Considered the opposite of tattling, tootling is a procedure where students report their classmates’ positive behavior instead of inappropriate behavior. This study examined the effects of tootling on students’ behavior in three general education high school classrooms. An A-B-A-B withdrawal with follow-up design was used to assess the effects of the intervention on decreasing classwide disruptive behavior and increasing academically engaged behavior. Students wrote tootles anonymously on paper slips, and deposited them into a marked container. An interdependent group contingency procedure was used to create a class goal for the number of submitted tootles, which led to a class reward when achieved. The teacher recorded the number of tootles submitted on a publicly posted progress chart, and verbally reported a sample of tootles at the end of each class period. Students created a new name for the intervention, and voted on class rewards. All classrooms displayed decreases in disruptive behavior and increases in academically engaged behavior during intervention phases. These results suggest that tootling can provide high school teachers a method for positively reinforcing students’ prosocial behavior, and function as a preventative measure against disruptive behavior.
Doctoral dissertation: http://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/909/
","abstract_html":"<p>Considered the opposite of tattling, tootling is a procedure where students report their classmates’ positive behavior instead of inappropriate behavior. This study examined the effects of tootling on students’ behavior in three general education high school classrooms. An A-B-A-B withdrawal with follow-up design was used to assess the effects of the intervention on decreasing classwide disruptive behavior and increasing academically engaged behavior. Students wrote tootles anonymously on paper slips, and deposited them into a marked container. An interdependent group contingency procedure was used to create a class goal for the number of submitted tootles, which led to a class reward when achieved. The teacher recorded the number of tootles submitted on a publicly posted progress chart, and verbally reported a sample of tootles at the end of each class period. Students created a new name for the intervention, and voted on class rewards. All classrooms displayed decreases in disruptive behavior and increases in academically engaged behavior during intervention phases. These results suggest that tootling can provide high school teachers a method for positively reinforcing students’ prosocial behavior, and function as a preventative measure against disruptive behavior.</p> <p>Doctoral dissertation: <a href="http://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/909/">http://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/909/</a></p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Lum, John Dylan Ken"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":"Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Daniel H. Tingstrom","Brad A. Dufrene","Keith C. Radley"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-08-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2015-08-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:44:34Z","subjects":["tootling","high school","classroom","behavior","intervention","group contingency","Child Psychology","Psychology","School Psychology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/114","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Daniel H. Tingstrom","Brad A. Dufrene","Keith C. Radley"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Lum, John Dylan Ken"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2015-06-01T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["tootling","high school","classroom","behavior","intervention","group contingency","Child Psychology","Psychology","School Psychology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/114"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Considered the opposite of tattling, tootling is a procedure where students report their classmates’ positive behavior instead of inappropriate behavior. This study examined the effects of tootling on students’ behavior in three general education high school classrooms. An A-B-A-B withdrawal with follow-up design was used to assess the effects of the intervention on decreasing classwide disruptive behavior and increasing academically engaged behavior. Students wrote tootles anonymously on paper slips, and deposited them into a marked container. An interdependent group contingency procedure was used to create a class goal for the number of submitted tootles, which led to a class reward when achieved. The teacher recorded the number of tootles submitted on a publicly posted progress chart, and verbally reported a sample of tootles at the end of each class period. Students created a new name for the intervention, and voted on class rewards. All classrooms displayed decreases in disruptive behavior and increases in academically engaged behavior during intervention phases. These results suggest that tootling can provide high school teachers a method for positively reinforcing students’ prosocial behavior, and function as a preventative measure against disruptive behavior.
Doctoral dissertation: http://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/909/
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Effects of Tootling on Disruptive and Academic Behaviors in High School"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Daniel H. Tingstrom","Brad A. Dufrene","Keith C. Radley"],"dc:creator":["Lum, John Dylan Ken"],"dc:date.available":["2015-06-01T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Considered the opposite of tattling, tootling is a procedure where students report their classmates’ positive behavior instead of inappropriate behavior. This study examined the effects of tootling on students’ behavior in three general education high school classrooms. An A-B-A-B withdrawal with follow-up design was used to assess the effects of the intervention on decreasing classwide disruptive behavior and increasing academically engaged behavior. Students wrote tootles anonymously on paper slips, and deposited them into a marked container. An interdependent group contingency procedure was used to create a class goal for the number of submitted tootles, which led to a class reward when achieved. The teacher recorded the number of tootles submitted on a publicly posted progress chart, and verbally reported a sample of tootles at the end of each class period. Students created a new name for the intervention, and voted on class rewards. All classrooms displayed decreases in disruptive behavior and increases in academically engaged behavior during intervention phases. These results suggest that tootling can provide high school teachers a method for positively reinforcing students’ prosocial behavior, and function as a preventative measure against disruptive behavior.
Doctoral dissertation: http://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/909/
"],"dc:identifier":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/114"],"dc:subject":["tootling","high school","classroom","behavior","intervention","group contingency","Child Psychology","Psychology","School Psychology"],"dc:title":["The Effects of Tootling on Disruptive and Academic Behaviors in High School"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Psychology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:44:34Z"}