Supporting New Teachers' Use of Effective Classroom Management Techniques: An Integration of the Good Behavior Game and My Teaching Partner

Introduction: Research suggests that early career teachers are vulnerable to issues like burnout, stress, and teacher turnover. They often come into their first classroom teaching position with limited training on classroom management and student engagement. This is particularly disconcerting, given that classroom management is an important condition for learning and a precursor to positive student behavioral and social-emotional outcomes. This project leveraged training in a commonly used classroom management strategy called the Good Behavior Game (GBG) to support early career teachers. We integrated the GBG with another established program, called My Teaching Partner (MTP), which uses an in-person and web-facilitated coaching process to implement classroom-based strategies. Specifically, we use MTP as a platform for supporting the implementation of GBG. The goal of this presentation is to summarize preliminary findings from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the combined version of GBG and MTP on teacher and student outcomes. We hypothesized that the combination of these two evidence-based programs would produce favorable outcomes for new teachers regarding classroom management and their own wellbeing (e.g., stress, burnout), and produce more favorable behavioral and academic outcomes for their students.

Methods: A group RCT design enrolled new/beginning teachers (i.e., first 3 years working in the field) from 3 urban districts; teachers were randomly assigned to GBG+MTP vs. comparison (n=206) and were followed over the course of two school years. Classroom observations of teacher and student behavior and classroom climate were collected, along with teacher self-reports about engagement in and efficacy for teaching and ratings of student behavior. Multi-level growth models with blocking by district and controls for demographic characteristics were applied with initial classroom condition (e.g. student disruptive behavior) as a moderator.

Results: Preliminary pre-post test results indicated that relative to controls, the GBG+MTP teachers had classrooms with lower rates of disruptive behavior and more positive climate. The effects were greatest in classrooms with moderate or higher pre-test risk levels.

Conclusions: End of first year outcome analyses suggest that the training of new teachers in the combination of these two classroom-based support methods (i.e., GBG and MTP) has substantial benefit for teachers and students, particularly in classrooms with more challenges. Concentrating training in classroom management on teachers just entering the field may be particularly beneficial, especially among those working in the most challenging classrooms.