what are some objective ways to measure behavior?

Answer 1

That all depends on the type of behaviour you want to measure. For instance a teacher who is confronted with a child who is a poor silent reader needs to make silent reading public in some way, so he or she can count, record, and ultimately improve it For example, in order to gauge Mary's decoding skills, the teacher might require Mary to read out loud and count the number of words read properly. Or, in order to gauge Mary's comprehension skills, the teacher might provide a list of questions to Mary after she silently read a passage and then count the number of correct answers written by Mary.

Second, sometimes it is tempting to describe tasks as not doing something (e.g., not swearing) or as the absence of movement altogether (e.g., sitting quietly). The teacher attempting to count and work with these tasks, as defined, will certainly encounter difficulties. One solution is to invoke the Dead Man's Rule: "If a dead man can do it, then it ain't behavior." A dead man can "not swear" and a dead man can "sit quietly;" thus, neither of these task definitions is appropriate.

Third, it is important to keep in mind the distinction between a movement and a label. While a label is convenient for summarizing a performance, it usually has little to say about the movement involved in that performance. From a behavioral perspective there are a number of problems with labels: labels are not countable. What is the teacher to count when Ben is labeled a "sloppy eater" or Ann is labeled "shy in the classroom." Countable movements for each of these two problems could be: "Ben moves a utensil with food from his plate to his mouth without spilling the food" and "Ann raises her hand to volunteer an answer when the teacher poses a question."

Answer 2

You need to identify the behaviours you want to measure then make a simple checklist with all the behaviours listed on the left side with "Yes" and "No" on the top right. This would be very objective.It would indicate if a behaviour is present or absent.e.g Participates in class discussion. (Tick in the appropriate box). Construction of your checklist would more or less be dependent on the situation and the behaviour you want to measure and modify.I use modify because some behaviours that are absent might be very critical and have adverse effects on the education system and more significantly, the learner.

Answer 3

First, make a list of observable behaviors. Many checklists are available on-line...

Second, track observable behaviors each class.

Finally, the daily "check sheets' provide an objective assessment of such behaviors.