I admit, I didn’t know the Good Behavior Game before I discovered this review via John Hopkins Best Evidence in Brief. From good ol’ Wikipedia I learned this:

The Good Behavior Game was first used in 1967 in Baldwin City, Kansas by Muriel Saunders, who was a new teacher in a fourth-grade classroom. Muriel Saunders, Harriet Barrish (a graduate student at the University of Kansas), and the professor and co-founder of applied-behavior analysis, the late Montrose Wolfe, co-created the Good Behavior Game in 1969.

But what is it?

The Good Behavior Game is an approach to the management of classrooms behaviors that rewards children for displaying appropriate on-task behaviors during instructional times. The class is divided into two teams and a point is given to a team for any inappropriate behavior displayed by one of its members. The team with the fewest number of points at the Game’s conclusion each day wins a group reward. If both teams keep their points below a preset level, then both teams share in the reward. (source)

Why do I mention this? Because as a new review study describes, this 40 year-old method seems to work. As the Best Evidence in Brief summarizes:

A total of 22 studies met the authors’ inclusion criteria. In these, the program was mainly being used in mainstream elementary schools with externalizing, challenging behaviors (e.g., disruptive behavior, off-task behavior, aggression, talking out, and out-of-seat behaviors).

The review aimed to describe and quantify the effect of the GBG on various challenging behaviors in school and classroom settings. The findings suggested that the GBG had moderate to large effects on a range of challenging behaviors, and that these effects were immediate. Correct application of reward procedures was found to be important for intervention effectiveness.

The authors note that the GBG has been implemented by individuals in a variety of school roles (such as classroom teachers, student teachers, librarians, and lunchtime staff), and that this highlights the ease with which the GBG can be implemented under a variety of conditions. Additionally, the relatively brief training for practitioners in the studies suggests that the GBG can be used successfully without extensive training.

Few studies considered the long-term impact of the GBG, but the authors conclude that the effects were largely stable, with only a very slight decrease over time.

Abstract of the research:

Challenging behavior at school remains a concern for teachers and administrators. Thus classroom management practices to prevent challenging behavior are sorely needed. The Good Behavior Game (GBG) has been found to be useful to positively change student behavior. However, previous reviews of the GBG have not quantified effects, have not focused solely on school and classroom behaviors, and have not examined study features that facilitate greater outcomes. Twenty-two peer-reviewed journal articles were reviewed. Study data were analyzed using effect sizes, percent of nonoverlapping data, percent of all nonoverlapping data, and hierarchical linear modeling to determine intervention effectiveness as well as study features that facilitated greater outcomes. Findings suggested that (a) moderate to large effects were found on challenging behaviors and these effects were immediate; (b) the GBG was most commonly used for disruptive behavior, off-task behavior, aggression, talking out, and out-of-seat behaviors; (c) the GBG has been implemented primarily in general education elementary school settings; and (d) correct application of reward procedures are important for intervention effectiveness. Study limitations, implications for practice, and areas for future research are presented.