Introducing Classroom Behavior Management Skills to Experienced Teachers

Abstract

Conventional postgraduate courses are a potentially economical vehicle for introducing experienced teachers to classroom behavior management skills. Eighty-one experienced teachers attended weekly sessions during which, in sequence, seven fundamental behavior management skills were introduced. Each teacher was required to submit weekly evidence, based on data collected in the classroom, of skill acquisition. Requirements included development and implementation of two intervention plans; the interventions were focused on teacher selected target behaviors, with the first and second interventions addressed to discipline and academic problems respectively. Over 90 percent of the seventy-five active participants in the course acquired, by the criteria imposed, the seven skills presented. Respectively, 93 and 87 percent implemented successful first and second intervention plans; interventions were judged successful if 65 percent or more students exhibited the target behavior. In general, it appears that many teachers had the skills in their repertoires; the course merely showed them techniques for using the skills more systematically and for more discrete objectives.