Running Head: DATA COLLECTION 1

Data Collection and Graphing Assignment

Date of Observation: February 28, 2019

Kathleen Thompson

EDU 347
DATA COLLECTION 2

Data Collection and Graphing Assignment

Description of Classroom

This data was collected in a preschool Head Start classroom. There are sixteen students in

the class and all but two of them are Caucasian. The class is the only class in that building so

there are a total of four adults in the room. Two of them are in and out of the class because they

are the cook and the bus driver. The other two adults are the teacher and the paraeducator.

Physically, the classroom is set up with two kidney tables for meals and small group instruction,

a circle time area with a rug, the classroom rules, a visual schedule, and a few other materials

used during that time, centers including blocks, computer, housekeeping, a baby center, art, sand

table, and toys and games, and there is also a library and storage cabinets in the back of the

room. Students at this point in the schoolyear know the rules and classroom routine very well.

Preschool students have some issues transitioning because they are still young and developing

those skills but overall, students understand what is coming next. While I am at the school,

students progress through their morning routine. This consists of eating breakfast, brushing teeth,

circle time, center time, and bathroom before lunch. Overall, the classroom runs very smoothly.

Description of Student

The student that I chose to collect data on is a four-year old Caucasian male in preschool.

He is not identified as having any disability but does have a number of behavioral issues. He

does have a few health issues as well including being very overweight and not being able to use

the restroom yet. I do believe that these have an impact on his behavior. He is able to

communicate and does so regularly. Some of his target behaviors pertain to communication and

social interaction. He has not yet developed appropriate social skills but does have some. He is
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able to hold a conversation and use manners when he chooses, but at times he does not always

communicate and interact with others effectively.

Definition of Target Behavior

In this data collection, I recorded the frequency of three target behaviors. The student has

a plethora of target behaviors, but these were the three that the teacher really wanted data on, so

we agreed upon those. The three behaviors are calling out, getting out of seat, and throwing.

Each of these behaviors can be defined by a number of behaviors that constitute it. Any time one

of the defined behaviors occurred, the appropriate frequency was recorded.

For this student, calling out was defined by talking when it was a quiet time, yelling,

calling out to people, interrupting someone, growling, saying “No”, and saying “Shut up.” There

were times during the day where he would say “No” or “Shut up” rapidly multiple times in a

row. If he said those phrases more than three times in a row, the frequency was recorded as one

instance of the behavior. An example of this behavior would be if the student were to call out to

the teacher during instruction or shout, “Hey you!” across the room at an adult or student.

Conversing in a soft voice with an adult or student when called on or during center time would

not count as an instance of the behavior.

Out of seat behavior was defined in a number of ways for this student because there are a

multitude of activities and seats he is supposed to be in during the morning. This behavior was

defined as removing his bottom from his spot on the rug during circle time, wandering around

the classroom, being in an area of the room that he is not supposed to be in at that time, and not

sitting in his chair with his bottom on the seat and his feet flat on the floor. During circle time, if

the student rolled over on the carpet and came off of his carpet spot, or if the student got out of

his chair and wandered to the other side of the room to the computer when he was supposed to be
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eating breakfast, an instance of the behavior would be recorded. On the contrary, if the student

were to rock in his chair, keeping his bottom on the seat, this would not be recorded as an

instance of the behavior.

The final target behavior observed was throwing. For this student, the behavior was

defined as having toys or objects leave his hand and travel across the room, and as ripping papers

or objects off of the walls. If the student threw a box of tissues at the teacher and the box left his

hand and travelled towards her, then an instance of the behavior is recorded. If the student lightly

tosses a toy in the bin from a short distance during clean up, then an instance of the behavior is

not recorded.

Graph and Data Collection

Figure 1.1 shows the frequency of three target behaviors for a student during ten, ten-

minute sessions. A two-minute break was provided in between each session. The three behaviors

observed were calling out, getting out of seat, and throwing. In the graph, calling out is depicted

by the blue line, getting out of seat by the grey line, and throwing by the orange line. Session

times are listed on the x-axis and the corresponding frequency is marked on the graph at that

point on the y-axis for the particular behavior. This data shows that the student’s worst target

behavior is calling out and from the variance of the graph, the student seems to show outbursts of

behavior at certain times. Following the graph is an image of the data collection sheet used

during the observation.

DATA COLLECTION 5

30
Baseline Intervention
25
Frequency of Behaviors

20

15

10

5 Out of Seat
Calling Out
Throwing
0
9:56-10:06 AM
9:20-9:30 AM

9:32-9:42 AM

9:44-9:54 AM

10:08-10:18 AM

10:20-10:30 AM

10:32-10:42 AM

10:44-10:54 AM

10:56-11:06 AM

11:08-11:18 AM
Session

FIGURE 1.1 Frequency of student behavior. The number of times a student engaged in three
target behaviors is recorded above. Ten, ten-minute sessions were recorded with two-minute
breaks in between.
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Reflection

I thought that this assignment was a great way to get familiar with collecting data and it is

something that will be very practical and useful later on in the future because I will have to do

this someday. My cooperating teacher told me that this student was the most challenging student

she has had in her career. Naturally, this scared me a little bit on the first day. For the first two

visits, this student was fine and there really were not many instances of misbehavior. I am so

glad that I chose him for this assignment because on the day I collected data, I really saw his

behaviors come out. Because I observed and collected data on three of his target behaviors and

because I had never done anything like this before, it was challenging the first few sessions to

collect data. It was difficult to get a grasp of what you actually recorded on the sheet, observing

the student, and deciding what actually counted as an occurrence of the behavior, all while

timing the sessions. After three sessions, I got the hang of it and the rest of the sessions were

fairly simple.

While collecting this data, it was the first time I had experienced a lot of the behaviors

that this student portrayed. He threw objects at students, at teachers, off shelves, and off walls

when he had an outburst. Experiencing those behaviors and being able to take data on them was

not only useful for me but for my teacher as well. She is going to use the data as a starting point

for interventions with him. I was also able to learn a lot from observing the teachers handle his

behaviors as well. There were things they did that were great including never raising their voice

and using reinforcement and behavior specific praise when he was engaging in positive

behaviors. There were also things that they did that were not so great when handling his

behavior. They had a hard time remaining calm and not letting his behavior get to them. Each of

them stepped away from him and the situation because they were too frustrated with him or did
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not like the fact that he threw something at them. It was a tough situation to be in so I can see

how that can be aggravating but I am not sure that it was in his best interest for them to leave in

the middle of an incident because when one would step out and the other would replace, progress

was lost.

Finally, this assignment allowed me to learn to really analyze data not only to see the

numbers but to go deeper and look at the situation happening. For example, in sessions five, six,

and seven, the frequency of his behaviors decreases dramatically. This was not for no reason but

because the teacher was present playing with him during a good portion of that interval. Being

able to look at a behavior in more detail while still collecting hard data was the biggest thing I

learned from this assignment.