Operant Conditioning in the Classroom Setting: A Review of the Research

The purposes of this review were (a) to summarize the research following an applied behavioral analysis which has relevance for public school classrooms and (b) to discuss the problems and important considerations involved in an applied behavioral analysis of classroom behavior. Studies in this area are grouped into the following categories according to the nature of the reinforcement employed and assessed: (a) teacher attention, (b) peer attention, (c) token reinforcement, and (d) vicarious reinforcement. The problems of obtaining teacher cooperation, valid and reliable measurements, and confirmation of stimulus control through design of the experiment were discussed. Finally, the implications of these studies for classroom behavior control, as well as for future research, were explored