The Classroom Check-Up: A Classwide Teacher Consultation Model for Increasing Praise and Decreasing Disruptive Behavior

TLDR

School‑based consultation usually targets individual student problems and a few students, rather than altering the overall classroom system. This study evaluated the Classroom Check‑Up, a class‑wide consultation model with visual performance feedback, to determine its effects on teacher and student behavior. Implementation of the Classroom Check‑Up with visual feedback increased teachers’ use of praise and behavior‑specific praise, reduced reprimands, and led to lower classroom disruptive behavior, indicating that classroom‑level consultation can produce meaningful behavioral change.

Abstract

.School-based consultation typically focuses on individual student problems and on a small number of students rather than on changing the classroom system. The Classroom Check-Up was developed as a classwide consultation model to address the need for classroom-level support while minimizing treatment integrity problems common to school-based consultation. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of the Classroom Check-Up and visual performance feedback on teacher and student behavior. Results indicated that implementation of the Classroom Check-Up plus visual performance feedback increased teacher implementation of classroom management strategies, including increased use of praise, use of behavior-specific praise, and decreased use of reprimands. Further, these changes in teacher behavior contributed to decreases in classroom disruptive behavior. The results are encouraging because they suggest that consultation at the classroom level can create meaningful teacher and student behavior change.