Teacher-implemented Intervention Research Articles

Higher-Order Executive Function in Middle School: Training Teachers to Enhance Cognition in Young Adolescents.

The epoch of adolescent brain development is an ideal time to train complex thinking skills, and middle schools provide an ideal environment to train and foster this acquisition. Unfortunately, few teachers are equipped with enough knowledge of the science of learning and evidence-based methodology, to ensure all students are given sufficient opportunity to develop their cognitive capacity to the fullest. Using our evidenced-based higher-order executive function training program, we trained current teachers to provide cognitive training to their students. The results of this study demonstrate the efficacy of teacher-implemented intervention for immediate improvement in high-level executive function capacities such as gist-reasoning and interpretive statement production. More importantly, we found evidence of far transfer via students’ improved academic performance in all standardized test content areas (Reading, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies) when compared to their untrained peers. Our findings support the importance of providing intensive professional development that afford educators with a greater understanding of the brain, how we learn, and the importance of evidence-based programs to advance and instill high-level executive function in all students.

Teacher-Implemented AAC Intervention to Support Peer Interaction in an Inclusive Preschool Classroom: A Pilot Study

Abstract Children with complex communication needs confront many barriers to peer interaction and, without intervention, are at risk for social isolation, even in inclusive classrooms. The aims of this pilot study were to determine the feasibility of training a preschool teacher to implement a peer interaction intervention and to measure the impact on the participating children. The teacher in this study was taught to program an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app and to implement a peer interaction intervention. The teacher's positive perception of the training and intervention, along with the social improvements seen in this pilot study are promising. More research is needed to increase confidence in the effectiveness of this training to support teacher-implemented intervention and peer interaction in inclusive classrooms.

Perceived Effectiveness of Self Learning Modules in the Implementation of Modular Distance Learning in the Elementary Level

The COVID-19 pandemic shifts the traditional classroom or face-to-face teaching and learning into distance learning. The district of Sto. Domingo implemented Modular Distance Learning(MDL) in which a self-learning module(SLM) is the primary tool in the teaching and learning process. This study determines the effectiveness of the SLM in the implementation of MDL at the elementary level under the new normal. The study is anchored on Moore’s Transactional Distance Theory. Descriptive correlational statistics were used to determine the factors contributing to the effectiveness of SLM in the implementation of MDL. The respondents were the 72 Grade 3 and Grade 6 permanent teachers and 72 Grades 3 and 6 learners. Factors such as the SLM quality of content, usability, and teacher interventions were analyzed to determine if they were predictors of the SLM's perceived effectiveness. The perceived effectiveness of the SLM was evaluated by teachers and learners. Teachers and learners agree to the perceived effectiveness as a teaching and learning tool of the SLM in the implementation of MDL.Using Pearson-r, the study found that quality of content, usability, and teacher implemented intervention was positively correlated to the perceived effectiveness of SLM based on teacher evaluation. Multiple regression analysis found that quality of content and usability predict the effectiveness of SLM in the implementation of MDL based on teacher evaluation. The study concludes that the quality of content and usability of the SLM will most likely determine the perceived effectiveness of the SLM in the implementation of MDL on this scale and magnitude during this time of the pandemic.Learner evaluation of the perceived effectiveness of the SLM did not show a causal relationship with the SLM quality of content, usability, and teachers’ implemented interventions. The result suggests that learners may not fully understand the context of their learning to evaluate their learning using the SLM.The study recommends the importance of the quality of content and usability of the materials particularly the SLM to effectively implement the MDL during this time of pandemic and in this scale and magnitude. While teacher implemented interventions have a positive relationship or effect on the use of SLM, it does not predict its effectiveness. Further, the study suggests the development of assessment materials and procedures to measure the actual achievement of learners under the MDL.

Low-cost teacher-implemented intervention improves toddlers’ language and math skills

The first years of life are foundational for children's cognitive and social–emotional development and to subsequent development in a variety of domains. In many countries, an increasing number of toddlers is enrolled in early childhood education (ECE) programs, which can facilitate early development. However, the quality of these programs is often mediocre. The present study represents a large-scale randomized control trial (87 childcare centers and 1116 toddlers) designed to elevate the quality of instruction in ECE programs serving toddlers. We show that a low-cost 20-week intervention providing teachers with sequence and scope and supportive tools to be more explicit and intentional in their interactions with children resulted in positive, mainly medium- to large-sized effects on targeted language and math skills.

A teacher-implemented intervention program to promote finger use in numerical tasks

What constitutes effective teaching of arithmetical skills in early school years is still uncertain. Finger use could play a crucial role in this acquisition, but some children do not use them spontaneously and studies would be necessary to know if it is possible to teach them. This research assesses the impact of a teacher-implemented intervention program to teach 5-year- to 6-year-old children to use their fingers in numerical tasks. Participants were 36 kindergarten pupils (16 girls, 20 boys; mean age 5 years, 5 months) from two classrooms. The research compares a program in which motor training and explicit teaching of finger use are promoted to represent numbers and to act on them, with a “business as usual” contrast group. Children were tested before and after the intervention with problem-solving. After the experimental training program, finger counting appears to be a good strategy because its frequency is positively linked to the scores in the problem-solving tasks. We showed a greater improvement in problem-solving following the finger use intervention, compared to the contrast group. Our results support the explicit teaching of finger use to build numerical representation and enhance the calculation skills of kindergarten students (age 5) in French schools.

Effects of Read It Again! In Early Childhood Special Education Classrooms as Compared to Regular Shared Book Reading

Read It Again! PreK (RIA) is a whole-class, teacher-implemented intervention that embeds explicit language and literacy instruction within the context of shared book reading and has prior evidence of supporting the language and literacy skills of preschool children. We conducted a conceptual replication to test its efficacy when implemented in early childhood special education classrooms relative to regular shared book reading. The randomized controlled trial involved 109 teachers and 726 children (341 with disabilities and 385 peers). Compared to the rigorous counterfactual condition, RIA significantly increased teachers’ provision of explicit instruction targeting phonological awareness, print knowledge, narrative, and vocabulary during shared book readings but had limited impact on children’s language and literacy skills. Findings underscore the need to conduct replication studies to identify interventions that realize effects for specific populations of interest, such as children with disabilities served in early childhood special education classrooms.

Fidelity of a Teacher-Implemented Intervention for Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorder: No, Some, and Unexpected Effects

Advancing Social-Communication and Play (ASAP) is a classroom-based intervention targeting the social-communication and play development of preschool-age children with autism spectrum disorder. We used a multimethod approach to measuring intervention fidelity, including adherence, exposure, treatment differentiation, and quality of treatment delivery. Overall, teachers in the ASAP classrooms increased their adherence to the ASAP intervention compared with business-as-usual teachers. Teacher characteristics did not affect the ability to implement ASAP with fidelity. There were no group differences in coded video instructional quality scores. Differences in child engagement between the ASAP and business-as-usual groups were not mediated by fidelity adherence scores, contrary to our hypothesis. Finally, end-of-year summary of treatment delivery ratings did not align with adherence scores. Continued research regarding fidelity of school-based interventions should focus on distinguishing active ingredients from general instructional practices and learning from teachers about the child-level factors they consider when implementing an intervention.

A better start to literacy learning: findings from a teacher-implemented intervention in children\u2019s first year at school

This study investigated the feasibility of a teacher implemented intervention to accelerate phonological awareness, letter, and vocabulary knowledge in 141 children (mean age 5 years, 4 months) who entered school with lower levels of oral language ability. The children attended schools in low socioeconomic communities where additional stress was still evident 6 years after the devastating earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2011. The teachers implemented the intervention at the class or large group level for 20 h (four 30-min sessions per week for 10 weeks). A stepped wedge research design was used to evaluate intervention effects. Children with lower oral language ability made significantly more progress in both their phonological awareness and targeted vocabulary knowledge when the teachers implemented the intervention compared to progress made when teachers implemented their usual literacy curriculum. Importantly, the intervention accelerated children’s ability to use improved phonological awareness skills when decoding novel words (treatment effect size d = 0.88). Boys responded to the intervention as well as girls and the skills of children who identified as Māori or Pacific Islands (45.5% of the cohort) improved in similar ways to children who identified as New Zealand European. The findings have important implications for designing successful teacher-implemented interventions, within a multi-tier approach, to support children who enter school with known challenges for their literacy learning.

Negotiating course material to counter poor learner motivation

This paper details a teacher-implemented intervention, negotiating learner-generated materials, with the aim of improving low levels of learner motivation. This had resulted from the introduction of a problematic entry test policy acting as gatekeeper to an internationally-accredited diploma course in the learners’ specialized technical subject. For the learners, successful completion of the diploma course would guarantee social and financial benefits including promotion, increased salary and prestige within the military institution. However, an order came from the commanding officer that learners would only be accepted onto the diploma course if they attained an IELTS test score of Band 5. This requirement was not attainable by the learners in the time available and represented a threat to their career aspirations, which would negatively affect them personally, economically and professionally. Consequently, there was a substantial drop in learner motivation. An intervention was constructed and conducted during the course over a two-week period to supplement students’ course book in order to counter such poor levels of motivation. The study was set within the critical paradigm, using quantitative and qualitative data collecting methods to answer my research question: “To what extent does the intervention (asking learners to choose a topic, select original material, and suggest the type of tasks to be produced for the material) have a positive effect on learners’ levels of motivation?” Key findings included an observed increase in learner engagement and a greater level of concentration than in recent classes together with reduced learner worry about the IELTS test. Several conclusions are offered as to the efficacy of conducting such an intervention and how it could impact on learner motivation.

Effects of Teacher-Delivered Book Reading and Play on Vocabulary Learning and Self-Regulation among Low-Income Preschool Children

ABSTRACTThere is a need for empirically based educational practices shown to support learning, yet validation tends to require a high degree of experimental control that can limit ecological validity and translation to classrooms. We describe our iterative intervention design to support preschoolers’ vocabulary through book reading coupled with playful learning, including the process of translating research-based methods to an authentic teacher-delivered intervention. Effectiveness of the teacher-implemented intervention was examined by comparing book reading alone versus book reading plus play in supporting vocabulary development in preschoolers (N = 227) from low-income families with diverse backgrounds. Teachers used definitions, gestures, and pictures to teach vocabulary. During play, teachers led play with story-related figurines while using target vocabulary. Ten teachers read books and engaged children in play (read + play [R + P]), and 6 used only book reading (read-only [RO]). For children in both the R + P and RO conditions, within-subjects analyses of gains on taught versus control words revealed large effects on receptive (R + P, d = 1.08; RO, d = 0.92) and expressive vocabulary (R + P, d = 1.41; RO, d =1.23). Read-only had a statistically significant effect (d = 0.20) on a standardized measure of receptive vocabulary, but there were no statistically significant differences between conditions. Moderate to large effects were found using an expressive task when words were tested 4 months after they were taught. Implications for curriculum design and the potential benefits of enhancing children’s vocabulary through book reading and playful learning are discussed.

Cluster randomized trial of the classroom SCERTS intervention for elementary students with autism spectrum disorder.

This cluster randomized trial (CRT) evaluated the efficacy of the Classroom Social, Communication, Emotional Regulation, and Transactional Support (SCERTS) Intervention (CSI) compared with usual school-based education with autism training modules (ATM). Sixty schools with 197 students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in 129 classrooms were randomly assigned to CSI or ATM. Mean student age was 6.79 years (SD 1.05) and 81.2% were male. CSI teachers were trained on the model and provided coaching throughout the school year to assist with implementation. A CRT, with students nested within general and special education classrooms nested within schools, was used to evaluate student outcomes. The CSI group showed significantly better outcomes than the ATM group on observed measures of classroom active engagement with respect to social interaction. The CSI group also had significantly better outcomes on measures of adaptive communication, social skills, and executive functioning with Cohen's d effect sizes ranging from 0.31 to 0.45. These findings support the preliminary efficacy of CSI, a classroom-based, teacher-implemented intervention for improving active engagement, adaptive communication, social skills, executive functioning, and problem behavior within a heterogeneous sample of students with ASD. This makes a significant contribution to the literature by demonstrating efficacy of a classroom-based teacher-implemented intervention with a heterogeneous group of students with ASD using both observed and reported measures. (PsycINFO Database Record

Evaluation of a nutrition intervention in adolescents of an urban area in Greece: short- and long-term effects of the VYRONAS study

To assess the short-term (15-d) and long-term (12-month) effects of a school-based health and nutrition education intervention on diet, nutrition intake and BMI. The 12-week teacher-implemented intervention in combination with seminars organized for parents was aimed at improving children's diet and nutrition knowledge. The intervention took place between September 2007 and January 2008. The participants were randomized to two study groups, the intervention group (IG) and control group (CG), and were examined prior to the intervention on a variety of health knowledge, dietary, behavioural and anthropometric indices. The same measurements were collected 15 d and 1 year after the intervention. All high schools in Vyronas, a densely populated district of Athens, Greece. The sample consisted of 191 students aged 12-13 years. Twelve months after the intervention, the programme was effective in reducing various indices in the IG compared with baseline findings (BMI: 23.3 (sd 2.8) v. 24.0 (sd 3.1) kg/m2, P < 0.001; daily energy intake: 8112.4 (sd 1412.4) v. 8503.3 (sd 1419.3) kJ/d, P < 0.001; total fat intake: 31.3 (sd 4.4) v. 35.4 (sd 4.7) % of daily energy, P < 0.001). Except for BMI, decreases in the aforementioned indices were also observed 15 d after the intervention. In addition, students of the IG reduced their weekly consumption of red meat and non-home-made meals and increased their frequency of fruit and breakfast cereal consumption. The beneficial effects of this nutrition education intervention among adolescents may highlight the potential of such programmes in the prevention of obesity.

Reduction of Stereotypy Via Instruction of Alternative Leisure Behavior

Behavioral assessment of stereotypic behavior under various environmental conditions led to the development of an effective, teacher-implemented intervention for a student with profound mental reta...

Acceptability of reductive interventions for the control of inappropriate child behavior.

Teacher attitudes about the acceptability of classroom intervention strategies were evaluated in two experiments. In both, teachers read descriptions of an intervention that was applied to a child with a behavior problem. In Experiment 1, an evaluation of six interventions for reducing inappropriate behavior suggested that one was highly acceptable (DRO), one was highly unacceptable (corporal punishment), and four ranged from mildly acceptable to mildly unacceptable (DRL, reprimands, time-out, and staying after school). In Experiment 2, the acceptability of the same intervention (staying after school) was evaluated as a function of who implemented it (teacher vs. principal). Analyses suggested that the teacher-implemented intervention was perceived as more acceptable. In both experiments, interventions were rated as less acceptable by highly experienced teachers versus those newer to the teaching profession. In addition, there was a trend for the acceptability of an intervention to vary as a function of the severity of the behavior problem to which it was applied.