Research Question 1:What is the effect of specific instruction and practice-based coaching (including performance feedback) on teacher’s implementation and maintenance of behavioral teaching practices in early childhood classroom settings?

Research Question 2:What is the effect of early childhood teachers’ implementation and maintenance of specific behavioral teaching practices on young children’ s engagement and problem behaviors?

We hypothesize that teachers will increase their use of targeted instructional practices following training and coaching on the practices,and that children’ s engagement will increase and problem behaviors decrease upon receiving the increase in targeted teacher instructional behaviors.Following a discussion of the results,limitations of this study will be discussed, as will implications for future research and practice.

Method Setting

Two school districts and a university-based early childhood program participated in the study, which took place in the Southeast region of the United States. During the study, one district had a total enrollment of approximately 47,000 students, and approximately 37% of the students were African American and another 18% were members of other minority groups.Thirty-four percent of the student population received free or reduced lunch, and this school district had over 30 preschool classrooms serving nearly 550 children.The second district served approximately 23,000 students, of whom approximately 85% were African American and another 7% were members of other minority groups.Seventy-six percent of the student population received free or reduced lunch, and there were approximately 1,667 children enrolled in 95 early childhood programs.

The majority of the classrooms in which the study was conducted were federally or state-funded early childhood classrooms(e.g.,Head Start,Title I,state-funded prekindergarten)serving children between the ages of 3 and 5 years who were eligible for such programs due to risk factors such as low socioeconomic status.However,one classroom was located in a university-based early childhood program serving children from the community, and children of students and faculty members, regardless of family income.

Participants

The study participants included 10 early childhood teachers and 19 focal children at risk of the development of emotional and behavioral disorder(EBD;approximately two children per classroom).Once informed consent was obtained,participating teachers were asked to nominate five children who demonstrated chronic problem behaviors in their classroom for possible participation in the study.Following teacher nomination consents from parents or guardians of child participants were obtained.

Teacher participants.All teacher participants met the following criteria:(a)teach in an early childhood setting,(b)teach children between the ages of 3 and 5 who demonstrate chronic challenging behavior,and(c)hold at least a bachelor’s in education and current teacher certification.All teachers were female.Five teachers were Caucasian, four were African American,and one was Latina.Eight teachers held a master’s degree.The teachers’ ages varied,with two between 18 and 25 years,two between 26 and 35 years,one between 36 and 45 years,three between 46 and 55 years,and two above 55 years.Teachers’ years of experience teaching preschool-age children ranged from 3 to 34,with a mean of 10.1 years.

Child participants. All nominated children  were screened according to the following criteria:(a) between 3 and 5 years old, (b) enrolled in an early childhood program,(c)at elevated risk of EBD as indicated by the Early Screening Project (ESP; Walker, Severson,& Feil,1995),(d) average or above average cognitive/intellectual abilities as indicated by the Battelle Developmental Inventory–Second Edition Screener (BDI-II Screener; Newborg, 2005), and (e) demonstration of chronic externalizing behaviors that interfere with classroom participation.Following the screening,the top 1 to 2 children in each classroom with the most extreme scores on the ESP were selected.All participating children,(with the exception of the child in the university-based early childhood classroom, where this indicator was not applicable)qualified for free and reduced lunch.A total of 14 children were male and 5 were female.At the start of the study 2 children were 3 years of age,16 were 4 years of age,and 1 was 5 years of age.In all,14 children were African American,2 were Caucasian,1 was Asian/Pacific Islander,and race information was not provided for 2 children.