Date of Award:

5-2016

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling

Department name when degree awarded

Special Education and Rehabilitation

Committee Chair(s)

Thomas Higbee

Committee

Thomas Higbee

Committee

Tyra Sellers

Committee

Timothy A. Slocum

Abstract

Although it may not seem harmful, students in the elementary grades often take several minutes to move from recess back to their classrooms. The problem, however, is that these lengthy transitions add up over time, and teachers lose valuable time to instruct. The less instruction students receive, the poorer their academic performance tends to be. But how much time can teachers save by reducing their students’ transitions?

According to the current study, the answer is a lot. Dr. Thomas S. Higbee and Sarah C. Smith of Utah State University recently conducted a study in which they trained second, third, and fourth grade teachers to reduce the length of their students’ transitions. Teachers learned to:

  • tell their students that they expected them to line up quickly and quietly
  • show their students what this behavior looked like
  • require that their students practice meeting these expectations
  • give their students praise or correction for their behavior

After the training, each teacher was able to effectively change her students’ lineup behavior, and each class began to transition significantly faster. For example, a fourth grade class initially took more than 5 min to move from recess to their classroom, and after the training, they could do it in less than 2 min. This meant that their teacher gained 3 min per recess to use for instruction. Multiplied by three recesses per day, this meant that the teacher gained 9 min per day and 45 min per week. In other words, as students transition more quickly, teachers can devote more time to instruction, and student achievement typically improves.

Checksum

4f8648002acff5766c039766ef91f367

Download

Share

COinS

Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .