Overview

Acknowledgement puts the positive in Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS). It shifts the staffs' focus from negatively responding to unwanted behaviors with discipline, to positively responding to desired behaviors with praise or even rewards. 

It also increases the feedback students recieve on their behaviors and supports the process of staff being proactive, rather than reactive, to student behaviors. This is done by staff continually reinforcing expectations. The ratio of 4:1 (four positive behavior acknowledgement for every one negative behavior acknowledgement) is often used as the fidelity measure for this process and is easily included on classroom observation tools.    

Therefore, it is essential that staff use the school-wide and classroom expectations as the common language of acknowledging behaviors. This not only provides consistency among staff, but also continuity for students as they progress throughout the school as well as through the grades. Often staff name the the umbrella expectation as well as the specific behavior when they acknowledge student behavior positively. 

Sometimes these acknowledgements are paired with rewards or tokens. These incentives do not need to be extravagent or expensive. Many ideas are listed on this page for easy incentives, but it is also recommended that you include staff and students in the decision making for incentives to deepen their connection to the acknowledgement process and insure that it matches your school culture and community. 

This "token" economy can be easily criticized by staff. They generally disagree with the idea of extrinsic motivation and believe that students should be intrinsically motivated to meet behavior expectations. While acknowledgement systems do not have to include tokens or tickets, these rewards can act as a measurable element of Feature 1.9 implementation. 

Often the more influential impact of tokens are made on adult behavior, by acting as a consent reminder to increase positive acknowledgement of student behaviors. Having staff incorporate this into practice is much more important the the trinkets students recieve, as it is these practices that align a schools culture and climate with the features of PBIS.