Cl. Myers et Kl. Holland, Classroom behavioral interventions: Do teachers consider the function of the behavior?, PSYCHOL SCH, 37(3), 2000, pp. 271-280
Teachers and school psychologists are often involved in designing classroom
behavioral interventions. Functional behavioral assessment, mandated under
certain circumstances by IDEA (1997), is considered a best practices appro
ach in designing behavioral interventions. A functional assessment can resu
lt in an intervention tailored to a specific student's needs. The purpose o
f this study was to determine whether teachers considered the function of a
behavior when determining a classroom intervention. A sample of 209 Kentuc
ky teachers were given scenarios of students exhibiting problematic behavio
rs. Information was provided so that the function of the behavior was appar
ent. The results found that few teachers considered the behavioral function
when deciding upon an intervention. Few differences were found between reg
ular and special education teachers. Implications for school psychologists
are discussed. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.