Opportunity to Respond

Opportunity to respond has been defined as at least a two-part interaction between (a) the arrangement of antecedent instructional stimuli and (b) student responses to those stimuli. Instructional stimuli are presented in the form of materials, verbal questions, prompts, cues, or directives, and students' responses to those stimuli may be written, oral, or in the form of other motor behavior. The first step of a traditional interaction sequence might be exemplified by a teacher orally asking, “Who was the first president of the United States?” The desired student response would be the student answering orally, “George Washington.” However, the first part of the opportunity to respond also might be presented by a desktop computer program flashing the question, “What is 2 + 2?” to which the student might type the answer, “4.” The most important aspect of the relationship between the instructional stimulus provided and the response to that stimulus is the high probability that the response is the desired behavior to match the stimulus; that is, that the answer is correct.

Recommendations vary regarding the desired rate at which opportunities to respond should occur across various instructional activities. Minimal suggested rates during presentation of instructional stimuli related to new material should range from 4 to 6 responses per minute, with a minimum of 80% accuracy. When students practice production of the appropriate responses to stimuli that have been introduced previously, fluency rates should range from 8 to 12 responses per minute, with at least 90% accuracy. [Page 1404]However, recommendations for opportunities to respond range from 10 per minute during initial instruction to rates much greater during fluency building. For example, in reading, students in third grade are expected to read orally at a rate of 135 words per minute. Yet, lower rates of opportunities to respond are reported in the literature from observations in general education classrooms and in classrooms for students with disabilities. For example, observations in classrooms for students with emotional and behavioral disorders report a rate of as low as .02 opportunities per minute.

Maintaining control of opportunities to respond at recommended rates has strong empirical support related to academic achievement. Reading outcomes are affected positively, as measured by increased percentages of reading responses, mastery of reading words, rates of words read correctly, and decreased rates of words read incorrectly. Math outcomes are affected positively, as measured by percentage of problems calculated correctly per minute, digits calculated correctly per minute, number of problems completed, and active correct responses. Positive effects also are noted for students' classroom behavior, such as task engagement and decreased undesirable behavior. Overall, instructional time in classrooms is used more efficiently through increasing opportunities to respond.

Several reports suggest that effective instruction can be used to ameliorate the academic difficulties of students and decrease levels of disruptive and aggressive behavior. That is, if rates of effective instruction are increased, rates of problem behavior may decrease. This relationship is founded on the notion that instruction that involves frequent opportunities to actively respond to academic requests is associated with students who are more engaged, receive more positive reinforcement for appropriate behavior, and have fewer opportunities to engage in inappropriate behaviors.

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