The Effects of Varied and Non-Varied Praise on Student On-Task Behaviors

Research has demonstrated that behavior specificity is a salient characteristic of teacher praise efficacy. Praise variety may also be an important characteristic to reinforce desired student behavior based on research about the quality of reinforcers. In this study, we used an alternating treatments design to examine the effects of varied and non-varied behavior-specific praise (BSP) on two first-grade students’ on-task behaviors in U.S. general education classrooms. Visual and statistical analyses suggest both varied and non-varied BSP increased on-task behavior, with varied BSP resulting in marginally higher levels of on-task behavior. There was no functional relationship between varied and non-varied BSP conditions. Findings from this study contribute to teacher praise literature as the first to empirically investigate the effects of praise variety on student behavior. We discuss the implications of this preliminary research and encourage future inquiry into additional characteristics of praise.