school. Both studies show large, fast drops in problem behavior with teens who have tough histories.
Sherman et al. (2021) seems to clash at first. They used BST to push teacher fidelity above 90 %. The key difference is the goal: Sherman aimed for perfect teaching form, while Joslyn shows kids can still win even when form is rough.
Why it matters
You do not need to wait for flawless staff training. Start the Good Behavior Game this week, even if steps get missed. Track disruptions for ten minutes today and ten minutes after you begin. You will likely see a quick drop, and that early win can build staff buy-in for finer tuning later.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a well-documented group contingency designed to reduce disruptive behavior in classroom settings. However, few studies have evaluated the GBG with students who engage in severe problem behavior in alternative schools, and there are few demonstrations of training teachers in those settings to implement the GBG. In the current study, 3 teachers were trained to implement the GBG in a restrictive setting for students with histories of emotional and behavioral disorders and delinquency. The teachers used the GBG to produce substantial reductions in problem behavior despite low treatment integrity. Clinical implications and future directions for research are discussed.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2020 · doi:10.1002/jaba.614