Good Behavior Game

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a classroom management strategy used to increase self-regulation, group regulation and stimulate prosocial behavior among students while reducing problematic behavior. Major research at Johns Hopkins Center for Prevention and Early Intervention has studied three cohorts of thousands of student, some of whom have been followed from first grade into their 20s. In multiple scientific studies, the Good Behavior Game dramatically reduces problematic behavior within days and weeks.

The first study of GBG was published in 1969, using a 4th grade classroom. The study was the first application of applied behavior analysis to a whole classroom. In the original study, the classroom was divided into two teams. The students were to engage in the math or reading activities as teams. Paying attention, engaging in the lessons or activity, was the "good behavior". If students engaged in actions the interfered with the lesson (e.g., getting out their seat, interrupting), that was a penalty point against the team—much like playing a sport. Each team could make up a fixed number of mistakes, and still win the game. That is much like professional sports, except both teams could win. If a team won the game, they earned an activity reward normally not allowed, which was based on the Premack Principle. Since the original 1969 study, the Good Behavior Game has become an efficient system to aid in preventing mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders.