PS562 Unit 5 DB

The Strategic Implementation of Descriptive Assessment: A Case Study of School Cafeteria Environment Analysis Student’s Name Institution Course Tutor Date A descriptive analysis can be applied in various scenarios. For example, a complex school setting where multiple behaviors intersect with environmental variables. Take an example in the high school cafeteria where the school administration reports a rising trend in students’ tendency to throw away food, students who leave the classroom for meals earlier than usual, and students who eat alone. While functional analysis would be appropriate for analyzing individual student behaviors, the broader scope and multiple variables make descriptive assessment an ideal initial approach for understanding these interrelated issues (Bijou et al., 1968). In this case, a descriptive assessment will briefly observe and record the students’ behaviors and environmental events during different lunch periods using interval recordings. Observers would ascertain how frequently certain behaviors occurred, such as food disposal, departure timings of students, and social behaviors that correlate with eating. Also, the observer would record the level of noise in the cafeteria, the arrangement of seating, the timing of lunch, the quality of food, and the presence of teaching staff. Building on the study by Martens et al. (2019), this approach is effective for analyzing behavioral patterns beyond individu...