The Effect of a Structured Social Skills Class on Student Classroom Behavior

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an eight-week social skills class on student behavior. The participants of the study were 9th grade students from an urban school district in southeastern Wisconsin. The participants of the study were students identified as being the cause of significant classroom disruptions on a regular basis. These students were entered in the social skills class after they had received a minimum of four referrals for class disruption. The social skills class was conducted by the school support staff. Each member of the support staff taught a class and addressed a different topic with the students. The three students with the greatest number of referrals were chosen from the class of eleven to be the focus of the study. The results seem to indicate that the social skills class had a limited impact on student behavior. Of the three students chosen for the study one showed no significant changes in behavior and two showed a small improvement. The intervention may have been more effective if conducted over a shorter period of time and if the subject matter and the structure of the class had been more tightly controlled. Further investigation of the effects of social skills training on chronically misbehaving students is needed.