Michael’s Issue

Michael’s disruptive behavior during math instruction is distracting others from participating and learning. When the teacher asks three students to solve a problem at the board, Michael teases the students when they walk past his desk. The snide remarks continue while they are solving the problems, and at one point, Michael takes the pencils off one of the student’s desks and hides them in his desk. When the teacher’s reprimand is not effective, she moves closer to his desk to monitor Michael’s behavior. This only causes Michael’s misbehavior to escalate and further disrupt the lesson, so the teacher sends him out of class to the principal’s office.

To anticipate Michael’s disruptive behavior and adjust environmental triggers and reinforcers, his teacher noted what happened before the misbehavior to prompt it (its antecedents) and after the misbehavior to reinforce or decrease it (its consequences).

What happened before (antecedent): A difficult concept in math was modeled to the class and students were called on to work problems at the board.

Behavior: Michael distracted and teased students who were participating in whole class exercises in math. The disruptive behavior recurred two days later during a math lesson.

What happened after (consequence): Verbal reminders, physical proximity, and finally removal from class (allowing student to avoid doing the math lesson).

The teacher observed that the disruptive behaviors occurred only during math, indicating that Michael might have wanted to avoid engaging in the lesson. The teacher asked herself if the concept was too difficult or too easy to sustain his attention and gauged the developmental appropriateness of Michael’s behavior against the instructional and disciplinary strategies in play. She realized that removal of Michael from the classroom might have inadvertently reinforced his disruptive behavior because it allowed him to avoid doing the task. Because the context for the disruptive behavior was identified, the teacher planned to adjust the antecedent and consequences by using the developmentally appropriate strategies described below, and to continue to observe Michael’s behavior to evaluate the success of her new approach.

Adjusted antecedents: Forewarn Michael when new concepts will be introduced in math and tell him he will be one of the students called on to offer an answer to a problem. Gauge Michael’s and his classmates’ understanding of the new concept by asking several questions and offering a variety of problems for students to solve.

Adjust the difficulty of the problems on the basis of the students’ success.

Consequences: If misbehavior occurs, take Michael aside and remind him of behavior expectations during whole-group lessons. Describe how the observed behavior affects students’ learning. If behavior persists, give Michael a choice of participating in the lesson or relocating to a designated area to work on problems independently until he is ready to return to the whole group.

As demonstrated in the example, teachers’ attention to the antecedents and consequences of recurring behavior problems can inform the development of more effective and efficient behavioral support strategies to prevent or reduce behaviors that interfere with successful classroom learning.