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Tootling: Current Research and Future Considerations for School Practitioners

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Title: Tootling: Current Research and Future Considerations for School Practitioners
Language: English
Authors: Breya L. Whitefield, Sarah W. Harry
Source: Preventing School Failure. 2025 69(3):224-230.
Availability: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 7
Publication Date: 2025
Intended Audience: Practitioners
Document Type: Journal Articles
Information Analyses
Descriptors: Classroom Techniques, Student Behavior, Behavior Problems, Contingency Management, Intervention, Behavioral Science Research
DOI: 10.1080/1045988X.2024.2404407
ISSN: 1045-988X
1940-4387
Abstract: Tootling is an interdependent group contingency designed as an intervention to be implemented in classrooms in order to meet students' vast behavioral and academic needs by increasing academically engaged behavior, decreasing disruptive behavior, and subsequently leading to increases in student academic achievement. Tootling supports a positive classroom climate by providing teachers with an opportunity to use classroom management strategies to address inappropriate student behavior. This article reviewed the available literature on tootling studies in order to determine gaps for future research. Next steps for school psychologists involving tootling research is discussed including future lines of tootling research and the importance of tootling for school-based practitioners. More research is necessitated to understand more about tootling and its implications for school psychologists.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2026
Accession Number: EJ1494395
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0186284241;psf01jul.25;2025Jul02.03:40;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0186284241-1">Tootling: current research and future considerations for school practitioners </title> <p>Tootling is an interdependent group contingency designed as an intervention to be implemented in classrooms in order to meet students' vast behavioral and academic needs by increasing academically engaged behavior, decreasing disruptive behavior, and subsequently leading to increases in student academic achievement. Tootling supports a positive classroom climate by providing teachers with an opportunity to use classroom management strategies to address inappropriate student behavior. This article reviewed the available literature on tootling studies in order to determine gaps for future research. Next steps for school psychologists involving tootling research is discussed including future lines of tootling research and the importance of tootling for school-based practitioners. More research is necessitated to understand more about tootling and its implications for school psychologists.</p> <p>Keywords: Tootling; behavioral intervention; school psychology; article review</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-2">Introduction</hd> <p>According to the 2021 State of the United States Teacher Survey, nearly one in four teachers indicated they were likely to leave their jobs by the end of the 2020–2021 school year (Steiner & Woo, [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref1">31</reflink>]). Indeed, teachers are experiencing job-related stress due to the high demands they face compared to the general adult population (Clunies-Ross et al., [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref2">8</reflink>]). Several key factors, based on the literature, have shown the etiology as to why teachers are dissatisfied with their jobs, which often leads to burnout and high turnover rates. For example, poor classroom climate including large class sizes with high rates of externalizing student behaviors, has shown to result in teachers feeling emotional exhaustion, decreased self-esteem, and increasingly negative attitudes about students (Byrne, [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref3">3</reflink>]).</p> <p>If teachers are unhappy and dissatisfied, they are less like to teach effectively, and increased turnover rates occur. In addition, teachers are reporting to feel unprepared in the area of classroom management (Aloe et al., [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref4">1</reflink>]; Christofferson & Sullivan, [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref5">6</reflink>]; Lee et al., [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref6">16</reflink>]; O'Neill & Stephenson, [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref7">24</reflink>]). A study conducted by Christofferson and Sullivan ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref8">6</reflink>]) found a direct correlation between the number of classroom management courses and teachers' sense of preparedness and confidence in applying classroom management strategies. It is known that strong classroom management enables increased opportunities for student learning, and thus the likelihood of greater individual academic achievement for students.</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-3">Group contingencies</hd> <p>Group contingencies are used in behavioral interventions within academic settings to provide classroom management. These are cost-effective, time-efficient, easily implemented, and highly acceptable by both students and teachers alike (Little et al., [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref9">19</reflink>]). In a group contingency, a common consequence is contingent on the behavior of one member of the group, the behavior of each individual in the group working on their own, or the behavior of everyone in the group working together, which is ultimately dependent upon what type of group contingency is being used (i.e. independent, interdependent, and dependent).</p> <p>Interdependent group contingencies occur where all members of a group must meet the contingency criterion before any member earns the reward (Barrish et al., [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref10">2</reflink>]). Students in a classroom can earn a reward if every student in the group attains a certain level of performance, and each student in the group is interdependent on the others to obtain the reinforcement (Coogan et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref11">10</reflink>]; Maggin et al., [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref12">21</reflink>]). The benefits of interdependent group contingencies include saving administration time of implementing interventions at the individual level to each member of the group (Litoe & Pumroy, [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref13">18</reflink>]). In addition, interdependent group contingencies have been found to have strong social validity, are easy to implement, and students have a willingness and eagerness to participate in them (Little et al., [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref14">19</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-4">Tootling</hd> <p>One form of an interdependent group contingency involves tootling. Tootling stems from positive peer reporting (PPR; Grieger et al., [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref15">12</reflink>]) which is a peer-mediated positive behavioral intervention that increases positive behaviors and social collaboration amongst students <emph>via</emph> verbal expression of peer behavior (Murphy & Zlomke, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref16">23</reflink>]; Dart et al., [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref17">11</reflink>]). The premise of PPR is designed to improve social relationships for children whom their peers reject by reporting and publicly praising instances of specific peers engaging in prosocial behaviors (Grieger et al., [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref18">12</reflink>]). The theoretical underpinnings of PPR stem from the notion that students are powerful change agents within the classroom; if they can observe and report their peers' positive behaviors, this can lead to a paradigm shift of focusing on positive behaviors of other peers rather than reporting inappropriate behaviors.</p> <p>This leads into tootling, which is a classwide application of positive peer reporting where students monitoring and report behavior of a classmate in a written format, compared to PPR which involves oral reporting of behavior. Tootling is a term that was developed from the word "tattling" and based on the expression "tooting your own horn" (Skinner et al., [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref19">28</reflink>]). Tootling is similar to tattling except students report their classmates' prosocial behaviors instead of reporting inappropriate behaviors. Students look for opportunities to "catch" each other performing prosocial behaviors (e.g. cleaning up, raising their hand, seeing another student help out a peer, etc.), and then write the behavior on cards which they submit to their teacher. At the end of the intervention session, the teacher will collect all of the tootles, randomly select and read aloud a few examples of the tootles, and then praise the positive behaviors that are recorded on those cards.</p> <p>Tootling can enhance prosocial behavior and improve the classroom environment by increasing peers' likelihood of engaging in prosocial behavior (Skinner et al., [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref20">30</reflink>]). The basis for tootling and its theoretical background stems from applied behavior analysis (ABA) and behaviorism. Reinforcement for tootling is received on a random-ratio schedule where the probably of a student receiving reinforcement is related to the number of tootles that are submitted for that student. Thus, students are encouraged to engage in several instances of prosocial behavior throughout the day to receive individualized teacher and peer attention <emph>via</emph> an intermittent schedule of reinforcement. These schedules are reinforcement are beneficial because behaviors that are consistently receiving reinforcement show limited response maintenance when placed under extinction; however, behaviors with a history of intermittent schedules of reinforcement continue to be emitted for long periods after reinforcement is no longer available.</p> <p>Tootling is important to school psychologists because it supports a positive classroom climate <emph>via</emph> the implementation of this interdependent group contingency to increase prosocial behaviors. Tootling provides teachers with an opportunity to use a classroom management intervention that is easy to implement, and adds to their limited repertoire of behavioral management strategies they are taught as pre-service teachers. Tootling can be used as a behavioral intervention in school psychologists' repertoire when consulting with teachers and other school-based professionals, and school psychologists can assist with tootling implementation to manage classwide behavior rather than focusing on individual student behaviors to manage.</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-5">Current literature</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0186284241-6">Initial premise</hd> <p>The initial premise of tootling began with Skinner et al. ([<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref21">28</reflink>]) where students would write tootles on positive behaviors they saw their peers exhibiting and placed them in a shoebox near the teacher's desk. From there, the teacher would read aloud five tootles to the class. Skinner, Cashwell, and Skinner ([<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref22">29</reflink>]) replicated the original Skinner et al. ([<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref23">28</reflink>]) study and added a pre-determined "who," "what," and "for whom" format to the tootles whereby students had to indicate who engaged in the prosocial behavior, what the prosocial behavior was and who they completed the prosocial behavior for.</p> <p>In addition, Skinner et al. ([<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref24">29</reflink>]) added a pre-determined group goal where students need to reach a specified number of tootles in order to receive reinforcement. This pre-determined group goal has often been an arbitrary number; there has not been consistency in the tootling literature on what constitutes an appropriate classwide tootling goal. A pre-determined goal that school psychologist might recommend teachers using is by taking 80% of the total number of students for each class and multiplying that number by two since that is the maximum number of notecards that can be turned in by each student then multiplied by three. This equation is determined based on the assumption that not all students are going to participate fully (i.e. complete both of their notecards), hence the 80%, and multiplied by three to allow students the opportunity to access reinforcement on a fairly regular schedule. The hope is to have students receive reinforcement appropriately, which by using this equation, will ideally allow students access to reinforcement at least once a week with a goal that was not set by arbitrary means (e.g. selecting 25 for the goal with no apparent rationale behind it). Using the pre-determined goal, Cashwell et al. found a clear demonstration of an increase in tootles upon the implementation of the intervention in second grade classrooms.</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-7">Academically engaged behavior and disruptive behavior</hd> <p>Tootling literature was dormant until the Cihak et al. ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref25">7</reflink>]) study which revolutionized the field of tootling by adding in its implication on decreasing disruptive behavior. The operationalized disruptive behavior based upon teacher interviews, and examined how tootling changed levels of disruptive behavior in classrooms. Prior to this, literature on tootling had solely focused on the number of tootles produced in classrooms. The results of the Cihak et al. ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref26">7</reflink>]) study found a clear functional relationship as determined by visual analysis looking at level, trend, and variability of data, was present between baseline and intervention phases with a decrease in disruptive behaviors. In addition to these data, social validity was also assessed for tootling by the teacher, using the <emph>Intervention Rating Profile</emph> (IRP-15), and deemed socially acceptable.</p> <p>From there, Lambert et al. ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref27">15</reflink>]) replicated the Cihak et al. ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref28">7</reflink>]) study by examining tootling in relation to its effects on both disruptive and prosocial behavior in fourth and fifth grade classrooms. They also had independent observers collect the data as opposed to the classroom teacher. The results found decreases in classwide disruptive behavior and increases in appropriate behavior with the implementation of tootling across both classrooms. All effect sizes within the study reflected moderate to strong effects. Social validity ratings indicated that tootling was an effective and highly acceptable intervention by teachers for decreasing disruptive behaviors in students.</p> <p>Through these studies, tootling was able to expand its format from focusing solely on the number of tootles produces to its implications on behavior management looking at academically engaged behavior and disruptive behavior levels in classrooms. This allowed tootling to become a behavioral management intervention that school psychologists could subsequently recommend to teachers and other school-based practitioners to implement within their classrooms as a way to manage student behavior and improve the classroom climate.</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-8">Population extensions</hd> <p>Tootling was able to expand its literature base within the last decade to incorporate unique populations including older students (i.e. middle and high school) and special education classrooms (Ray, [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref29">26</reflink>]). For example, Lambert ([<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref30">14</reflink>]) included older students (i.e. middle school) and looked at a specific target student within each classroom while still investigating classwide effects. This study added to tootling research by being the first study to look at an intermediate student population and identifying specific students within each classroom to observe their academically engaged behavior and disruptive behavior. Results indicated that the traditional tootling procedure decreased disruptive behavior and increased appropriate behavior for the class and the target students in each class.</p> <p>Moreover, McHugh et al. ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref31">22</reflink>]) replicated the effects of Lambert ([<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref32">14</reflink>]) by examining individual target students and classwide student behavior in lower elementary, general education classrooms using a criterion number of tootles. The results for this study indicated that tootling did reduce classwide and individual target students' disruptive behavior, reflecting moderate to strong effect sizes using the Kappa coefficient. Chaffee et al. ([<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref33">5</reflink>]) also implemented tootling at the secondary level and found similar results within each phase. They extended the literature base as well by including a maintenance phase, which had not been seen in tootling research to date. The study examined the effects of tootling on academically engaged behavior and disruptive behavior using a withdrawal design with a maintenance phase across two middle school classrooms. The results found moderate effects of tootling on decreasing disruptive behavior and moderate to large effects on increasing academically engaged behavior. However, no clear demonstration of a functional relationship across both classrooms was established (Chaffee et al. [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref34">5</reflink>]). In addition, the results from the maintenance phase when the group contingency reward was removed suggested that behavioral effects can maintain over time.</p> <p>Lastly, Lum et al. ([<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref35">20</reflink>]) examined tootling in high school classrooms using an ABAB withdrawal design focusing on classwide disruptive behavior as the primary dependent variable and academically engaged behavior as the secondary variable. Lum et al. ([<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref36">20</reflink>]) added to the tootling literature base specifically by examining the implications of tootling in a secondary education setting (i.e. high school) for the first time. The premise of this intervention initially appeared to serve a younger population to establish appropriate peer-based interactions and communication; however, this study showed that the theory of tootling still applies to older students. The results found that tootling was effective with the high school population producing clinically meaningful decreases in classwide disruptive behavior (i.e. 31% of disruptive behavior during observed intervals in the initial baseline phase to 16% of disruptive behavior during observed intervals in reimplementation of the intervention). Increases in academically engaged behavior during intervention phases compared to baseline phases in all three participating classrooms were also noted. In addition, all three teachers rated tootling as an overall acceptable intervention for use in their classrooms using the <emph>Behavior Intervention Rating Scale</emph> (BIRS).</p> <p>Tootling was able to, within the last decade or so, expand to reach various populations in order to test the intervention's effectiveness with middle school, high school, and special education populations, and results have indicated that tootling appears to be a sound intervention procedure in managing student behavior at the classwide level. In addition, a recent meta-analysis conducted by Collins et al. ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref37">9</reflink>]) showed that peer reporting interventions, such as tootling, are viable strategies to implement in schools as long as appropriate procedural modifications can be made to fit in the respective classroom environment. This indicates that tootling can be flexible in its implementation depending on the population at-hand. School psychologists should consider the population they are aiming to implement tootling with, and use the research to guide recommendations on adjusting the intervention based upon the population they are working with.</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-9">Intervention modifications</hd> <p>Tootling was further expanded upon to add additional components, or strategies to determine its effectiveness For example, Chaffee ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref38">4</reflink>]) examined tootling incorporating a generalization strategy to extend the positive effects of the intervention in elementary school students. This occurred by exploring the use of programming common stimuli to maintain the behavioral gains of the tootling intervention (Chaffee, [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref39">4</reflink>]). The results found that behavioral changes from tootling were durable when maintained, even when the interdependent group contingency was removed. This indicated that promoting a positive classroom environment through tootling can lead to a shift from relying on external rewards toward a more desired outcome of relying on social reinforcement from the teacher and peers (Chaffee, [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref40">4</reflink>]). Overall, results found that tootling was effective within two middle school classrooms in terms of its overall implementation, maintenance, and generalization.</p> <p>In addition, Lipscomb et al. ([<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref41">17</reflink>]) implemented tootling combined with ClassDojo in a postsecondary special education classroom. This was the first study within tootling literature that examined tootling in conjunction with another behavioral intervention (e.g. ClassDojo). In addition, this was the first study of its kind to be implemented in a special education classroom. ClassDojo is a free behavior management tool that is used virtually to allow teachers to track and manage students' behavior in class while also providing real-time feedback on their behavioral performance (Lipscomb et al. [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref42">17</reflink>]). The authors focused on reducing disruptive behaviors for the students, and results indicated little difference between ClassDojo and adding tootling to ClassDojo. The results, based on the nonoverlapping data of all pairs (NAP) effect size, found that the combination of tootling and ClassDojo did not produce effects in decreasing disruptive behaviors within this population; however, both interventions separately were effective in decreasing disruptive behaviors within the population.</p> <p>Lastly, Wright et al. ([<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref43">33</reflink>]) examined the implications of tootling with a standardized procedure while implementing a mystery motivator component to determine the effects on academically engaged and disruptive behavior in three general education high school classrooms. The intervention used an ABAB withdrawal design and made academically engaged behavior the primary dependent variable over the typical focus of disruptive behavior. This study added to the tootling literature base by focusing on the effects of academically engaged behavior and disruptive behavior on a mystery motivator in addition to having student appointed interventionist facilitate the components of the intervention within each classroom, which took all responsibility off of the teacher, so it was completely peer-mediated. The results indicated that increases in academically engaged behavior and decreases in disruptive behavior were present in two of the classrooms. In contrast, the third classroom had inconclusive data during the withdrawal and re-implementation phases. The study provided evidence for the use of tootling in conjunction with a mystery motivator in high school classrooms. It also demonstrated that students could facilitate tootling beyond a teacher or interventionist leading the intervention, which is important in terms of ease of implementation and feasibility.</p> <p>In general, tootling has been shown to generalize for students, be implemented effectively in conjunction with other behavioral interventions, and become adapted to add various components to the intervention to increase academically engaged behavior and decrease disruptive behavior. School psychologists might want to consider other ways in which tootling can be adjusted, using future research, in order to determine ways in which the intervention can be most effective using appropriate manipulations as needed.</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-10">Future research</hd> <p>Despite, what appears to be within the last decade or so, an increase in tootling research, more research on this key interdependent group contingency is needed in order to be able to successfully implement it. Tootling is still quite an under-researched area as a classroom behavioral management procedure, especially compared to interdependent group contingencies such as the Good Behavior Game (GBG) which have been cited in hundreds of studies over the past several decades. These few tootling studies have demonstrated its efficacy and social validity; however, more research is needed to best understand tootling in order to support school psychologists that are tasked with consulting with teachers on behavior management and assist in implementing classwide behavioral interventions.</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-11">Diversity</hd> <p>Majority of these tootling studies have been implemented in Southeastern, rural areas. There is an overall lack of racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity in tootling settings which limits its generalizability across participants and classrooms. Future research needs to seek out implications of tootling on diverse schools, teachers, and students to determine its implications for a vast variety of individuals at-hand. Although researchers know that tootling is effective with primarily white, lower-to-middle socioeconomic status, and rural southern arenas. Although, it is critical that tootling be implemented in a wide variety of settings and with a diverse participant pool to better understand this intervention and further make generalizations of its implications across several environments and individuals.</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-12">Generalization</hd> <p>Currently, studies have not examined tootling generalization to other times of the school day. Although studies have examined tootling once the intervention has been removed from classrooms and its implications on maintaining low levels of disruptive behavior and high levels of academically engaged behavior, there are no published studies on examining levels of academically engaged and disruptive behavior on the same day after the tootling session has been implemented in the classroom. This would allow researchers and practitioners to know if the intervention procedures and their implications on the dependent variables can be generalized to other times of the day, and further add to tootling's effectiveness <emph>via</emph> behavioral maintenance across time.</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-13">Classroom climate</hd> <p>In addition, although social validity measures conducted in tootling studies (e.g. CURP, IRP-IR, etc.) have found tootling to be an effective, acceptable, and practical intervention, future research is needed on how tootling impacts classroom climate from a student and teacher perspective. This can be conducted <emph>via</emph> a pretest and post-test measure on tootling to determine its implications on teacher and student classroom climate and if identifying, discussing, and praising prosocial behavior rather than focusing on maladaptive behavior altering the general classroom climate. As research has indicated, teacher turnover and burnout rate is higher when classroom climate is poor (Byrne, [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref44">3</reflink>]), and there is a lack of behavior management (Riley et al., [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref45">27</reflink>]); thus, it is necessary to examine the implications of tootling as a classroom behavioral management procedure on classroom climate through a student and teacher perspective.</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-14">Component analysis</hd> <p>Moreover, tootling is an intervention package that has several components (e.g. writing the tootles, randomly selective five to read out loud, performance feedback, written pre-determined goal, reinforcement) that come together to make the intervention successful. More research is needed on the components of tootling to determine which pieces of the intervention package are most effective as a method to make tootling a more parsimonious, or simplistic, intervention. A component analysis is a systematic analysis of two or more independent variables that comprise a treatment package (Ward-Horner & Sturmey, 2010). Researchers usually conduct component analyses to identify the components of treatment packages and determine which of these components are most responsible for behavior change seen within the intervention.</p> <p>This greatly assists with enhancing both the efficacy and social validity of behavioral interventions by getting rid of the ineffective and, potentially, effortful components that comprise the treatment package (Ward-Horner & Sturmey, 2010; Osborne et al., [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref46">25</reflink>]). In addition, component analyses help with looking at unnecessary components of the intervention, which leads to better overall maintenance of the program and generalization of the intervention across settings and participants (Ward-Horner & Sturmey, 2010; Kirk et al., [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref47">13</reflink>]). For example, teachers are often overburdened within the educational setting, and conducting component analyses to determine the critical elements of the intervention supports teachers by providing more parsimonious interventions.</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-15">Teacher behavior</hd> <p>Tootling studies have solely focused on student behavior involving training teachers to implement tootling and having another school-based professional, such as a school psychologist, collect data on levels of academically engaged and disruptive behavior. However, teacher behavior for this intervention is also a necessary component for future research to examine. Specifically, conducting behavior skills training (BST) on praise statements with a teacher during the initial teacher training procedure of the intervention in order to determine if the performance feedback piece (i.e. pulling tootles out of the container, reading five out loud at random, and providing targeted praise) would be more beneficial in respective student behavioral outcomes. Teachers' behavior during the intervention does have a significant implication on the student outcomes, and if school psychologists are able to add additional training procedures on the performance feedback piece of the intervention, perhaps tootling outcomes might be different.</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-16">Different settings</hd> <p>Although research within the tootling realm has expanded from initially only looking at elementary classrooms toward middle, high school, and special education classrooms, more research is needed in unique educational settings. For example, there are no published studies on tootling in preschool and specials (e.g. gym, art, music) classes. These settings can add to the tootling literature by coming to understand how the implementation of tootling impacts respective dependent variables in nontraditional settings that do not involve academic work, yet are in the educational realm. By analyzing tootling in different school-based settings, this can add to the literature of tootling by examining its impacts on a wide variety of settings and behaviors that could arise in those specific settings given the tasks and activities.</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-17">Conclusion</hd> <p>Tootling, as an interdependent group contingency designed to address classroom management, is currently building an empirical literature base. It is well-known that tootling increases academically engaged behavior and produces respective decreases in disruptive behavior. In addition, tootling is a proactive behavior management framework that assists with teachers' high rates of turnover and burnout by managing classroom climate through a focus on prosocial, rather than maladaptive, behaviors.</p> <p>Tootling is important to school psychologists because they are able to take this intervention and provide it to teachers during behavioral consultation procedures as a strategy to address the general lack of teacher classroom management training and strategies. Tootling has been shown to be easy to implement in the classroom rather than presuming that teachers have the ability to provide individual students with behavioral contingencies in their classroom. School psychologists should consider the use of tootling when consulting with teachers, and other school-based professionals, who are dealing with high rates of disruptive behaviors in the classrooms as a method of addressing this behavior in more of a Tier 2, or classwide, level.</p> <p>Further, there is still scant literature on tootling out there in peer-reviewed journals. Although, what is known about tootling as an intervention strategy is that it has grown over the past few decades starting with a sole focus on the number of tootles students were generating, and shifting toward a measurement of dependent variables including academically engaged behavior and disruptive behavior. Tootling implications began to be measured using rates of these behaviors to determine if the intervention was effective in nature. Through this, studies have shown increases in academically engaged behavior and respective decreases in disruptive behavior (e.g. Cihak et al., [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref48">7</reflink>]; Lambert et al., [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref49">15</reflink>]).</p> <p>In addition, tootling with special populations including middle schools, high schools, and special education classrooms have all been analyzed and shown to be efficacious as an intervention procedure in these types of classrooms. Despite tootling studies within those populations, more research could be beneficial in understanding more about tootling within specials classrooms and preschool populations to reach a full spectrum of school environments and student populations.</p> <p>Despite studies incorporating tootling with other intervention procedures (i.e. ClassDojo), it might be beneficial for additional intervention procedures (e.g. token economies) to be incorporated with tootling to determine if that alters respective behaviors for students. Component analyses, both drop-in and drop-out, are needed on tootling to make it a more simplistic, manageable intervention package for teachers to implement and school psychologists to train on.</p> <p>Additional meta-analyses and/or systematic reviews on tootling specifically, outside of the Collins et al. ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref50">9</reflink>]) meta-analysis on tootling and PPR, are critical in synthesizing research outcomes including single-case research design effect sizes, and best understand tootling from a holistic perspective. This will help build a knowledge base of this intervention and publicize its implications in classrooms and for students. Overall, more research is needed on tootling within school and classroom culture and climate, the generalization of tooling across participants, settings, and administrators (i.e. types of teachers), and altering the training procedures for the implementers in order to see its respective implications.</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-18">School psychologist considerations</hd> <p>As school psychologists are navigating students' return from quarantining due to the COVID-19 pandemic, difficulties with behaviors and academics are expected to arise in classrooms. Thus, school psychologists will need to be equipped with behavioral management tools to provide school-based professionals in order to mitigate these concerns. Tootling is a methodologically-sound tool that school psychologists can train, and offer, to teachers in order to manage classwide behaviors. This will serve as a practical, ease-to-implement strategy for teachers that can address the increasing amount of burnout and stress associated with behavioral changes, and also promote increased academic engagement for students who are needing to make up work due to increased absences.</p> <p>In sum, school psychologists are tasked with a lot of critical job requirements in the school system including special education evaluations, social-emotional, academic, and behavioral support of all students. This is most often conducted <emph>via</emph> consultation and collaboration with other school-based professionals. As school psychologists are considering expanding their behavioral repertoire to add an additional behavior management tool into their toolbelt, tootling has become an increasingly prevalent option with a literature base that is in need of growth within the research realm, yet has been shown to be efficacious in its clinical application.</p> <hd id="AN0186284241-19">Disclosure statement</hd> <p>No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).</p> <ref id="AN0186284241-20"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref4" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Aloe, A. M., Shisler, S. M., Norris, B. D., Nickerson, A. B., & Rinker, T. W. (2014). A multivariate meta-analysis of student misbehavior and teacher burnout. Educational Research Review, 12, 30 – 44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2014.05.003</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref10" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Barrish, H. H., Saunders, M., & Wolf, M. W. (1969). 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Increasing tootling: The effects of a peer-monitored group contingency program on students' reports of peers' prosocial behaviors. Psychology in the Schools, 37 (3), 263 – 270. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1520-6807(200005)37:3<263::AID-PITS6>3.0.CO;2-C</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Skinner, C. H., Neddenriep, C. E., Robinson, S. L., Ervin, R., & Jones, K. (2002). Altering educational environments through positive peer reporting: Prevention and remediation of social problems associated with behavior disorders. Psychology in the Schools, 39 (2), 191 – 202. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.10030</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Steiner, E. D., & Woo, A. (2021). Job-related stress threatens the teacher supply: Key findings from the 2021 state of the U.S. teacher survey. RAND Corporation.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Ward-Horner, J., & Sturmey, P. (2010). Component analyses using single-subject experimental designs: A review. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 43 (4), 685 – 704. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2010.43-685</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Wright, S. J., Tingstrom, D. H., Dufrene, B. A., Dart, E. H., Radley, K. C., Lum, J. D. K., & Bates-Brantley, K. (2021). The effects of tootling combined with public posting in high school classroom. Journal of Behavioral Education. 32, 565 – 584.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Breya L. Whitefield and Sarah W. Harry</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author</p> <p></p> <p>Breya L. Whitefield is a postdoctoral fellow at The Kennedy Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Whitefield specializes in caregiver training supporting behavioral management in children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Dr. Whitefield's research pursuits encompass person-centered care in behavioral interventions, quality of life measures in school psychology literature, and sexuality/relationship education for neurodiverse individuals.</p> <p>Sarah W. Harry is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at Ball State University. Her primary interests in research include academic interventions, classroom behavior management, supporting teacher feedback, multi-tiered systems of support and response to intervention, and social-emotional learning strategies.</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib31" firstref="ref1"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref6"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib24" firstref="ref7"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref9"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref11"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref12"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref13"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref15"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib23" firstref="ref16"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref17"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib28" firstref="ref19"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib30" firstref="ref20"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl13" bibid="bib29" firstref="ref22"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl14" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref27"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl15" bibid="bib26" firstref="ref29"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl16" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref30"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl17" bibid="bib22" firstref="ref31"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl18" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref35"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl19" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref41"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl20" bibid="bib33" firstref="ref43"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl21" bibid="bib27" firstref="ref45"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl22" bibid="bib25" firstref="ref46"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl23" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref47"></nolink>
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  Data: Tootling: Current Research and Future Considerations for School Practitioners
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Preventing+School+Failure%22"><i>Preventing School Failure</i></searchLink>. 2025 69(3):224-230.
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  Data: Tootling is an interdependent group contingency designed as an intervention to be implemented in classrooms in order to meet students' vast behavioral and academic needs by increasing academically engaged behavior, decreasing disruptive behavior, and subsequently leading to increases in student academic achievement. Tootling supports a positive classroom climate by providing teachers with an opportunity to use classroom management strategies to address inappropriate student behavior. This article reviewed the available literature on tootling studies in order to determine gaps for future research. Next steps for school psychologists involving tootling research is discussed including future lines of tootling research and the importance of tootling for school-based practitioners. More research is necessitated to understand more about tootling and its implications for school psychologists.
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