Using Multi-component Consultation to Increase the Integrity with Which Teachers Implement Behavioral Classroom Interventions: A Pilot Study

Abstract

The goal of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a multi-component consultation package in improving teachers’ classroom management skills, particularly among teachers with lower baseline levels of knowledge, skills, and intervention-supportive beliefs. Participants were 58 elementary school teachers (93% female; 50% non-Hispanic White) who received up to eight biweekly consultation sessions focused on general classroom management strategies and implementation of a daily report card intervention with one target student with or at risk of ADHD. Teachers were randomly assigned to either a comparison consultation condition designed to mirror current best practices (Frank & Kratochwill, in: Erchul, Sheridan (eds) Handbook of research in school consultation, Routledge, New York, 2014; Noell & Gansle, in: Erchul, Sheridan (eds) Handbook of research in school consultation, Routledge, New York, 2014) or a multi-component condition designed to simultaneously address teacher knowledge, skills, and beliefs as possible barriers to implementation of classroom interventions. Teachers in both conditions showed significant improvements in labeled praise, appropriate response to student rule violations, and general competence in classroom management. In support of the hypotheses, teachers with lower baseline levels of knowledge, skills, and intervention-supportive beliefs demonstrated more improvement in key outcomes in response to multi-component consultation, as compared to the comparison consultation (Cohen’s d ranged from 0.33 to 1.12). Implications for research and practice in school consultation are discussed.