The experimental modification of teacher attending behavior.
A daily count sheet quickly boosts how often preschool teachers notice appropriate behavior.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Schwarz et al. (1970) worked with two preschool teachers who had no training. Each day the researchers counted how often the teachers noticed kids' good behavior. They gave the teachers a sheet with the count and a one-sentence definition of "attending."
The study used a multiple-baseline design across the two teachers. No extra coaching, money, or time was offered.
What they found
Both teachers quickly started paying more attention to appropriate child responses. The change happened as soon as the daily feedback began.
Kids got more teacher smiles, nods, and comments when they followed directions.
How this fits with other research
Rast et al. (1985) later showed the same trick works in middle school. They told teachers after each lesson whether their low-engaged students' engagement went up or down. Engagement doubled with almost no cost.
Matson et al. (2008) flipped the idea: instead of training teachers to watch kids, they had teachers give attention every four minutes no matter what. Off-task behavior in third graders dropped fast. Together these studies show teacher attention is powerful whether it is trained by feedback or scheduled directly.
Steege et al. (1989) and Schmitt (1986) moved the job to the students. Kids in upper-elementary special-ed classes learned to count their own attention or work output. Both methods raised on-task behavior, with productivity tracking giving slightly better math work rates.
Why it matters
You do not need big workshops or money to change teacher behavior. A simple daily note—"You praised 4 times yesterday, goal is 10"—can be enough. Try it on Monday: pick one teacher, one behavior, and one count. Hand the count to the teacher at the end of the day and watch the numbers climb.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
A method of observing and modifying teacher attention to appropriate child responses in preschool classrooms was developed. Two teachers with no formal training in reinforcement principles were observed for a baseline of eight days. Teacher A, who displayed a lower baseline rate of attending to appropriate child responses, was trained first. Teacher B was simply observed during the first part of the training condition for Teacher A. During training, A received feedback which included definitions of appropriate child responses, her frequency of attending to appropriate child responses, her total percentage of attending to appropriate child responses, and her frequency of failing to attend to appropriate child responses. Teacher B was then trained in a similar way. Both teachers showed an increase in attending to appropriate child responses subsequent to the onset of experimental feedback.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1970 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1970.3-153