Sometimes a student in a
class displays recurring off-task or disruptive behavior to such a degree
that the teacher believes that some kind of behavior intervention strategy
is needed. The teacher might feel the need to document the child’s behavior
so that, in future discussions with parents, administrators or behavior
consultants, the teacher can accurately convey the nature of the student’s
behavior problems. The teacher might find that using some form of systematic
observation will be helpful. Systematic observation involves observation
and recording of specific student behaviors at regular intervals.
When discussing the student’s
behavior with a parent or another professional, a common question that
arises is, “How often does the misbehavior occur?” or “To what degree is
the behavior a problem?” In situations like this, a teacher might
respond that “it seems like the student is in trouble all of the time”
or “the student is never on task.” These statements are probably
exaggerations and do not accurately indicate the frequency or severity
of the student’s behavioral difficulties.
To determine whether behavior
intervention strategies are successful, one first must know how significant
the problem behaviors are. For example, what percentage of the time
is the student actually off -task? What percentage of the time is
s/he disruptive? When these questions can be answered, then one can
accurately convey to others the severity of the student’s behavioral difficulties,
and also have a bench mark to which future behavior can be compared.
If a student is observed to be off-task 65% of the time, one can measure
the success of behavioral interventions by measuring the percentage of
time off-task in the future, and comparing it to 65%.
Pupil-Teacher Classroom
Observation Scale
A simple instrument that
can be used for systematic observation is the Pupil-Teacher Classroom Observation
Scale (PTCOS) (Simpson, 1979). This instrument is designed to allow
one observer to record information about the classroom behavior of an individual
student. One observation session can be completed in 20 minutes.
Every 10 seconds, the observer makes a judgement as to whether the student
is being on-task, off-task, or disruptive. After 20 minutes of observation,
the observer can calculate the percentage of time that each category of
behavior occurred during the observation period.
It is recommended that three
20-minute observation periods be completed in order to get a truly representative
sample of the student’s behavior. Each observation period should occur
on a different day, and at different times of the day. For example,
one would not want to complete all observations on one day because, on
that one day, the student might be having an unusually good or unusually
bad day. Also, one would not want to observe from 9:00 am until
9:20 am on three consecutive days, because the student’s behavior at that
time might not be typical of his behavior at other times of the day.
Crucial to the successful
use of any behavior observation instrument is a common understanding of
the behavior categories. The PTCOS contains only three student behavior
categories: on-task, off-task, and disruptive. It also contains one
teacher category: teacher attention to the student. Presented below
are the three student categories and their operational definitions.
Definition of Behavior
Categories
| Pupil Behavior |
| on-task |
• Listening to instructions.
• Doing what the teacher
instructed.
• Making eye contact with
the task or teacher when either is required.
• Seeking help in the proper
manner (e.g., raising hand).
• Being in the proper geographical
location (e.g., in seat when seat work is required) |
| off-task |
•Not doing what the teacher
instructed.
•Not making eye contact
with teacher or task when either is required.
•Not following directions.
•Not in the proper geographical
location.
Examples: daydreaming, doodling,
watching others, in the wrong place, looking out the window |
| disruptive |
•Disrupting the on task
performance of others.
•Distracting other students.
•Talks to other students
while they are trying to be on task.
•Teacher must disrupt her/his
routine to deal with this student. |
| Teacher Behavior |
| attend |
•Teacher speaks to student.
•Teacher physically touches
student.
•Teacher and student make
eye contact with each other. |
Interested users of this
instrument can learn more about it from the following sources.
