Reflection On Student Behavior

One of the components of this project was to gather information from a variety of sources. This included 2 ABC observations, 1 teacher interview, 1 student interview, and looking at the student’s file with regards to past schooling and behavior/academic performance. All of these sources helped me make a more informed decision making in what the problem behavior was and the conditions in which the problem behavior was occurring. For example, in the teacher interview, the teacher noted how the student we were observing liked to get up from his seat during group work and in the ABC observations, confirmed the teacher’s statement. We also observed how the student would hit other students and get up from his seat to get peer and teacher attention. During the student interview, the student stated how he found group too long and boring. Through the analysis of all these different sources, it became clear that the point where the most undesired behaviors occurred was during group work. During the process of conducting the interviews and the ABC observations, the hardest part was to not make assumptions, and to only record and analyze the observable behaviors exhibited by the student. Umbreit

Before this class, I had a basic knowledge from AP Psychology about what an antecedent was and what positive/negative reinforcement and punishments were, but it was more a basic knowledge rather than knowing how to apply those concepts in a real life situation. Through this class, I was able to use the knowledge I have previously learned and apply it in a classroom setting. This challenged me to observe the student’s actions more critically and to keep a critical eye to look for antecedents, undesirable behaviors, and consequences. This project helped connect the psychological concepts and apply it to a real life setting, that is very applicable to my future career as a