NCJ Number
154843
Date Published
1992
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This report describes the education model used at Boys Town to promote success in youth at risk or with behavior or emotional problems through the teaching of social skills without lengthening the school day, eliminating required course work, or extending graduation requirements.
Abstract
The Boys Town Education Model takes the basic techniques of its Family-Home Model and transferring them to a school setting as a powerful and innovative approach to positive and effective interventions for troubled youth. The model rests on principles of applied behavior analysis and social learning theory. Its underlying premise is that behavior is learned through feedback on behavior and its environmental consequences. The model focuses on teaching. It involves the identification of desirable prosocial behavioral expectations, the effective use of instructional strategies to teach those expectations, the application of an incentive system, and the effective implementation of reinforcement principles. The social skills curriculum presents 16 basic social behaviors. Teachers used brief interactive instructional sequences to confront the student when the behavior occurs, using the teachable moment when the learner is active and the learning is relevant. A token economy is used to provide positive consequences. Administrative interventions are used to respond to more serious or continuing school discipline problems. Figures, 36 references, and list of additional Boys Town publications