Date of Award

4-1982

Degree Name

Specialist in Education

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Howard E. Farris

Second Advisor

Dr. Galen Alessi

Third Advisor

Dr. Alan D. Poling

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

While in-school contracting has repeatedly been shown to be useful in improving academic achievement and social conduct, out-of-school contracting also holds promise in the area of student behavior change. The purpose of the present study was to transfer the control of an in-school contracting procedure outside the school and into the home with low achieving middle school students. The experimenter added an out-of-school contracting procedure to an in-school contracting program already in operation. The effect of the intervention was assessed in terms of weekly grades, six-week grades, the percent of weekly assignments completed, and the percent of contracts completed per week.

Experiment I employed a multiple-baseline design across two i - . classes for three students. Experiment II employed a multiple-baseline design across four students involving one class. In both experiments, the mean weekly grades increased from 5 to 11 percentage points following the introduction of out-of-school contracting in combination with in-school contracting. The results from both experiments indicate an increase in six-week grades for at least one class for six of the seven students. It appears that an increase in contracting increased the number of assignments completed and the amount of work turned in and led to an increase in the accuracy of the assignments completed.

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