An Acceptability and Feasibility Trial of the Good Behaviour Game in Australian Primary Schools

The PAX Good Behaviour Game is a teacher-delivered program, designed to be embedded into usual classroom activities. The program is made up of multiple ‘kernels’ (i.e., evidence-based behavioural contingencies) which include: 1. Classroom Vision (sets out the agreed desirable and undesirable behaviours), 2. PAX Hands (a thumbs up/thumbs down card worn by teachers to discreetly point out to students when they are doing the right or wrong thing - and not draw attention of the whole class to the behaviour) 3. PAX Quiet (use of a harmonica to gain the children’s attention and achieve silence) 4. Granny’s wacky prizes (rewards for desirable behaviours) 5. Beat the Timer (the primary part of the program in which children are split into teams, a timer is set, and children work on task for the amount of time specified by the teacher. Children/teams who stay on task are rewarded at the end of the playing period) 6. Tootle Notes (students write positive notes about each other to reinforce positive relations between students). 7. PAX Voice (using hand signals to teach children how to modulate noise in the classroom) 8. PAX Leader (children chosen for leadership roles in the classroom to develop confidence and increase investment in the program) The kernels are designed to be used throughout the day to encourage desirable behaviour and to teach children to make positive choices. While the kernels can be used individually throughout the day, the ‘beat the timer’ part of the program is the key component which teaches self- and co-regulation. During ‘beat the timer’ the students are divided into small teams, where known disruptive students, or known shy/anxious students, are distributed evenly among the teams to create equilibrium in the classroom. The teacher then sets the timer for how long the ‘game’ will be played, and students have to work within their teams to engage in on-task/desirable behaviours until the timer ends. Any off-task or less desirable/unwanted behaviours receive one point, and at the end of the playing period, teams with three or fewer points are rewarded. When the program is first delivered, rewards are given immediately following a ‘beat the timer’ game, and then are increasingly delayed, to teach delayed self-gratification. This part of the program is played up to 3 times per day, from 10 to 40 minutes (games get longer and more frequent over time), as the children’s self-regulation and behaviour improves. In this study, the Good Behaviour Game is delivered for 12 weeks, with the expectation that teachers will deliver the primary part of the intervention (beat the timer) at least once per day for the trial's duration. In addition, at least one of the remaining eight kernels need to be delivered once per day, with teachers' having discretion regarding which kernel or kernels they will deliver. Adherence to the intervention is monitored in two key ways: 1. Four x classroom observations per classroom by a research officer trained in the Good Behaviour Game; 2. A teacher maintained daily log of the number of times Beat the Timer was played per day, for how long, which team/s won, and the number of spleems per 'game', as well as other kernels used and issues arising. The log could be kept via the PAX Up! app, and teachers were provided tablets for this purpose. A paper version of the log was also provided for teachers who preferred not to use the app.