Training elementary aged peer behavior managers to control small group programmed mathematics.
Reward peer managers for accurate consequences, not group quietness, to keep supervision sharp.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers trained four fifth-grade students to run a small-group math program.
Each peer manager gave points, praise, or brief time-outs for study behavior.
The study then compared two setups: managers earned points for correct consequences, or the whole group earned points for quiet working.
What they found
When managers earned points for accurate consequences, they kept giving points and praise.
When only the group could earn points, two managers stopped watching and slipped back to old ways.
Math work stayed high in both setups, but manager quality dropped without personal reinforcement.
How this fits with other research
Neef et al. (1986) later showed the same peer-manager trick can cut the manager’s own disruptions at recess.
Fay (1970) used teacher-given candy tokens to boost work; Hursh et al. (1974) moved the job to kids and added the manager-contingent twist.
Pitetti et al. (2007) took peer math tutoring home to foster girls and still saw gains months later, showing the idea travels.
Why it matters
If you use peer tutors, reward the tutors for correct praise and point delivery, not just the group’s work.
One simple switch keeps student managers accurate and saves you from retraining every week.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The effects of a training procedure and two maintenance contingencies on consequence-dispensing behavior were investigated. Four peer behavior managers were trained to supervise small groups of subjects (four to six per group) working in programmed math materials and were compared with a teacher skilled in the use of social and point reinforcement and response cost. Manager training was differentially effective in accelerating manager's rates of appropriate social and point dispensing. Having manager reinforcement contingent upon manager consequence-dispensing resulted in moderately higher rates of appropriate social and point dispensing for three of four subjects than did having manager reinforcement contingent upon group study behavior. Two managers exposed to the group performance contingency before the manager performance contingency increased inappropriate social and point-dispensing behaviors to pretraining baseline levels. Subsequent change to the manager performance contingency was effective in reducing the inappropriate dispensing behavior of only one of the two managers.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1974 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1974.7-103