Literature as Data Summaries

Initial Wondering (List it here): “In what ways can I use various management strategies to engage students that exhibit challenging
classroom behaviors?”

Does your wondering pass the litmus test? Complete the checklist below to confirm.

� Is it specific? Yes
� Is it focused on student learning? Yes
� Is it a real question (question whose answer is not known)? Yes
� Is it a question about which you are passionate? Yes
� Is it a “how can I” wondering? (What impact might it have on your students?) Yes
� Is it free of judgmental language? Yes
� Is it focused on your own practice? Yes
� Is it a dichotomous (yes/no) question? No
� Is it clear and concise? Yes
� Is it doable? Yes
APA Citation:
Smith, T. E., Thompson, A. M., & Maynard, B. R. (2022). Self‐management interventions for reducing
challenging behaviors among school‐age students: A systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 18(1), 1-44

Notes about Key Quotes & Ideas Actions or Impact on Actions in the Classrooms
(Think of 3 or more ideas)

1. “Self‐management interventions within schools can address Teaching students how to manage and self-monitor their
these concerns by helping students develop necessary social, behavior will be beneficial both socially and academically. Self-
emotional, and behavioral skills.” management interventions focus on students’ developing and
practicing self-awareness. The article listed 11 self-management
2. The study found that self-management interventions were interventions. These interventions target prosocial and on-task
most beneficial for African American students and those behaviors. The goal is to minimize disruptive classroom
receiving specialized services. behaviors such as playing, talking to peers, getting in and out of
chairs, etc.
3. “Researchers have identified a number of challenging
behaviors at school including defiance, disrespect, harassment,
verbal and physical aggression (Kaufman et al., 2010), violating
classroom rules, talking without permission, getting out of one's
seat (Walter, Gouze, & Lim, 2006), and general distractibility
and issues fol- lowing directions (Harrison et al., 2012).”

How does this article relate to equity in the classroom?

This article relates to equity in the classroom as its purpose is to give specific students tools and resources that will improve their
school experience. Not all students display ‘challenging behaviors’ in the classroom so not all students necessarily need the
resource of self-management intervention. Challenging behaviors in the classroom go deeper than interrupting and frustrating
teachers, oftentimes students that display these behaviors struggle socially and academically. Being off-task during an instructional
period is academically harmful for children because they miss out on important information and skills being taught. Since these
children struggle in the classroom and present challenging behaviors, they quickly become shunned socially because their peers
imitate the frustration they see their teacher exhibiting. The study found that nearly 20% of students (3-4 in an average sized
classroom) repeatedly display challenging behavior. It is important that teachers recognize these students and try to develop an
understanding of why the behavior is occurring. Does the child have ADHD? Does the child have a known complicated home life?
What factors could be causing the behavior? Is there something we, as the teacher, is doing to cause the child to behave in such a
way? Teachers should investigate these questions with an assets based mindset and then provide students with support in
managing these behaviors.
APA Citation:
Aksoy, P. (2020). The Challenging Behaviors Faced by the Preschool Teachers in Their Classrooms, and the Strategies and
Discipline Approaches Used against These Behaviors: The Sample of United States. Participatory Educational Research, 7(3), 79–
104.
Notes about Key Quotes & Ideas
1. “A child is in need of inquiring and searching his/her
environment, moving, exploring,
learning new things, and playing games during preschool period
that covers the first six years
of the life. The process of satisfying this need has an impact on
gaining the knowledge, skills,
attitudes, and habits, which form the basis of his/her life.”
● Typically, during the first six years of a child’s life, they
are in need of moving, playing, and inquiring into their
environment. Sometimes this makes it harder to teach
these children because they are trying to satisfy their
biological need/tendency of play.
2. Give hints through actions/signs/gestures can be effective as
well (hand signal for “Stop”).
3. “....it was determined that teachers not only adopt reactive
strategies such as
repeating the instructions, taking breaks, offering a choice, using
a behavior graph, and ignoring, but also they adopt preventive
strategies such as giving positive feedback, reviewing
the rules regularly, informing about transition, notifying the
Actions or Impact on Actions in the Classrooms
(Think of 3 or more ideas)
1. When teaching primary grades always keep in mind that
“challenging/off-task behaviors” are likely not defiant. Be
patient with students that are this age and create a warm
environment that incorporates structure, but still allows
time for recreational play/discoveries.
2. It is important to eliminate challenging behaviors during
the pre-school period, because persistence of these
behaviors negatively affects children academically and
socially. I should be diligent in monitoring these
behaviors while I’m in a primary grade classroom and
implementing strategies that will help my students
overcome such struggles.
3. Some of the teachers involved in the study stated that
they dealt with excessive talking through positive verbal
redirection and even making a ‘stop’ gesture with their
hand. This would be an example of giving ‘hints’ toward
undesirable behaviors through gestures/signals.
4. The teachers in the study also use positive
reinforcement through rewards (stickers) as well as
verbal complements (“Thank you” when students are
showing good behavior). My CT already has a positive
reinforcement classroom management plan in place so I
instructions when needed, and can utilize that more often to help limit challenging
explaining the instructions regarding the issues rather than the behaviors.
questions.”

How does this article relate to equity in the classroom?

This article relates to equity in the classroom through addressing the importance of helping students with ‘challenging behaviors’
because they can oftentimes struggle more academically and socially than their peers. The article stated that students who display
continuous challenging behaviors during the pre-school ages are at risk for developing negative feelings toward school. It is very
important to address these behaviors early on in order to give these students the tools they need to succeed in upper elementary
grades. An equitable classroom environment should always have a warm and positive teacher. This article describes the
importance of positive classroom management strategies over negative ones.

APA Citation:
Archambault, I., Pascal, S., Tardif-Grenier, K., Dupéré, V., Janosz, M., Parent, S., & Pagani, L. S. (2020). The contribution of
teacher structure, involvement, and autonomy support on student engagement in low-income elementary schools.
Notes about Key Quotes & Ideas Actions or Impact on Actions in the Classrooms
(Think of 3 or more ideas)

1. Schools in low SES areas have lower student engagement so
teachers management strategies/practices have to be especially
effective in order to reach students. It’s important to take this
into consideration when starting a job at a new school.
● Being in a lower SES area will affect children because of
the economic stress and hardship it poses on family
members
● Experienced teachers are less attracted to jobs in these
areas because they don’t necessarily want to take on the
known challenges
● Hypothetical claim that hasn’t been well-researched:
“...in low-SES schools, teachers’ low expectations may
Defining ‘engagement’: “Students who participate in class, follow
teacher instructions and rules, show high attendance, and meet
teachers’ expectations are behaviorally engaged in the
classroom”
1. This article really emphasized the importance of
developing strong relationships with students. I think this
is something I have already been working to do and
continue to do so in my future practice through having
genuine interactions with my students and giving them
the opportunity to share about themselves.
2. Student engagement will vary. My students will not
 lead them to adopt fewer effective practices, which likely always be hyper engaged in every subject I teach or
intervenes in the student engagement/disengage-ment activity I come up with and that’s normal especially in
process over the school year.” primary grades where play and inquiry is essential to
development. Have grace with students and recognize
2. “...student engagement is considered malleable, as it is that not all of them will be as engaged at times as others,
sensitive to external and contextual influences, such as the however remain proactive in creating lessons that will
classroom environment…” excite learners and provide the kind of learning
● Student engagement is subject to vary and change over environment that promotes interest and engagement.
time. 3. Students need a structured environment and an involved
teacher. Whenever teachers show interest, excitement,
3. For students, competence, autonomy and relatedness are and involvement the students are influenced to do the
needed to fulfill intrinsic motivation. For teachers there are three same. Teaching practices can directly affect learning
teaching practices that can be used to promote students’ practicing so through providing variety and choices,
engagement. Those are: teacher autonomy-support, structure, teachers can spark more interest and willingness to
and involvement. complete tasks. Supervising activities and offering
● Autonomy-support: teachers help their students develop suggestions to students is a good way to show active
internal motivation. Provide choices between tasks, involvement.
explain the importance of activities, allow students to
choose their behaviors and make their own goals.
● Structure: a structured environment ensures students
have information needed to complete tasks, this
promotes competence in students. “Teachers provide
structure when they supervise activities, give student
strategies to manage different learning situations,
indicate clearly what is expected, explain the
consequences of rule-breaking behaviors, and give
concrete feedback during specific tasks.”
● Involvement: teachers relationship with students,
meeting students’ needs and providing a safe-warm
classroom environment.

“In low-SES elementary schools, when teachers give their

students choices between different tasks, flexibility to solve
problems, freedom to pursue their own goals, and especially
when they develop close relationships and encourage pupils to
share their needs and emotions, they promote student active
participation and interest in the class-room.”

“Teachers who care for their students and

develop a positive relationship with them directly enhance their
engagement in class and not only in terms of behaviors, but also
by favoring their interests and use of self-
regulation strategies. In such at-risk environments where
teachers might not always know how they can be positive
agents of change, bonding with students seems to be
accessible ways to enhance feelings of security, promote
positive emotions, and increase active participation in the
classroom.”
How does this article relate to equity in the classroom?
This article focuses on teaching strategies and their effectiveness in schools located in a low socioeconomic area. I really
appreciated how the article addressed the additional stress that low SES families experience and how that can impact students. I
feel like sometimes teachers don’t take that into consideration. The article described several teaching strategies that focus on
creating an equitable classroom environment. Through taking the time to learn more about each student, teachers communicate
that they care about who their students are as people, not just learners. Providing choices and encouraging students to take
charge of their behaviors and cultivate their own learning goals are examples of creating an equitable classroom environment.

APA Citation:
Stichter, J. P., Lewis, T. J., Whittaker, T. A., Richter, M., Johnson, N. W., & Trussell, R. P. (2009). Assessing Teacher Use of
Opportunities to Respond and Effective Classroom Management Strategies: Comparisons Among High- and Low-Risk Elementary
Schools. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 11(2), 68–81.
Notes about Key Quotes & Ideas Actions or Impact on Actions in the Classrooms
(Think of 3 or more ideas)

1. Teachers that provide more prompting
questions/opportunities for students to respond were able to
deliver higher quality instruction and experienced less
challenging behaviors from students.
2. Increasing wait time after asking a question can increase
students’ engagement.
1. Keeping students engaged through opportunities to
respond is a good classroom management tool.
Opportunities could include turn and talks as well as
direct questions.
2. Positive praise and encouragement must be genuine in
order to be effective.
 3. Increasing wait time after asking a question can prompt
“Wait Time 1 (WT1), when the teacher pauses after prompting more students to engage in critical thinking and
for a response, and Wait Time 2 (WT2), when the teacher waits answering. Teachers should also incorporate wait time
if a student pauses during his or her answer. whenever a student answers but pauses during his/her
answer.
“increasing WT1 (wait time 1) and WT2 (weight time 2) can
lead to student attentiveness, student responding, and student
academic achievement, with a wait time (WT1) of 3 s or more
being optimal (M. Rowe, 1974a; Tobin 1983).”

“....an intervention that included getting the

child’s attention, speaking slowly in short sentences,
pausing (i.e., wait time), monitoring for understanding, and
establishing hearing, listening, and compliance rou-tines
resulted in significant improvements in literacy levels.”

3. Instructional talk should be well balanced with opportunities to

respond in order for the most learning to occur.
“On average, the observed teachers engaged in 40.22%
academic talk. Thus, based on research, approximately half of
instructional time spent in instructional talk might be considered
optimal.

“In their study, when the teacher increased the mean rate of
prompts from a base-line of 1.24 per minute to 3.52 per minute,
the student response accuracy increased from 71.8% to 75.5%,
and on-task behavior increased from 55.2% to 82.6%.”
How does this article relate to equity in the classroom?
A major key of creating an equitable classroom is ensuring that all students are respected, included and valued. Increasing
opportunities to respond will increase student involvement in their own learning. Through letting students know that they have a
voice and their contributions to classroom discussion are valued, students will begin to feel more comfortable in their learning
environment. Using genuine praise/encouragement as positive reinforcement is a good way to make all students feel like their
responses/contribution is valued. In order to create a classroom that is focused on student-learning, instructional talk by the
teacher should be well balanced with opportunities for students to respond.
APA Citation:
Classroom Management: "Effects of the Good Behavior Game on Challenging Behaviors in School Settings". (2014). Education
Week, 33(36), 5.
Notes about Key Quotes & Ideas Actions or Impact on Actions in the Classrooms
(Think of 3 or more ideas)

1. A rewards system that emphasizes rewarding positive
behavior has been proved effective.
“The classroom-management approach known as the Good
Behavior Game had "a moderate to large effect" on
reducing a wide range of challenging classroom behaviors,
including aggression, talking out of turn, and straying
from the task at hand, according to a new statistical analysis of
22 studies on the program.”
2. Use teams; break the class into teams and reward teams
based on good behavior. At the end of the week the team with
the most points gets a reward. This also will encourage students
to create a sense of community, working together for a common
goal.
1. Classroom management system that rewards positive
behavior and redirects negative behavior is a
recommended way of managing challenging behaviors.
2. This approach can encourage classmates to create a
sense of community because teams work together to
reach a common goal.
3. The “Good Behavior Game” utilizes multiple classroom
management strategies that are proven effective in the
classroom: acknowledging appropriate behavior,
teaching rules, providing feedback/redirection for
inappropriate behavior, verbal praise, and rewards as
positive reinforcement.

3. Acknowledging appropriate behavior, teaching rules,

providing feedback/redirection for inappropriate behavior, verbal
praise, and rewards as positive reinforcement are all classroom
management strategies utilized through the “Good Behavior
Game”.
“"The [Good Behavior Game] allows teachers to engage in
several behavior management strategies including
acknowledging appropriate behavior, teaching classroom rules,
providing feedback about inappropriate behavior,
verbal praise, and providing rewards as reinforcement,"

How does this article relate to equity in the classroom?

This article focuses on “The Good Behavior Game” and how it utilizes several effective classroom management strategies. “The
Good Behavior Game” not only acknowledges and rewards positive behavior, it also addresses negative behavior through
 redirection. The goal of this management system is to motivate all children to display desirable behaviors. To be used equitably
this management strategy should include accommodations for students with extreme struggles such as ADHD. Providing more
chances for behavior modification is one suggested approach for embracing equity in the classroom.

Reflection:

What are several themes you found across your literature summaries?
I noticed that the most commonly occurring challenging behaviors described across my literature sources included excessive
talking and other off-task behaviors. Challenging classroom behaviors are disruptive to teacher, but they also threaten student
achievement. It is very important that these behaviors are addressed and redirected early on to ensure students success in future
grades. Across my literature I noticed there was a general theme of using positive management strategies to better engage
students and limit challenging behaviors. Management strategies such as verbal praise/encouragement and positive reinforcement
were highly recommended in achieving desirable behaviors. It is also recommended that teachers acknowledge and redirect the
challenging behaviors they experience in the classroom. In order to promote more engagement during class I found that providing
increased opportunities for students to respond was recommended. It is also overall recommended that teachers become actively
involved in their classroom and with their students. Building positive relationships with students and creating a structured and
supportive environment will help engage learners and limit challenging behaviors.

What are some of your ideas for how to utilize what you learned from your literature in your classroom? How will this
promote equity for your students?
I will provide more positive reinforcement for students exhibiting desirable behaviors and always be on the lookout for these
behaviors. My CT has a positive rewards management system in place that is similar to “The Good Behavior Game”, however I
have found that I don’t use this system as much as I could during my time in field. I can start using this system more as a form of
positive reinforcement and motivation for students. I can provide redirection for my students exhibiting challenging behaviors, this
may require a more extensive management plan. I will have to keep in mind that these students may need more support than their
peers. In order to limit excessive talking, which is a common challenging behavior in my class, I can use gestures/hand motions as
hints for students to stop talking or wait their turn. I can also provide reminders of class expectations frequently when completing
classroom tasks (“We are on voices off”, “Raise your hand”, etc.). Providing more structure through my instructions could ensure
that students are completely aware of what they should be doing and limit their off-task behavior. I really would like to employ the
strategy of increased opportunities to respond as well as wait time. These strategies can promote more engagement and learning
for all of my students.

How have you revised your wondering after the literature data collection? Why or Why not? If a new wondering, add it
here.
I did not revise my wondering. After collecting my literature, I feel like I was able to gain a better understanding of what falls into the
category of challenging classroom behaviors. The students in my focus group exhibit these behaviors (excessive talking, off-task
behavior, playing, etc.) so these are the behaviors I want to focus on redirecting and engaging more in classroom discussions.