PBS and Behavioral Expectations

Behavioral Expectations

The primary prevention of positive behavior support (PBS) consists of rules, routines, and physical arrangements that are developed and taught by school staff to prevent initial occurrences of behavior the school would like to target for change.  Research indicates that 3-5 behavioral expectations that are positively stated, easy to remember, and significant to the climate are best. At the end of the year, a researcher should be able to walk into the school and ask ten random students to name the behavioral expectations and 80% or better of the students should be able to tell the researcher what they are and give examples of what they look like in action.

Labeling Appropriate Behavior in Actions

The school team would then build a matrix (graph) listing the behavioral expectation in a horizontal row.  There would be column labels above the behavioral expectations listing all the areas in the school where this behavior could be: 1) taught, 2) modeled, 3) practiced, and 4) observed. 

Teaching Appropriate Behavioral Actions

The building leadership team would then decide how they were going to teach these behaviors to the students.  Some schools choose to have stations and rotate all the children through various locations where the adults act out the appropriate behaviors relevant to each area.  Some schools choose to show a non-example first and then the appropriate example last.  After adults model the appropriate behavior, students emulate the new behavior before they rotate to the next learning station.  Adults give feedback to the students on their performance during the training, to alleviate any misrules they may begin. 

Observing and Praising Appropriate Behavioral Actions

The building leadership team would also determine how they intended to "catch" students exhibiting the appropriate behaviors.  Specific praise is extremely important in increasing the reoccurrence of appropriate behavior. 

Conclusion

These are just a few examples of the procedures and practices that occur during the initial training for primary prevention.  Precise facets of the training make it specific to each building.  The important features are: 1) most schools realize similar results; 2) implementation looks completely different at each site, based on the needs of their specific unit and 3) ongoing decisions are made based on data driven results.

Research has taught us that efforts to prevent these serious problems are more successful if the "host environment"—the school as a whole—supports the adoption and use of evidence-based practices.  Practices that meet these criteria include teaching and rewarding students for complying with a small set of basic rules for conduct, such as "be safe," be responsible," and "be respectful." These rules translate into sets of expectations that differ according to various settings in the school.

Some parents and educators believe that students come to school knowing these rules of conduct, and that those who don't follow them simply should be punished. However, research and experience has taught us that 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.

Finally, the use of Primary Prevention strategies has been shown to result in dramatic reductions in the number of students being sent to the office for discipline in elementary and middle schools across the United States and Canada. In effect, by teaching and encouraging positive student behavior (i.e., positive behavior support), we reduce the "white noise" of common but constant student disruption that distracts us from focusing intervention expertise on the more serious problems mentioned above.

Primary Prevention, through positive behavior support, works for over 80% of all students in a given school (based on a criterion of the number of students who have one or fewer office discipline referrals per month). But obviously, no intervention works across the board for all students.  For a variety of reasons, some students do not respond to the kinds of efforts that make up Primary Prevention, just as some children do not respond to initial teaching of academic subjects.  Some children need booster shots and some children need intensive interventions.

Putting into place systematic Primary Prevention strategies offers two advantages: First, it reduces the "water torture" caused by large numbers of office discipline referrals for minor problems. As we suggested earlier, this volume of referrals obscures and distracts our attention from more serious problems. Second, having a system for documenting the occurrence of targeted behaviors (e.g., office discipline referrals) provides a way to determine which students need more intensive intervention. For example, the criterion for considering the need for moving into secondary prevention for a student or group of students might be 4 or more office discipline referrals in a month. Without Primary Prevention, of course, the number of students meeting this criteria and needing additional help will be much larger.

(http://www.pbis.org/school/primary_level/default.aspx)

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