Tier I implementation supports for classroom management: A pilot investigation targeting teachers' praise.

Abstract

Evidence-based classroom management practices have profound effects on student outcomes. Yet teachers commonly struggle to effectively implement these practices, imploring the provision of implementation supports within a multitiered framework for promoting teachers' practices. Few studies have examined the effects of Tier I implementation supports for classroom management, and none have examined universal implementation within naturalistic school contexts and used strategies that go beyond a "train and hope" approach. Employing a sample of urban, elementary, general education classrooms, this study offers a pilot evaluation of a Tier I implementation support package for promoting teachers' delivery of effective praise for students' behavior. Preliminary results suggest the implementation support package was linked with increases in teachers' behavior-specific praise, heightened praise-to-correction ratios, and increases in students' on-task behavior. Future directions of empirical and practical development are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).