Teacher Attitudes Toward and Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices within the Classroom Check-up

School behavioral and mental health programs that involve evidence-based practices (EBPs) are associated with a host of benefits for students, including improved social-emotional and behavioral functioning, in addition to academic outcomes. Federal reports and policies have also increasingly called for the use of EBPs to address student behavioral and mental health concerns. Despite research support and promotion from governmental agencies, efforts to implement EBPs may be unsuccessful if individuals are unwilling to adopt them. This may especially be true within the contexts of schools where issues of feasibility and acceptability are likely to arise. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the transportability of EPBs within school settings.

Due to the frequency of daily interactions with students, teachers are instrumental regarding the use of EBPs in schools. Greater understanding of teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about EBPs may be necessary to increasing the use of EBPs in school. The current study will contribute to our understanding of the link between teacher attitudes about EBPs and observed use of EBPs. The Classroom Check-Up (CCU) is a class-wide consultation model developed to increase teacher use of evidence-based classroom management practices (e.g., increased use of praise, decreased use of reprimands) by emphasizing class-wide change and motivational enhancement strategies. Data were drawn from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the impact of the CCU on disruptive student classroom behaviors. Participants in the RCT included 648 elementary students (Kindergarten through 5^th) and 39 teachers across four schools in the Midwestern United States.

The current study examined: (1) the overall effect of the CCU on teacher implementation of EBPs and (2) moderating effects of teacher attitudes toward EBPs on observed use of EBPs (e.g., teacher praise, teacher reprimand). Attitudes towards EBPs were assessed using the Teacher Attitudes Toward Evidence Based Behavior Interventions (TAEBB; Copeland, 2016). Trained observers conducted classroom observations in order to measure the implementation frequency of EBPs.

Preliminary results indicate intervention effects on teacher use of positive behavior strategies (e.g., specific praise toward individual students and class-wide). Results from moderation analyses reveal that frequency of class-wide specific praise and individual student specific praise are moderated by teacher attitudes toward EBPs. Implications for translating EBPs to school settings will be presented and discussed.