This document discusses talking out of turn as a disruptive behavior in the classroom. It proposes implementing a token economy system to reward appropriate behavior and reduce instances of talking out of turn. The study would take place in a hypothetical second grade classroom and use surveys, observations, and interviews to collect data on student behavior before and after the token economy is introduced. Potential limitations of the study include researcher bias, novelty effects, and the Hawthorne effect skewing results.

1. TALKING OUT OF TURNTALKING OUT OF TURN
Amy Dunlop-JohnsonAmy Dunlop-Johnson

2. TALKING OUT OF TURN
• Talking out of turn is the behavior perceived by
both teachers and students to be most
troublesome and most frequent.
• Most teachers agree that although these
behaviors are not particularly serious, it is the
high frequency with which they occur on a daily
basis that makes them stressful.
• Whatever form the interruption takes; students
who call out can get the teacher and the class off
track, as well as prevent other students from
participating fully in class activities.

3. TALKING OUT OF TURN
• How will this program be implemented? By
whom? When? Where? With what
materials?
• What are the imperfections and
complications? Is this idea, for example,
safe, convenient, efficient, and
economical?
• How could improvements be devised?

4. TALKING OUT OF TURN
 Thirty-three second grade students enrolled.
 The average classroom size is 18 students.
 Forty-one percent of students are eligible for free lunch,
 Ten percent are eligible for reduced lunch, and
 the student stability is eighty-two percent.
 Thirty-one percent African-American,
 Five percent Hispanic,
 Ten percent Asian,
 Forty-seven percent are white, and
 Six percent multi-racial.
 The annual attendance rate is ninety-three percent and
 The student suspension rate is eleven percent.
 Five percent of teachers have less than three years of experience, and
 sixteen percent have a Master’s Degree plus thirty hours or Doctorate degree.
 Seventeen total number of core classes, and
 Thirty-six number of total classes.
 The participants in this study will be my make believe second-grade classroom, selected by
convenience sampling.

5. TALKING OUT OF TURN
• To begin the study, a parent consent
form will be distributed to all of the
student’s parents.

6. TALKING OUT OF TURN
• Strong attempts will be made to limit
the amount of bias; everything
collected and recorded will be
reviewed with a peer debriefer, and
classroom observations and notes will
be compared and discussed with the
teacher’s assistant.

7. TALKING OUT OF TURN
• This study is a result of an increase
in disruptions from students talking
out of turn. The goal of this action
research study is to examine
whether or not the token economy
can be used to improve student
behavior, specifically talking out of
turn.

8. TALKING OUT OF TURN
 Instruments will consist of a teachers’ survey of behavior, an observation
checklist of student behavior, and student interviews.
• Participating students will immediately earn a check mark, if at the end of
each half hour, appropriate behavior occurs. By the end of the case study,
six check marks could be earned per day for the absence of all target
behaviors. A four-by-four inch piece of paper will be taped to the corner of
the participant's desk. This will allow me to record the check marks and
also enabled the student to receive feedback on his/her performance. At
the end of the session the check marks will be counted and divided by two.
The resultant quotient will be the number of minutes available to use back-
up rewards such as math worksheets, computer time, reading instruction,
leisure reading, and playing academic games. The total possible time
available from each session for use with one of the back-up rewards will be
10 minutes. I will allocate the first 10 minutes each morning for use of the
backup rewards earned the day before.
• With the implementation of the token economy there should be an
immediate decrease in the targeted inappropriate behaviors.

9. TALKING OUT OF TURN
• There are several possible limitations to this study.
Despite all the attempts made to control it, it is still
possible for some of my bias to encourage the outcome of
the study.
• Another potential problem could be the novelty effect;
some students may experience benefits from the token
economy simply because it is something new and different..
Finally, the study could be skewed somewhat by the
Hawthorne Effect. Some students, aware that they are
being studied, may alter their behavior in order to please
me.

10. TALKING OUT OF TURN
• There are several possible limitations to this study.
Despite all the attempts made to control it, it is still
possible for some of my bias to encourage the outcome of
the study.
• Another potential problem could be the novelty effect;
some students may experience benefits from the token
economy simply because it is something new and different..
Finally, the study could be skewed somewhat by the
Hawthorne Effect. Some students, aware that they are
being studied, may alter their behavior in order to please
me.