| Abstract: | Educationally significant behaviors of students, teachers, and supervisors were directly assessed daily for a fiscal year in a residential school in which the results of behavior analysis research are applied to all levels of schooling. The variables assessed included those found to be concomitantly related to effective schooling as determined by the educational research literature, and functionally related to effective teaching as determined by the literature of behavior analysis. Weekly summaries of the following variables were analyzed for each of two daily shifts of teachers and supervisors: (a) number of trials presented and correct number of trials, (b) number of instructional sessions conducted, (c) number of learning objectives achieved, (d) percentage correct in each of three curricular areas, (e) weekly teacher observation scores, and (f) the total and rate per hour of supervisors' task accomplishments. There were strong positive correlations between: (a) instructional sessions and learning objectives, (b) teachers use of behavioral techniques in weekly observations by supervisors and students' achievement, (c) number of supervisor tasks completed and number of instructional sessions conducted by teachers, (d) number of teacher observations by supervisors and teachers' performance during observations, and (e) number of student objectives attained and number of tasks completed by supervisors. The assessment is the most comprehensive and sustained analysis of the daily behaviors of schooling. The relationships found between students and teacher behaviors replicate the effects of numerous experiments but do so in a total school setting. The relationships found between supervisor and student behavior have not been demonstrated in prior research. There is a need for similar school wide assessments in other types of schools to determine the generality of the relationships obtained in the present article. |
