Promoting Positive Behavior Using the Good Behavior Game

21 single-case studies representing 1,580 students, pre-kindergarten through grade 12; 137 phase contrasts

Pre-kindergarten through grade 12 classrooms.

A second single-case meta-analysis of the Good Behavior Game on an overlapping corpus, using TauU rather than overlap percentages. Same design-class caveat as Flower et al. - within-classroom phase contrasts on observed behaviour, no randomisation, no achievement outcome, no follow-up.

TauU across 137 phase contrasts was .82 (95% CI 0.78 to 0.87), indicating a substantial reduction in problem behaviour and an increase in prosocial behaviour during game play. The game was most effective at reducing disruptive and off-task behaviours, and students with or at risk for emotional and behavioural disorders benefited most.

Not applicable - within-subject phase contrasts.

Reproduces Flower et al. 2014 on an overlapping single-case corpus with a different effect-size metric. The in-game behavioural effect is the one thing in this literature that replicates reliably; it does not survive translation into the cluster-randomised trials, where the English 77-school trial found teacher-rated disruptive behaviour at 0.06 (95% CI -0.09 to 0.22).