BEST in CLASS Intervention

BEST in CLASS is a manualized classroom-based intervention that emphasizes prevention and amelioration of chronic problem behaviors demonstrated by young children at risk of E/BD in early childhood settings.The overall focus of BEST in CLASS is to enhance and improve teachers’ use of effective instructional practices as a means to prevent and reduce children’ s challenging behaviors and increase their engagement.In the BEST in CLASS intervention,early childhood teachers receive training and practice-based coaching(including performance feedback)to optimize their use of effective instructional practices with focal children in their classrooms.The BEST in CLASS intervention is pided into two training components:(a)an introductory 6-hr professional development workshop (provided through a one-day group workshop),and(b)14 successive weeks of inpidualized practice-based coaching(including performance feedback).These training components are supplemented by a manualized teacher-training notebook and a manualized coaching notebook.All components focus on instruction and support around teachers’ implementation of eight learning modules:(a)basics of behavior and development;(b)rules,expectations,and routines; (c)BSP;(d)precorrection and active supervision;(e)OTR and instructional pacing;(f)instructive and corrective feedback;(g)home–school communication; and (h)linking and mastery.All training and implementation materials used in the BEST in CLASS are manualized,including the practice-based coaching component and an overview of each training module is provided in Table 3 (for further information,see Voetal.,2012).The initial 6-hr workshop,provided through group instruction, introduces teachers to the effective instructional practices that compose the BEST in CLASS intervention,as well as provides examples(i.e., written, modeled, video) and active learning opportunities (i.e.,strategy practice)to lay the groundwork for the weekly practice-based coaching component in which teachers apply practices with focal children with the support of a trained coach.The coaching component of the BEST in CLASS intervention uses a 14-week practice-based coaching framework in which a coach(trained in the BEST in CLASS model) meets inpidually(in a one-on-one meeting)for approximately 30min with the teacher on a weekly basis to conduct further training on the targeted instructional practices.During these coaching meetings,the coach reviews information presented in the teachers’ manual,checks the teachers’ knowledge of the targeted strategy for the week,and assists the teacher in planning ways that the strategy can be implemented with focal children.Following the coaching meeting,live coaching(including prompting and modeling)is used to support initial strategy implementation,and data on the teacher’s implementation is collected.Live coaching and observation occurs over one instructional activity (e.g.,whole group instruction),which typically lasts approximately 20 min.Following the live coaching and data collection,the coach meets with the teacher and provides performance feedback on the teacher’s implementation of the planned practices.Practices are introduced sequentially and are built on one another across the 14-week coaching period.For example,teachers first learn to implement effective use of rules(Weeks 1 and 2),followed by effective use of precorrection (Week 3),and so forth.In general,the coaching meetings average approximately 30 min per week and the instructional observation period averages approximately 30 to 45 min per week depending on the number of focal children in the classroom.During this study, all 10 teachers attended the initial 6-hr workshop and each teacher received 14 weeks of practice-based coaching that lasted approximately 1.5 hr in total per week.