Professor wins grant for ‘Good Behavior Game’ program
Professor wins grant for ‘Good Behavior Game’ program
Professor wins grant for ‘Good Behavior Game’ program
September 16, 2020
Summary
Dr. Stephanie Smith, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Southern Mississippi, has been awarded a three-year grant from the Institute of Education Sciences to develop and implement technology that will support teachers' delivery of an evidence-based intervention - the Good Behavior Game - in educational settings.
The $1.36 million award comes after three painstaking years of work by Smith, who is the residing Nina Bell Suggs Professor of Psychology at USM. Smith also serves as an adjunct assistant professor in the Child Study Center at Yale University.
The grant is titled "The Development of New Technology to Promote the Fidelity and Sustainability of a Universal Preventive Intervention in Real-World Educational Settings." Dr. Brad Dufrene, USM professor of psychology, will serve as co-principal investigator on the grant project.
The Good Behavior Game is an evidence-based behavioral classroom management strategy that helps children learn how to work together to create a positive learning environment.
It promotes each child's positive behavior by rewarding student teams for complying with criteria set for appropriate behavior, such as working quietly, following directions, or being polite to each other.
The grant concept sprang from Smith's postdoctoral research fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center.
At that time, she served as a key investigator of a $4 million National Institutes of Health award whereby she trained teachers on how to implement the Good Behavior Game in their classrooms.
Smith points out that the Good Behavior Game has been shown to significantly improve students' disruptive behaviors, such as aggression and inattention in the classroom, and to prevent the long-term negative outcomes associated with these behaviors.
Year 3 will involve pilot testing of GBG Tech using a Randomized Controlled Trial design to compare standard GBG and GBG Tech with respect to teacher-level factors, sustained fidelity, classroom management and student outcomes.
As Smith notes, "Maintaining a well-managed classroom is vital for student learning, and it falls on the shoulders of teachers. I wanted to develop technology that would decrease this burden and promote the use of evidence-based interventions in the classroom as they were intended to be used."
Reference
Professor wins grant for 'Good Behavior Game' program. (2020, September 16). Retrieved September 21, 2020, from https://www.hubcityspokes.com/professor-wins-grant-good-behavior-game-program