Efficacy and Social Validity of a Modified Good Behavior Game

Teachers regularly face challenging behavior from students in their classrooms. Research shows that the good behavior game (GBG) is a strategy teachers can use in their classrooms to improve student behavior. However, in practice, very few teachers choose to use this strategy in their classrooms. One reason why teachers may not use this intervention regularly is that they find some parts of the intervention to be difficult to implement in the long-term. The purpose of this study was to modify the procedures of the GBG to reduce implementation effort for teachers and assess if the intervention continues to be effective. In addition, the study sought to understand how teachers and students perceive the intervention. Results showed that the modified version of the intervention produced large improvements in students’ behavior in all four of the participating classrooms. In addition, teachers and students viewed the intervention as effective. Teachers, overall, viewed the intervention as feasible and easy to implement but also discussed some features of the intervention that can impact continued use of the intervention in their classrooms.