Date of Conferral

2019

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Magy Martin

Abstract

Urban middle school teachers have experienced the severe challenges of discipline problems, which have contributed to writing more principal's office discipline referrals. The effective behavior support (EBS) program has been found to promote positive behavior in the classroom and change students negative behavior into positive behavior. Guided by the Problem-Behavior Theory (PBT), the purpose of this quantitative nonexperimental study was to examine the relationship between the teachers' effective behavior support and office discipline referrals of urban middle school students. Years of teaching experience was the mediating variable. The researcher used archival data collected from teachers who used the effective behavior support program located at an urban middle school in the Southeast United States, the female and male teachers ranged between the ages of 23 to 66+. For the research question, a simple regression was employed as a means of analyzing the archival data. Results suggested that positive teachers' support was not associated with the frequency of office discipline referrals. However, years of teaching experience was associated with fewer discipline referrals. The results of this study can be used to promote educational professionals to utilize positive teacher support to decrease office referrals, leading to more student contributions in the classroom and more long term success for students.

Share

 
COinS