Event Title

Tootling: Increasing Prosocial Behaviors in Elementary Settings

Presenter Information

Paula Fischbach, Minnesota State University - Mankato

Location

CSU Ballroom

Start Date

21-4-2014 2:00 PM

End Date

21-4-2014 3:30 PM

Student's Major

Psychology

Student's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Mentor's Name

Kevin Filter

Mentor's Email Address

kevin.filter@mnsu.edu

Mentor's Department

Psychology

Mentor's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Second Mentor's Name

Natasha Olson

Second Mentor's Department

Psychology

Second Mentor's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Description

Classroom rules and school-wide disciplinary procedures are typically used to decrease the frequency and severity of problem behaviors. These approaches attempt to reduce the occurrence of future behaviors, but can also teach students to continue their problematic behavior as long as they avoid being caught. Peers who observe problem behaviors are then relied upon to report incidents, or engage in tattling. Tootling is a term that was created from the word tattling. Tootling is similar such that students report their peers’ behaviors but report appropriate behaviors rather than problem behaviors. Tootling aims to increase positive behavior by encouraging students to behave appropriately in order for their classmates to report their behavior, or “toot their horn.” The current study aimed to replicate and extend previous research by evaluating tootling with and without a group contingency on rates of positive and disruptive behavior. One second grade and one third grade classroom in a Midwest public school participated in this study. An A-B-C-A-C-B-A-C experimental design was used alternating tootling alone and tootling with a group contingency. Contrary to previous research, results did not show consistent improvements in positive and disruptive behavior during tootling with and without a group contingency in comparison to the initial baseline phase. Although the frequency of disruptive behavior decreased over the course of the study, it is unclear if these effects were a result of the intervention. Future research should investigate the relationship between the number of positive and disruptive behaviors and the total number of tootles reported across conditions.