Using active responding to reduce disruptive behavior in a general education classroom

Abstract: Active responding (in the form of response cards) was employed during a math lecture in a third-grade classroom to evaluate its effect on disruptive behavior. Two conditions, conventional lecture with hand raising and response cards, were alternated in a reversal (ABA) design. During baseline, the teacher used a conventional lecture with hand raising method, which consisted primarily of lecturing and then asking one child who had raised his or her hand to answer a question. During the active responding (response card) condition, all the students had to respond to the teacher's question by writing an answer on individual cards. Disruptive behavior decreased dramatically when the response cards were used and increased again when the conventional hand raising method was reinstated.