Fundamental Skill Sheet
Virtual Instruction: Precorrection
What Is It?
Precorrection involves determining when challenging behaviors tend to occur and then making changes to the classroom environment or providing supports for students both to prevent those behaviors from happening and to facilitate appropriate behavior.
What Do We Know About This Skill/Practice?
Many years of research and practical application have proven the effectiveness of precorrection. More specifically, research indicates:
- Precorrection is an approach that teachers can use both to increase positive behavior and decrease problem behavior.
- Precorrection has been shown to be effective for general and special education students of all ages, pre-K through 12th grade.
- Teachers can use precorrection to prevent common challenging behaviors that occur both in the classroom (e.g., during group work, during transitions) and outside the classroom (e.g., in the hallway, on the playground).
Procedures
Example Context Adjustments
Changing classroom structure:
- Adjust schedules or routines
- Include expectations on your virtual background
- Post a virtual timer
Using strategies:
Following are five easy-to-implement steps for using this practice in a virtual learning environment.
- Identify the context and potential problems: To prevent a problem behavior, you must first anticipate the nature of that behavior and identify the context in which it is likely to occur (e.g., activity, setting, time).
- Establish behavioral expectations: As part of creating a safe and respectful virtual classroom environment, you should establish and explicitly teach behavioral expectations—that is, the behaviors you want your students to display.
- Adjust the context: To facilitate student success, make changes to the context that supports appropriate behavior, based on your students’ needs. See the box to the right for a few examples.
- Provide practice opportunities: Practice makes perfect (maybe not immediately, but it’s a step in the right direction). To set students up for success, you should review the expected behaviors. This may take the form of discussion, question and answer, or role-playing.
- Offer immediate and specific reinforcement: When students engage in an expected behavior, be sure to provide a positive reinforcer to increase the likelihood that they will continue to do so.
Tips for Implementation
In addition to the five steps listed above, the following three actions can help facilitate the success of this practice.*
- Develop a prompting plan: Beyond teaching, practicing, and reinforcing appropriate behaviors, you will need to regularly remind some students of the expected behavior. Reminders can be in the form of gestures (e.g., finger on lips to signal quiet time), verbal prompts (e.g., verbal reminder), environmental prompts (e.g., expectations poster), and manual prompts (e.g., visiting breakout rooms).
- Develop a monitoring plan: Although precorrection has been shown to be effective, you need to determine whether your precorrection procedures are effective in preventing or decreasing problem behaviors and increasing expected behaviors. This can be accomplished by, for example, collecting data on the occurrence of inappropriate behavior or how often students earn reinforcement.
- Gather feedback: Students can be a valuable source of information. Consider asking them what types of supports they need to be successful or what types of reinforcement are motivating.
* The Comprehensive, Integrated Three-Tiered Model of Prevention (Ci3T) combines these three actions with the steps listed above.
Things to Keep in Mind
- Precorrection can be offered to an individual student, to a group of students, or to an entire class.
- Behavior expectations can be defined as broad goals for behavior (e.g.,”Be responsible”). Because behavior expectations are often abstract for young students, the teacher should create rules to help clarify their meaning as they are applied within specific activities and contexts (e.g., “Log in on time”).
- When possible, expectations and rules should align with school-wide expectations to maintain consistency across environments.
- In some cases, a discussion of appropriate behavior is all that is necessary for the practice opportunity. However, for certain behaviors or students, modeling and role-playing may be necessary.
- Reinforcement can range from a thumbs-up to an end-of-quarter celebration (if enough points are earned by a given period). It doesn’t have to be complex or expensive as long as the students find it rewarding. In fact, many students respond positively to behavior-specific praise, which is quick and simple to administer.
Example of behavior-specific praise: “Lars, thank you for putting your phone on the charger.” / “Simone and Gentry, thank you for muting yourselves during instruction.”
In addition to reinforcing the appropriate behavior of the identified students, behavior-specific praise can serve as a reminder to other students who overhear the praise and encourage them to adhere to the behavior expectations. To learn more about how to use behavior-specific praise, view the IRIS Fundamental Skill Sheets below:
When developing a monitoring plan, it is beneficial to create a hierarchy of prompts, starting with the least direct and intrusive to the most (e.g., a class reminder, class-wide corrective feedback, corrective feedback to only those students engaged in the inappropriate behavior). Hopefully, a class reminder is all that is needed. If not, a plan is in place to address the behaviors.
Implementation Examples
The table below illustrates how the teacher provided precorrection when students were not meeting the established behavioral expectations as defined by the rules developed for virtual instruction.
| Context and Problem Behavior | Behavioral Expectation/Rule | Adjustment to Context | Practice | Reinforcement |
|
Context: Virtual instruction Problem Behavior: The students use their phones during class time. |
Place phones away from learning area during instruction. |
Phone rule is posted on the teacher’s virtual background. |
The teacher leads a discussion about potential problems if students are using their phones during instruction. |
The teacher provides behavior-specific praise to those students who are adhering to the expectation. |
|
Context: Virtual math instruction Problem Behavior: Students are not actively participating—they do not respond when the teacher asks for input (e.g., thumbs-up, response in chat box). |
Students will respond to teacher prompts. |
Teacher uses a word cloud tool or online poll that displays student responses. |
The teacher leads a discussion about how important it is for everyone to participate. |
“Wow, look how many different responses we have in our word cloud! Thank you for responding.” |
|
Context: Virtual instruction, breakout rooms Problem Behavior: Students are laughing and talking about topics other than the assignment. |
Students will work on assignments during breakout sessions. |
The teacher employs active supervision, randomly hopping into each breakout room. |
Immediately preceding a breakout session, the teacher chooses a student to describe the expected behavior. |
If the small group is working on the assignment, the teacher gives them a virtual thumbs-up. |
High School Video Example
In the video below, Ms. Shawnes wishes to use precorrection to prevent Noah from using his phone during instruction. Note the procedures Ms. Shawnes uses to deliver precorrection in the example and where her delivery falls short in the non-example.
Transcript: Virtual Instruction: Precorrection (Secondary Example and Non-example)
Narrator: Virtual precorrection, secondary, example and non-example.
Ms. Shawnes has a rule about putting phones away during class but has noticed that several of her students seem to be on their phones during virtual instruction. She is particularly concerned about Noah, who consistently appears to be using his phone during class.
To reduce the occurrence of this behavior, Ms. Shawnes reminds the class about the rule “Put phones away during class.”
In this example, Ms. Shawnes decides to post the rules on her virtual background to help everyone meet the expectation. This also serves as a good reminder of the rules for Noah specifically.
In addition, before class, Ms. Shawnes discusses the expectation with Noah.
Ms. Shawnes: Hey, I noticed it was pretty hard for you not to use your device in class, especially when I was giving directions. To help you focus on what’s happening in class, I’m going to remind everyone to put their phones away before I give the next set of instructions because I really don’t want to embarrass you.
Noah: [low voice] Alright.
Ms. Shawnes: Show me where you’ll put your phone during class so it’s not a distraction.
Noah: Uh, you know so it’s not a problem, I can put it right here next to my laptop. [places phone to the right side of his screen]
Ms. Shawnes: [Smiling] Um, Noah, your phone is still where you can see it. Don’t you think that’ll be a distraction?
Noah: Knowing me, probably. But you know what I can do. I can put it on a charger out of my reach so it’s not a distraction for me for class. I will be right back. Alright, I should be all focused now.
Ms. Shawnes: I believe that’s a very good place to put your phone! And I think it’ll be easier for you to pay attention now, don’t you?
Noah: [nods] Yeah, I agree.
Ms. Shawnes (to everyone): Hey, everyone! Thanks for coming today! Please remember to put your phones and other distractions away so we can all be fully engaged.
[pauses to give them time to do so; shots of students appearing to put devices away]
Thank you for putting your devices away.
Please take out your notes on our book, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. We’re going to talk about how some of these characters resolved conflicts in this last chapter. Before we get started, I want you to pick one character you’d like to focus on in our discussion and type their name into the chat.
Narrator: To review, the teacher delivered precorrection accurately. She
- Identified the context and potential problem
- Established the behavioral expectation
- Adjusted the virtual environment to set Maggie up for success
- Provided an opportunity to practice the expected behavior
- Provided immediate and specific reinforcement when Noah engaged in the expected behavior
- Developed a prompting plan that she implemented when Noah was not adhering to the behavioral expectation
Title: Virtual Precorrection Secondary/Non-Example
Narrator: In this non-example, Ms. Shawnes attempts to use precorrection to help Noah meet the rule “Put phones away during class.” However, her implementation falls short. Notice what happens when she fails to provide an opportunity for Noah to practice the expected behavior.
Even though Ms. Shawnes anticipated that phone usage would be problematic during virtual instruction and developed and went over classroom expectations and the rule regarding phones with her class, Noah continues to use his phone during instruction.
As such, Ms. Shawnes posts the rules on her virtual background to remind Noah to put his phone away.
Ms. Shawnes also meets with Noah privately.
Ms. Shawnes: Hey, Noah. I noticed that you didn’t put your phone away when I asked you to and you weren’t really concentrating. So next time I give everyone directions to put their phone away, I’d like you to do that as well to help you focus in class. I don’t want to call you out and embarrass you in front of all of your classmates. Do you understand?
Noah: [nods head] Yes.
Ms. Shawnes (to everyone): Hey, everyone! Thanks for coming today! I want to remind everyone to put your phones away so that we can focus on our discussion for today.
[pauses to give them time to do so; shots of students appearing to put devices away].
Thank you for putting your devices away. Please take out your notes on our book. We’re going to be going over Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
We’re going to talk about how some of these characters resolved conflicts in this last chapter. Before we get started, I want you to pick one character you’d like to focus on in our discussion and type their name into the chat.
Ms. Shawnes: Noah?
Narrator: To review, Ms. Shawnes implemented some of the precorrection steps correctly. She:
- Identified the context and potential problem
- Established the behavioral expectation
- Adjusted the virtual context
- Developed a prompting plan
She provided a whole-class prompt and a private prompt for Noah.
However, she failed to provide an opportunity for Noah to practice the expected behavior. As a result, the spot that Noah chose for his phone still allowed him to read messages as they popped up on his screen, so it remained a distraction. Had Ms. Shawnes provided an opportunity for practice, they could have identified a better location for the phone.
Austin, K. S., Lane, K. S., Pérez-Clark, P., Allen, G. E., Oakes, W. P., Lane, K. L., & Menzies, H. M. (2020, August). Precorrection: A step-by-step guide for virtual learning. Ci3T Strategic Leadership Team. www.ci3t.org
Colvin, G, Sugai, G., & Patching, B. (1993). Precorrection: An instructional approach for managing predictable problem behaviors. Intervention in School and Clinic, 28(3), 143–150.
Ennis, R. P., Royer, D. J., Lane, K. L., & Griffith, C. E. (2017). A systematic review of precorrection in PK-12 settings. Education and Treatment of Children, 40(4), 465–496.
Ennis, R. P., Schwab, J. R., & Jolivette, K. (2012). Using precorrection as a secondary-tier intervention for reducing problem behaviors in instructional and noninstructional settings. Beyond Behavior, 22(1), 40–47.
Ennis, R. P., Lane, K. L., Menzies, H. M., & Owens, P. P. (2018). Precorrection: An effective, efficient, low-intensity strategy to support student success. Beyond Behavior, 27(3), 146–152.
Lane, K. L., Menzies, H. M., Ennis, R. P., & Oakes, W. P. (2015). Supporting behavior for school success: A step-by-step guide to key strategies. Guilford.
About the Author
This resource was developed in collaboration with the Comprehensive, Integrated Three-Tiered Model of Prevention (Ci3T) Strategic Leadership Team. More information on their eight-step process for virtual precorrection can be found on the Ci3T website.
