Sequencing Instructional Tasks: A Comparison of Contingent and Noncontingent Interspersal of Preferred Academic Tasks

This study compared two strategies for increasing accurate responding on a low-preference academic task by interspersing presentations of a preferred academic task. Five children attending a preschool program for children with delayed language development participated in this study. Preferred and no...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavior modification 2003-04, Vol.27 (2), p.191-216
Main Authors: Noell, George H., Whitmarsh, Ernest L., VanDerHeyden, Amanda M., Gatti, Susan L., Slider, Natalie J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic achievement
Behavior modification
Biological and medical sciences
Child, Preschool
Children & youth
Choice Behavior
Comparative analysis
Educational psychology
Elementary School Students
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Language Acquisition
Language Disorders - therapy
Learner Engagement
Male
Miscellaneous
Outcomes of Education
Preschool children
Preschool Education
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Skill Development
Student Needs
Task Performance and Analysis
Teaching - methods
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:This study compared two strategies for increasing accurate responding on a low-preference academic task by interspersing presentations of a preferred academic task. Five children attending a preschool program for children with delayed language development participated in this study. Preferred and nonpreferred tasks were identified through a multiple-stimulus, free-operant preference assessment. Contingent access to a preferred academic task was associated with improved response accuracy when compared to noncontingent access to that activity for 3 students. For 1 student, noncontingent access to the preferred activity led to improved response accuracy, and 1 student’s analysis suggested the importance of procedural variety. The implications of these findings for use of preference assessments to devise instructional sequences that improve student responding are discussed.
ISSN:0145-4455
1552-4167
DOI:10.1177/0145445503251577