Behavior Modification in the Classroom: Education or Social Control?

This study presents an analysis of the empirical literature on behavior modification in the classroom. Data were drawn from all relevant articles published in four behavior modification journals from 1963 through 1976. An assessment of the intervention techniques employed and the behavioral objectives sought in this literature suggests that traditional intervention techniques are still primarily directed towards control rather than educational goals. Newer, more innovative techniques, however, are more likely to be directed towards academic achievement. Among both educators and clinicians, the use of behavior modification technology in the classroom has long been a contentious issue. Advocates for classroom use of behavior modification view it as the most effective and efficient approach for reducing "maladaptive" behavior in the classroom and for promoting learning (Bijou, 1970). Critics have challenged the use of behavioral methods in schools on several grounds. Some have contended that behavior modification is antithetical to the goals of education and fails to incorporate learning theory (MacMillan and Forners, 1970). Other critics have contended that by focusing on specific behaviors, behavior modification narrows and trivializes the learning experience rather than generalizes it (MacMillan and Forners, 1970; Moskovitz, 1973; Simons, 1973; Day, 1974). The more trenchant critics of behavior modification in classroom settings have raised ethical-political questions about its use. For example, the right to indiscriminately alter socially deviant behavior has been challenged by Weir (1969), who takes the position that, within limits, social deviance is a right in a free society. Cote (1973) argues that behavior modification changes the child when it is the educational