Educators have been using "ClockLights" since the early 1970's to selectively increase appropriate student behavior in the classroom and common school areas. When accompanied by clear expectations, specific goals, and contingent rewards, the ClockLight has been shown to dramatically improve student behavior in a relatively short time.

How does ClockLight Work?

The ClockLight is a remotely controlled analog clock with green lights mounted around the clock's face. When students are behaving appropriately and meeting expectations the teacher uses the remote to turn on the ClockLight. This makes the lights on the face light up, and the clock begins to accrue time toward a goal. The green lights provide immediate positive feedback to let students know they are meeting expectations, and the moving clock hands are a signal to students that they are making progress. When students are no longer meeting expectations, the teacher simply uses the remote to stop the clock and remind students of expectations.

See supporting research using ClockLight

The Musical ClockLight: Encouraging Positive Classroom Behavior
West, R.P., Young, R.K., Callahan, K., Fister, S., Kemp, K., Freston, J., & Lovitt, T.C. (1995). The musical clocklight: Encouraging positive classroom behavior. Teaching Exceptional Children, Winter, 1995.

This article contains a short history of ClockLight, including effective procedures for intervention. In addition, a musical version of the traditional ClockLight is presented. Data in this aticle include results for three secondary school mainstream classrooms containing 27 to 32 students each with a significant number of those students receiving special education services.

ClockLight: Affecting Group Behavior Using Immediate Feedback
West, R.P., Smith, T.G., Sanders, R.P., & Wheatley, R.K. (2007). Affecting group behavior using immediate feedback. Logan, UT: Center for the School of the Future at Utah State University.

Clocklight systems have been implemented in classrooms and common school areas to increase the amount of “on-task” behavior and decrease the number of problem behaviors. This study used a variation of ClockLight to reduce the noise level in a rural northern Utah elementary school lunchroom.