Using low-intensity strategies to support engagement: practical applications in remote learning environments for teachers and families

Abstract

In this introductory article, we explain the rationale for this special issue: to provide educators and families with effective, practical strategies to increase student engagement and minimize disruption in remote, in person, and hybrid learning environments. We offer this special issue out of respect for the complexities educators and families face in maintaining continuous learning for students during ongoing COVID related school disruptions. We recognize the emotional well-being of today’s educators, family members, and students must be prioritized as we collaborate to mitigate learning loss during this tumultuous time in history. We attempt to meet a need for educators and family members – providing effective, feasible tools – as they strive to engage students using online or remote technologies and navigate the often-turning tides in the COVID era. Therefore, we adapted traditionally in-person use of these strategies (i.e., behavior-specific praise, precorrection, active supervision, and instructional choice) to apply to remote learning. These strategies are often incorporated as foundational elements of tiered systems of support such as Comprehensive, Integrated, Three-tiered (Ci3T) models of prevention and can be used by teachers and families in schools without tiered systems in place.

Keywords:

• Low-intensity strategies
• families
• tiered systems
• engagement
• remote and hybrid learning

In March 2020, educators in the United States and globally responded to the pandemic that essentially brought day-to-day activities to a standstill as scientists across the world came together to respond to COVID-19. This virulent virus wreaked havoc on the health and well-being of society as whole on many fronts: medically, economically, and educationally, to name a few (Lane, Cabell, et al., 2021). Many district leaders responded with options for remote, in-person, and hybrid learning environments for preK-12 to ensure students continued with their learning. The complexities of these decisions were massive, bringing to light the many inequities in our society and educational systems (e.g., internet access, access to technology, resources for childcare, exposure risks; Lane, Oaks, et al., 2021).

During this time, our Comprehensive, Integrated, Three-tiered (Ci3T) model of prevention research team had the gift of collaborating with district- and school-site partners as they used their Ci3T structures to pivot to—and between—remote, in person, and hybrid instruction. Ci3T is an integrated tiered system of supports comprised of academic, behavioral (positive behavior interventions and supports [PBIS]), and social and emotional well-being (using a validated curriculum or resources) learning domains (Lane, 2021; Lane et al., 2014). Like other tiered systems, educators use a data-informed approach to make instructional decisions and move students through a graduated continuum of evidenced-based supports, as needed (Lane, Buckman, et al., 2022; Weist et al., 2017). As part of this shift, we continued to collaborate with partners from several states by first seeking approval from our institutional review boards to move away from in person inquiry to research procedures that provided additional safety protections for human subject participants as well as research staff. With these new procedures, we shifted all professional learning activities to take place in virtual environments using platforms such as Zoom™ and TEAMS™. We maintained the rigor of research project activities—including consenting and data collection procedures. At the same time, we were flexible enough to shift procedures to keep a priority on the emotional well-being and safety of our teacher and administrator participants to support them as they moved forward with determining how to provide meaningful instruction to school-age youth.

We were uniquely well-positioned to meet the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic given the gift of Project ENHANCE, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). Project ENHANCE was designed well-before the pandemic and focused on designing and testing enhanced professional learning materials to meet the learning needs of adults implementing complex integrated systems such as Ci3T. More specifically, 27 partners schools from four districts were in various stages of Ci3T implementation (ranging from 1–6 years) to meet students’ academic, behavior, and social and emotional well-being needs within one integrated system (Lane, Menzies, et al., 2020).

As part of this continuum of evidence-based supports (Tier1 for all, Tier 2 for some, and Tier 3 for a few), school site Ci3T Leadership Teams used multiple sources of student data (e.g., academic and behavior screening, office discipline referrals, attendance, nurse visits) as well as programmatic data (e.g., treatment integrity, stakeholders’ views; Buckman et al., 2021) to drive all decision-making efforts. Unique to Ci3T systems, educational leaders use a student-level and programmatic data to inform professional learning experiences for adults to facilitate implementation with integrity (Briesch et al., 2021; Common et al., 2021). As such it was imperative that we worked with these unwavering leaders to determine safe and feasible procedures for continuing to monitor the extent to which Tier 1 practices were in place in schools and provide teachers with a voice as to their views of the goals, procedures, and outcomes in this unprecedented era. In addition to collecting programmatic measures, schools remained steadfast in their commitment to conducting academic and behavioral screenings to have the data to monitor overall effects of the pandemic on learning as well as to inform instruction for all students including those who could no longer come to school in person (Lane, Oakes, et al., 2021). One of the many lessons learned from implementers is that we needed to swiftly adapt the low-intensity strategies to support their priority of increasing students’ engagement and minimize disruptions (e.g., behavior-specific praise, precorrection, active supervision, and instructional choice) to enable efficient and effective use of these low-intensity strategies by teachers during virtual instruction. In addition, family members (e.g., parents, guardians, grandparents, siblings, and others) became facilitators of their child’s school experiences in new ways in the home setting. Educational and commercial entities came together in unprecedented ways to provide free-of-charge resources and materials for families. Often, however, the wealth of options was overwhelming for them. School leaders recognized the value of using the prevention structures that were already in place as part of their Ci3T model for teachers and students. As such, our Ci3T research team thought it might benefit family members to have access to information on these same strategies to assist their children to engage in this new learning paradigm (see Table 1).

Table 1. Low-intensity supports: definitions.

Strategy	Definition
Behavior-Specific Praise	“Behavior-specific praise is a specific type of acknowledgement in which the adult recognizes (or reinforces) specific desirable or prosocial behaviors to increase the chance they will continue to occur in the future.” (Pérez-Clark et al., 2022, p. 84)
Precorrection	“Precorrection is a proactive, low intensity support teachers and families can use to remind students of expected behaviors before they transition to a new setting or begin a new activity.” (Sherod et al., 2022, p. 91)
Active Supervision	“Active supervision involves teaching expectations (or ensuring that the routine for the activity is well-established and familiar to students), scanning and monitoring the area during the activity, reinforcing rule-abiding behavior, providing private, corrective feedback as necessary, and ensuring children also have the opportunity to give feedback.” (Austin et al., 2022, p. 99)
Instructional Choice	“Instructional choice is the embedding of options into lessons for students to select based on their own preferences.” (K. S. Lane et al., 2022, p. 107)

A resource to support instruction and well-being

At the start of the pandemic, few educational leaders would have imagined the deep, cutting impact it would continue to have nearly 3 years later as we finalize this special issue on empowering educators and families with practical, low-intensity strategies to support remote and in-person learning environments. We offer this special issue out of respect for the complexities today’s educators and families face, recognizing the emotional well-being of today’s educators, families, and students must be prioritized as we collaborate to mitigate learning losses across domains that students have experienced during this tumultuous time in history (The Surgeon General’s Advisory, 2021; U.S. Department of Education, 2021).

In the articles constituting this special issue, Using Low-Intensity Strategies to Support Engagement: Practical Applications in Remote Learning Environments for Teachers and Families, we offer educators and family members brief step-by-step guidance with practical examples as they strive to engage students using online or remote technologies and navigate the often-turning tides in the COVID era. Therefore, we adapted the traditionally in-person use of these strategies to apply to remote learning and to support families with students participating in school from home during this time.

More specifically, a core feature of Ci3T is empowering adults to use low-intensity, teacher-delivered strategies to increase engagement and minimize disruption. To date, these strategies have been studied as in-person strategies, yet it was imperative that to provide teachers with adaptations to these proven practices for use in virtual settings. In addition, we wanted to offer these same tools for family members who are shouldering instructional responsibilities in the home setting.

Purpose and potential

Purpose

In this special issue, we provide educators and families with guidance and illustrations of how to use four low-intensity strategies as part of in-person and virtual learning environments as well as in home settings. Specifically, in the articles that follow, we feature behavior-specific praise (Perez-Clark et al., 2022), precorrection (Sherod et al., 2022), active supervision (Austin et al., 2022), and instructional choice (K. S. Lane et al., 2022; see Table 2 for definitions of each strategy), providing illustrations for use with students from preschool through high school. In each article, after providing a brief vignette, we introduce each strategy, providing a definition of the strategy and a brief overview of supporting research of how the strategy can be used to maximize engagement and limit behaviors that impede learning (e.g., disruption). Then, we provide step-by-step procedures and illustrations as to how teachers can use these strategies in remote and in-person learning as well as how families can incorporate these strategies into daily routines at home.

Table 2. Ci3T sentiment: posted on Ci3T.org March 2020.

At this time of uncertainty, with many schools closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Ci3T Strategic Leadership Team and Ci3T Research Team are developing materials to support educators and families as we transition to a world of online and continuous learning. Our goal is to provide resources to assist you in using your Ci3T structures to facilitate positive, productive environments for students, families, educators, and administrators during the COVID-19 crisis. In the accordions below we will be uploading a series of brief practice guides that we hope you will find useful. Feel free to share these materials with fellow educators and families. We are sending positive thoughts to all our partners, colleagues, and the students you so tirelessly support. Source: Ci3T.org/COVID

We provide what we hope is a series of practical and useful resources for creating positive productive and even joyful learning environments in a range of instructional settings. The special issue articles are each led by educators who are now master’s and doctoral students committed to learning how to design, implement, and evaluate Ci3T models of prevention from coast to coast. University of Kansas [(KU), 2022], Arizona State University [(ASU), 2021], and California State University, Los Angeles [(Cal State LA), 2015] encourage innovation that is rigorous, respectful, with the potential to change the world in important ways (University of Kansas, Mission; ASU Charter; Cal State LA Mission Statement).

We are thankful to the authors for their contributions to this special issue as well as their respective lines of inquiry to support the design, implementation, and evaluation of Ci3T models to promote productive and safe learning environments for students, families, and educators with the use of evidence-based practices (Lemons et al., 2021). Also, we appreciate the editors of Prevention School Failure for the opportunity to build upon the previous Ci3T Special Issue published in 2014 by sharing this resource as well as the closing commentary by Dr. Bob Gable.

Potential

While there have certainly been immense challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, some positive learning has emerged. For example, the global focus on well-being as well as preventing and mitigation learning loss became shared priorities. Further, many school leaders and educators across the world searched eagerly for effective and efficient methods for detecting students who are struggling at the first sign of concern and searching for validated resources to meet their social and emotional well-being needs as well as their academic needs. Some school leaders experienced a renewed commitment to their current tiered systems, thankful they had structures in place to swiftly respond to students’ academic, behavior, and social emotional well-being needs. For example, schools with integrated systems such as Ci3T had the systems and structures to support their pivot to remote in person and hybrid instruction—including the use of Tier 1 social and emotional curricula and resources to provide explicit instruction in self-care, self-regulation, and self-determined behaviors. As part of tiered systems, systematic screening tools were in place to know how students were faring academically (e.g., reading and math) as well as behavioral indicators of their well-being (e.g., internalizing and externalizing behaviors) in fall, winter, and spring.

Another positive consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a focus on and funding support for using rapid iterative processes for designing tools and structures and strategies to respond to the needs of educators and families to support virtual learning, which holds benefit in the future uses of virtual learning for a range of students (e.g., those who are homebound or medically fragile).

In the months and years ahead, we will continue to work closely with and learn from educational leaders and educators as well as the important lessons learned from educational research taking place in the COVID era. For now, we hope this special issue provides immediate utility for those working with our country’s most important resource: our youth.

Acknowledgement

We extended our sincere appreciation and respect to educators and families prioritizing students’ positive, productive learning experiences in the COVID era as well as members of our Ci3T research team for their commitment the design, implementation, and evaluation of Ci3T models of prevention, with an emphasis on systematic screening.

Disclosure statement

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Notes on contributors

Kathleen Lynne Lane, Ph.D., BCBA-D, CF-L2 is a Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas and Associate Vice Chancellor for Research. Her research interests focus on designing, implementing, and evaluating Comprehensive, Integrated, Three-tiered (Ci3T) models of prevention to (a) prevent the development of learning and behavior challenges and (b) respond to existing instances, with an emphasis on systematic screening. She is the co-editor of Remedial and Special Education. Dr. Lane has co-authored or edited 14 books and published 235 refereed journal articles and 56 book chapters.

Wendy Peia Oakes, Ph.D. is an associate professor in Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. She is interested in practices that improve the educational outcomes for young children with emotional and behavioral disorders. Her areas of research focus on school-wide systems for supporting students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders from a prevention perspective, the implementation of evidence-based academic and behavioral interventions, and in-service and preservice teacher education for implementing these practices with fidelity. She serves as an associate editor for Remedial and Special Education. She currently serves in the presidential line for the CEC Division for Research and previously served on the executive board for the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders, now the Division for Emotional and Behavioral Health.

Holly M. Menzies, Ph.D. is professor emeritus in the Division of Special Education and Counseling at California State University, Los Angeles. She earned her master’s degree and doctorate in special education from University of California, Riverside. She has participated in research about behavioral screening instruments to examine risk status of students with and without disabilities and the implementation of Ci3T.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This article was supported by funding provided by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education (R324N190002: PI Lane). Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position of the U.S. Department of Education, and as such, endorsements should not be inferred.