How are you adjusting reinforcement to reduce maladaptive behavior? Can you reinforce a more appropriate, alternative behavior to replace the maladaptive behavior?
Think about the variety of maladaptive behaviors in collaborating! Start with the student who loses four things between geometry and English class. This student needs to work entirely on self-management strategies. Working with someone else on a project would be frustrating for her peers and would make her miserable as well.
Then, for a student who has some self-management supports in place that she uses with a degree of independence, it may be time to introduce a collaborative plan. However, when she does not understand what to do, she expresses this frustration in ways that are seen as rude or confrontational. How are you changing the directions or script to calm the student and give her ways to solve the problem?
Once the collaborative plan is introduced, does the student slip in using his self-management tools? If so, is additional monitoring necessary during individual review times?
The issue is also likely to appear when a student in the pair or group is NOT completing his tasks according to the plan. If unaddressed, this is an opportunity for confrontation, frustration, even an outburst. This is Step #4 of your task analysis: Connect/Label Problems/Ask for Help-Solve. Do you have a script or process ready to use with the pair or group? How much monitoring is necessary?
It is important to note that the choice of peers for the student in collaboration is a major key. Choose a peer who is easy going and has a degree of self-confidence in interaction with others. Generally, you know of peers that seem likely to end up in helping fields, who are attuned to human relationships, who have a knack for helping. These are your ideal peers to involve in collaboration. They provide you with someone to differentially reinforce for ‘cooperative’ behaviors. They provide a model of what to do in the collaborative process.
What are some reinforcing consequences you can deliver either immediately following the desired behavior or following a practice session– things that this particular student enjoys, wants, seeks out, etc.?
This process has the potential to be quite difficult for the student . Your emphasis needs to be on limiting what you require. Even so, use your preference survey to define a strong reinforcer that can be provided after using the collaborative plan, after combining tasks or after problem solving. Are there assignments or activities that address the student’s strengths and interests in which the student can engage after a session of planning or problem solving? Is there a strong reinforcer that can be delivered after the collaborative project is completed? All of these – planning, problem solving and finishing the project – may require specific reinforcement.
Are you using labeling and social praise to make the contingency between desired behavior and reinforcing consequence clear to the student?
Your precise labeling of the student’s positive behaviors in using the process is crucial initially. Labeling and social praise should occur together. Your labeling of times that the peer uses appropriate behaviors in the planning or problem solving is also important.
What reinforcing consequences can you arrange that are more naturally or intrinsically connected to this targeted behavior?
Elicit social praise and positive comments from peers within the use of the process. Are you coaching peers to point out when the student is using the process? Are the peers expressing satisfaction when the plan works, when they solve an issue, when the student asks for help? Peers praising each other is a powerful natural consequence of successful performance.