Abstract
Self-management programs typically involve some combination of two or more of the following strategies: self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and positive reinforcement. A successful program combines the strategies to teach students responsibility for their own social behavior and academic performance (Young, West, Smith, & Morgan, 1991). Researchers and practitioners have cited a number of benefits and rationales for teaching students to self-manage in general and special education settings, including: (a) increasing students' self-reliance, (b) decreasing students' over-reliance on parents, caretakers, teachers, and external controls, and (c) permitting teachers to spend less time on classroom management and more time on instructional tasks (McDougall, 1998).
This symposium comprised papers on the following topics: (a) a review of the research on self-management, its flexibility, acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness with diverse populations; (b) how to teach students to self-manage in inclusive settings; and (c) using self-evaluation with teachers and paraeducators to promote collaboration and inclusion.
A Review of the Research on Self-Management Strategies
to Promote Inclusion
Katherine Mitchem, Ph.D.
West Virginia Unviersity
Self-management is an intervention that has been extensively documented for its effectiveness at improving behavior (McDougall, 1998; Nelson, Smith, Young, & Dodd, 1991; O'Leary & Dubey, 1979). Self-management programs typically involve some combination of two or more of the following strategies: self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and positive reinforcement. A successful program combines the strategies to teach students responsibility for their own social behavior and academic performance (Young, West, Smith, & Morgan, 1991), making self-management an appealing classwide strategy to promote the inclusion of students with disabilities as well as to improve classroom behavior of all students in the classroom.
In the early 1970s, behavioral self-control first appeared in the research literature (Ballard & Glynn, 1975; Glynn, Thomas, & Shee, 1973; O'Leary & Dubey, 1979). Glynn, Thomas and Shee (1973) compared the effects on 2d graders' behavior of providing class reinforcement to teaching students to assess and record whether they were on-task. The results indicated that self-management produced greater improvements in on-task behavior than did the class reinforcement. In the early 1980s the terminology used to describe this type of intervention changed from self-control to self-management. In the 1990s, researchers began to explore self-determination, a program that extends the concept of self-management to include choice-making and self-advocacy skills.
In this paper, we focus our attention on the use of self-management to promote inclusion. First, we briefly describe the terminology used in self-management and the benefits associated with such skills. Then, we review the research on the effectiveness of self-management as an inclusive technique with different populations, in different settings, and for different behaviors. Finally, we discuss implications for practice in terms of self-management's acceptability to teachers and students, its feasibility, and its flexibility in inclusive settings. Subsequent papers in this symposium will provide practical information on how to teach self-management skills, how to implement a classwide peer-assisted self-management program, and its use with teachers and paraeducators to promote collaboration and inclusion.
Components of self-management programs typically involve some form of self-assessment and self-recording, which together constitute self-monitoring. Other components may include self-instruction or self-verbalization. Some programs include a self-evaluation component. Self-evaluation refers to the process of assessing one's behavior, comparing it to a standard, and then rating that behavior against the standard. Self-management programs tend to vary in the extent to which self-determination and self-administration of reinforcement is incorporated.
Research indicates that there are a variety of benefits associated with self-management programs. Self-management programs tend to be very adaptable and may be combined with audio cues, picture prompts, physical prompts, and strategy training allowing for a wide range of uses with a variety of students and classrooms. Successful use of self-management skills increases a student's self-reliance, and decreases his or her reliance on adults. These skills are valued by society, are portable, and may promote generalization of skills across settings. Perhaps of primary importance to teachers in inclusive settings, teaching students to manage their own behavior permits the teacher to focus on instruction. Self-management is an intuitively appealing technique for general education teachers because it is viewed as a feasible intervention in terms of the time and effort required to implement it. Finally, there is strong empirical support for the effectiveness of self-management interventions at improving a wide range of academic and behavioral outcomes.
Researchers have documented extensively that students with and without disabilities can learn to use self-management components to regulate their own behaviors and to decrease reliance on adults and other external agents. Self-management interventions have been used with students with learning disabilities (Reid, 1996), behavioral disorders (Webber, Scheuermann, McCall, & Coleman, 1993), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (Hinshaw & Melnick, 1992), and students with developmental disabilities (Harchik, Sherman, & Sheldon, 1992). Researchers have found that self-management training packages increase on-task behavior (Blick & Test, 1987); decrease inappropriate classroom behaviors (Prater, Plank, & Miller, 1991); improve academic performance in creative writing (Glomb & West, 1991); vocabulary acquisition (Hogan & Prater, 1993); math problem completion (Prater, Hogan, & Miller, 1992); and reading comprehension (Edwards, Salant, Howard, Brougher, & McLaughlin, 1995). Self-management programs also enhanced the maintenance and generalization of treatment gains to other settings (Rhode, Morgan, & Young, 1983). With the goal of transferring responsibility for behavior management from the teacher to the student, these methods promote generalization and permit teachers to spend less times on classroom management and more time on instruction (see McDougall, 1998; Nelson, Smith, Young, & Dodd, 1991).
Given the intuitive appeal of self-management as an inclusive technique, it is interesting to note that relatively few studies have investigated the classwide use of self-management programs in general rather than special education settings (McDougall, 1998). With increasing numbers of schools striving to meet the needs of students with disabilities in general education settings, some researchers have begun to use self-management to promote academic and social success of students with disabilities in inclusive settings. McDougall (1998) noted that only 14 of 248 reviewed studies investigated the use of self-management by students in general rather than special education settings. He recommended more research on the use of self-management in inclusive settings with an emphasis on those variables that moderate, enhance, or inhibit treatment efficacy.
Our research was designed to extend the research on classwide self-management programs and document the practicality, feasibility, and acceptability of a peer mediated classwide self-management program (Mitchem & Wells, in press; Mitchem, Young, West, & Benyo, in press). For teachers to choose and continue to use interventions, issues such as acceptability (the judgments of teachers and students whether intervention procedures are appropriate, fair, and reasonable) feasibility (the availability of sufficient resources, skills, training, and time to implement an intervention as described) clearly have a significant impact. Addressing these issues as well as the extent to which interventions are flexible and a good "contextual fit" with typical classroom routines may increase the likelihood of the teacher choosing and continuing to use the intervention (Mitchem & Young, in press). The flexibility of classwide self-management interventions is evidenced in how, where, when and with whom it may be used. For example, students may be cued with a tone or physical prompt; they may respond by making a check mark, giving a thumbs-up, or highlighting a list. In the second paper in this symposium, we describe in more detail practical issues including the steps required for implementing a classwide self-management program.
References
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Blick, D.W., & Test, D.W. (1987). Effects of self-recording on high school students' on task behavior. Learning Disability Quarterly, 10, 203-213.
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