The Caterpillar Game: A Classroom Management System

Abstract

A single‐case experimental design was used to evaluate the effects of the Caterpillar Game, a classroom management system, on disruptive behavior in a general education first grade classroom. A multiple baseline design across settings was used to evaluate changes in student disruptive behavior and teacher praise. When the Caterpillar Game was introduced, increased teacher praise and reduction in student disruptive behavior were observed across all three settings and was sustained 8 weeks later. Teacher satisfaction for the Caterpillar Game was also positive. This study extends the literature on classroom management systems by providing initial support for the effectiveness of the Caterpillar Game, an easy and simple to implement classroom management tool.

The Effect of Collegial School Management on Improvement of Students’ skills

“…Evaluation model on learning management of teachers (Penprapa et al, 2012), concentrating on the prevention of disruptive behaviors or classroom management efforts (Roscoe & Orr, 2010), and improvement in teachers' qualification (Erdogan et al, 2010) overcome classroom management problems. The best efforts at classroom management, as well as simulation games, can contribute to reduction in student disruptive behavior (Murphy, & Van Brunt, 2018;Floress, Rock, & Hailemariam, 2017). The behavior-specific praise of students, high-probability request sequence, precorrection activity, active supervision, instructional choice, and teaching feedback, as well as good behavior game, can be resulted in a decreased number of student disruptive behaviors (Freeman, 2018: Groves, & Austin, 2019Rubow, Vollmer, & Joslyn, 2018).…”

Classroom Management Systems to Address Student Disruptive Behavior

“…The Caterpillar Game (see Figure 1) is a classroom-wide positive behavior intervention that aims to decrease students’ disruptive behavior while increasing teacher’s use of behavior-specific praise (BSP; Floress et al, 2017, Floress & Jacoby, 2017). A caterpillar poster is hung in the classroom, and the teacher reviews at least one classroom behavior expectation or rule (i.e., mindful to focus on any expectation or rule he or she would like to see improved).…”

“…When the token reaches the top of the caterpillar, all students earn a quick reward activity (e.g., Eye Spy or Simon Says; Floress & Jacoby, 2017). The Caterpillar Game has been implemented in preschool through second-grade classrooms with results supporting declines in student disruptive behavior and increases in teachers’ use of BSP (Floress & Jacoby, 2017; Floress et al, 2017).…”

When the Clips Are Down: How Young Children Negotiate a Classroom Management System

“…Other studies considered the frequency of disruptive behaviors (from adult perspectives) or measures of teacher satisfaction when teachers used interventions. In a study of the "caterpillar game," which publicly tracked praise and correction to modify children's behavior, researchers surveyed teachers; they did not include children (Floress et al 2017). Similarly, a study of authoritarian disciplinary practices focused on the primarily white prospective teachers encountering that system rather than the primarily African American children experiencing it (Higgins and Moule 2009).…”