Association for Behavior Analysis International

The application of evidenced-based practices in classroom settings are imperative for the advancement of teacher performances and student outcomes. Training teachers to implement classroom management strategies with fidelity can positively impact students’ academic and behavioral performance in the classroom. Studies in this symposium will cover a range of teacher directed trainings, classroom management strategies, and effective interventions for reducing student challenging behaviors. The first presenter will discuss an evaluation of effective teacher training approaches. The second presenter will review the impact of performance feedback and self-monitoring on teachers’ use of behavior specific praise. The third presentation will focus on the use of baseline classroom data to enhance teachers’ implementation of classroom management strategies. The fourth presenter will provide an overview of interventions effective for decreasing challenging behaviors in the classroom. This symposium will highlight considerations for collaborating with teachers, discuss implications for training and implementing classroom management strategies, and outline future research directions.

BCaBAs, BCBAs, Behavior Consultants; Classroom Consultants

Best education practices require the well-established procedural integrity of the intervention. Additionally, natural interventionists such as teachers and paraprofessionals have been demonstrated to effectively teach children with autism spectrum disorders in school settings. The overall and moderating effects of these training approaches have remained unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this meta-analysis is to systematically review single case design studies testing the efficacy of training to improve teacher-implemented interventions for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The overall mean effect size of the training on implementation fidelity was Tau-U = .64 (95% CI [.50, .70]), and moderating variables such as training environment, participant's educational background, training approaches were associated with improving the implementation fidelity. The outcomes from the single-case design literature suggest that consistent monitoring of the implementation positively affects teachers' implementation fidelity.

Teachers receive a number of professional development trainings and consultations to develop or enhance their repertoire in various evidenced based practices (EBP) and classroom management strategies. Nevertheless, teachers’ adherence to strategies learned during trainings often decline when external supports are removed (Codding et al., 2015; Oliver et al., 2015) which may lead to challenges in the consistent and accurate implementation of EBP in classroom settings (Shernoff et al., 2020). Performance feedback and self-monitoring have been used to address these challenges and promote teachers’ use and fidelity of EBP in the classroom (Scheeler et al., 2004; Oliver et al., 2015). The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of performance feedback and self-monitoring on teachers’ delivery of behavior specific praise (BSP) in their classrooms using a multiple baseline design across participants. Results suggest performance feedback was successful in increasing the rate of BSP while self-monitoring maintained BSP at a predetermined goal, in the absence of observation or feedback for two teachers. These results align with prior literature, suggesting that performance feedback is effective in changing teacher performance and self-monitoring is potentially a viable strategy to promote maintenance in EBP in the absence of external supports and feedback.

Challenging behavior tends to increase in levels during adolescence for individuals with developmental disabilities (DD). If not addressed, this can lead to negative post-school outcomes for adolescents with DD. The purposes of this meta-analysis were to examine the effects of behavioral intervention in reducing challenging behaviors of adolescents with DD and to identify variables that could potentially moderate these effects. This meta-analysis included 30 single-case design studies that met standards for methodological rigor and experimental control. Overall, behavioral interventions were found to yield moderate effects for adolescents with DD (overall Tau-U = 0.68, SD = 0.04, [0.62, 0.73]) across settings and types of challenging behaviors. With regard to participant and setting characteristics, verbal ability and classroom setting were found to moderate the effects of the intervention outcomes with statistical significance. No other variables produced similar findings. Furthermore, statistically significant differences were found between interventions that included or did not include planned reinforcement as an intervention component. Several implications for research and practice are discussed.