Action Research Proposal 1

Running head: ACTION RESEARCH PROPOSAL

ACTION RESEARCH PROPOSAL

THE EFFECT OF POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT IN CHARACTER EDUCATION
ON INCREASING POSITIVE APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR IN
A FOURTH GRADE CLASSROOM

Carolyn Frasier
Methods of Research 760
University of Wisconsin-River Falls
August 12, 2009

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Abstract
Character education promotes values in all phases of school, and includes proactive
strategies and practices that help children not only understand core ethical values, but to care
about and act according to them. This study will investigate positive reinforcement and its effect
on an increase in positive appropriate behavior fitting in the realm of character education.
Students (growth) will be measured by: 1) student questionnaire, 2) teacher questionnaire,
3) student focus groups and 4) the tallying of positive appropriate behavior coupon points of
each student in the experimental group. It is expected that an increase in coupon points will
bring an increase in positive appropriate behavior.
Introduction
Character Education in American schools is experiencing a revival. One of the great
education reformers, Horace Mann, in the 1840s, helped to improve instruction in classrooms.
He advocated that character development was as important as academics in American schools.
Recognizing the importance of this concept, the United States Congress authorized the
Partnerships in Character Education Program in 1994. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
expands support for this tradition. One of the six goals of the Department of Education is to
promote strong character and citizenship among our nations youth (retrieved July 29, 2009,
from http://www.ed.gov).
The Character Education Partnership defines Character Education as a national
movement encouraging schools to create environments that support ethical, responsible, and
caring students. It is the intentional, proactive effort by schools, districts and states to instill in
their students important core, ethical values that we all share, such as caring, honesty, fairness,
responsibility and a respect for self and others (retrieved July 29, 2009, from

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http://www.character.org). Effective Character Education is comprehensive. It is integrated into
all aspects of the students time at school including, classroom life, academics, playground,
lunch, phy ed, and in the hallways.
Students today are in need of building these character attributes. There are a number of
character education programs used in the schools. One that I came across is the Positive
Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) (retrieved July 30, 2009, from http://www.pbis.org).
It is an evidence based system that operates under the premise that all students can exhibit
positive behavior. PBIS is a proactive approach that seeks to prevent challenging behaviors from
developing, and intervenes early. It is a school wide implementation and is a team based
approach. A reward system (or incentives program) in the form of coupon points is utilized to
encourage and model appropriate behavior. School personnel look to catch students exhibiting
appropriate behaviors. How important is this praise in increasing the reoccurrence of appropriate
behavior? How important is it to reward students for complying with a set of basic rules for
conduct, such as being respectful to self, others, community, and property?
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to determine whether positive reinforcement, the condition in
which behavior has an increased likelihood of occurring in the future if something (object or
event) is given or presented after the behavior occurs, would increase positive behavior in school.
It is thought that frequent teacher attention in the form of praise is more effective than rules or
reprimands in increasing appropriate behavior. Systematically teaching behavioral expectations
and rewarding students for following them is a much more positive approach than waiting for
misbehavior to occur before responding. It also establishes a climate in which appropriate
behavior is the norm.

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Review of Literature
Several studies have shown the schools that seem to have an impact on student character
respect students, encourage student participation in the life of the school, expect students to
behave responsibly, and give them the best opportunity to do so. School counselors can be
involved and are uniquely positioned to promote social responsibility and good character
development in all students. School personnel must continue to embrace diversity and respect
differences in the personal values of students. Consensual values could be taught, enforced
advocated for, and modeled in a preventative and proactive manner (Britzman, 2005). Character
Education is a proactive and purposeful approach, designed to create a healthy learning
environment to help each student incorporate values necessary for achievement.
Lickona (2004) asserts that schools are making a commitment to teaching moral values
and developing good character. He gives us some reasons: 1) the qualities and strengths of good
character define the hallmarks of human maturity and development, 2) schools are better places
when they are civil and caring communities that teach, celebrate and enforce the values on which
good character is based, 3) it is paramount to the task of building a moral society and
perpetuating the democratic system. Our society is suffering from severe social and moral
problems which are most visibly reflected by youth. Such circumstances cannot be neglected in
hope they will correct themselves.
Past PBIS studies have shown that we can deal with the circumstances and move in a
positive direction. A PBIS study conducted in a low socioeconomic elementary school in the
Pacific Northwest demonstrated a 39% increase in positive behavior in the common areas of the
school, and a 33% decrease in office disciplinary referrals, indicating successful implementation
of PBIS (Nelson, Covin and Smith, 1996). Another recent PBIS study by Leedy, Bates and

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Safran (2004) was conducted in an elementary school in Ohio. Through the use of clear
behavioral expectations, grade level assemblies, and complimentary reinforcement, there was a
substantial improvement in hallway behavior for all grades, kindergarten through grades five.
With an overall increase of 134.9% for full class compliance across six positive behaviors, it is
evident that this combination was effective.
Methods
Design: This study uses a pretest-posttest single group design. There is no comparison
group, and no selection threat. It requires baseline, pretest data. This design compares outcomes
in the experimental group after the program has been running for a while, to outcome measures
in the same group before the program began. If the program is effective, outcome measures will
be significantly higher (Langbein and Felbinger, 2006).
Participants: This study will take place in a neighborhood elementary school serving
kindergarten through fifth grade. The school is located 25 miles from Minneapolis, MN. It has a
total of 450 students. The research group will be the 25 students in one 4th grade classroom.
Random assignment will not be possible as this study will use all the children in Mrs. Larsons
class. The students classroom is multicultural and socio-economically mixed equally. The class
being studied is in most respects representative of the population of the school.
Variables: The independent variable is the positive reinforcement.
The dependent variable is the appropriate positive student behavior as
measured by an increase in student coupon points.
Measures: The measures that will be used in this study are: 1) student questionnaireCharacter in Action survey by Cornerstone Consulting and Evaluation (see appendix), 2) teacher
questionnaire created in Illinois for use with PBIS (see appendix), 3) student focus groups-six

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focus group questions will be created after the pretest, and 4) teachers weekly log of each
students positive appropriate behavior. PBIS utilizes a positive reinforcement system. It
involves the classroom teacher catching the student using appropriate behavior. The students
receive a coupon each time they exhibit appropriate behavior. Teachers are looking for the
student to have respect to self, others, community or property. Teachers sign and date the
coupon, and check the appropriate box they showed the behavior in (see appendix for example).
Students record the number of coupon points on the white board. The teacher, also, records
each students total at the end of the week and submits the tally to the school counselor to record
in the school record (use spreadsheet). Incentives are given out for having the most coupon
points. Other school personnel can catch the student using appropriate behavior, and give them
a coupon. The student questionnaire will look at attitudes related to character development. The
teacher questionnaire will look at the teachers observations of each students behavior. Both of
these questionnaires will relate to how positive appropriate behaviors parallel student attitudes
and teacher observations.
Data Collection and Analysis: The teacher will introduce the overview of the PBIS
character development to the class. She will have each student complete the Character in Action
survey. She will fill out the teacher questionnaire for each student. The research will take place
over one trimester (12 weeks). Mrs. Larson will also log the points for each students coupons.
She will look to see if the points increase in the 12 week period. Focus groups will be used to
elicit qualitative information regarding students attitude and perceptions toward using positive
appropriate behavior.
The student surveys (pre/post) will be scored according to the SCCP analysis and
percentages compared using a t-test, via Statpak (retrieved August 10, 2009, from

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http://wps.prenhall.com). This t-test will be used to determine if there will be a significant
change in students attitudes and appropriate behavior after the introduction of positive
reinforcement. The teachers survey (pre/post) will be scored according to the PBIS in Illinois
analysis and percentages compared using a t-test, via Statpak (retrieved August 10, 2009, from
http://wps.prenhall.com). The t-test here will be used to determine if there will be a significant
change in teacher observation of student behavior after the introduction of positive reinforcement.
Focus group questions will be developed after the pretest. Mrs. Larsons class will be divided
into 3 groups of 6 and 1 group of 7. They will meet 4 times during the 12 week period. Each
focus group will be asked the same questions. All of the focus groups discussions will be audio
recorded. The development of a coding system will follow. Answers will be coded and meaning
units and themes developed. Student coupon points will be tallied for each student to see if
individual scores increased, and if the class as a whole increased after being given consistent
positive reinforcement. If classroom coupon points go up, positive appropriate behavior should
increase.
Ethical Considerations: Teacher will need to follow the protocol checklist for research:
1. Receive school district permission.
2. All variables are operationalized.
3. Know how many and have suitable setting for participants.
4. Description of study and informed consent form signed by students
parents/guardians. Make it clear that participation is voluntary and will offer
results to parents/guardians following completion of the research.
Future Action: When positive behavior increases in school the relationship between academic
and social behavior is strengthened. Some other positive outcomes of PBIS include: 1) increase

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in instructional time, 2) increase in perceived school safety, 3) decrease in office discipline
referrals, 4) decrease in administrator time spent on discipline issues and 5) non classroom
settings are more respectful and less chaotic.
The information to be discovered in this study will demonstrate that students benefits
from positive reinforcement, as a result benefiting the whole school community. The findings of
this research will support the previous research (Nelson et al., 1996, and Leedy et al., 2004),
discussed in the literature review where it was found positive reinforcement also impacts
behavior positively. Further follow up studies can be conducted on the benefits to using PBIS
system elements in schools.
Limitations of this study will be a small sample size of the experimental group. This
study will look at the short term effects of behavior after 12 weeks. Might want to look at
whether students maintained their positive behavior over the entire school year. Might also
want to look at more classrooms in different grade levels.
We will continue to build on the PBIS system of reinforcing appropriate behavior.
Research validated practices clearly exist to transform schools into safer and more favorable
learning environments.

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References
Britzman, M. (2005). Improving our moral landscape via character education: An opportunity
for school counselor leadership. Professional School Counseling, 8(3), 293-296.
Character Education ( n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2009, from
http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/character/brochure.html
Character Education ( n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2009, from
http://www.character.org/page.cfm?pageID=93&pf=yes
Langbein, L. and Felbinger, C. (2006). Public Program Evaluation. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E.
Sharpe, Inc.
Leedy, A., Bates, P., and Safran, S. (2004). Bridging the research to practice gap: Improving
hallway behavior using positive behavior supports. Behavioral Disorders, 29 (2),
130-139.
Lickona, T. (1991). Educating for character. New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster.
Lickona, T. (2004) Character matters: How to help our children develop good judgment,
integrity, and other essential virtues. New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster.
Nelson, J., Colvin, G., and Smith, D. (1996). The effects of setting clear standards on students
social behavior in common areas of the school. The Journal of At-Risk Issues, 3 (1).
10-19.
Statpak (n.d.). Retrieved August 10, 2009 from
http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_airasian_edresearch_8/38/9865/2525601.cw/content/index.
html

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Coupon
Students Name
o
o
o
o

Respect to self
Respect to others
Respect to community
Respect to property

Comments:
Teacher signature and date