An Examination of Teacher Engagement in Intervention Training and Sustained Intervention Implementation

Social, emotional, and behavioral interventions are often complicated to implement in school settings. Empirical and practical evidence suggests that educators need support to implement interventions with treatment integrity or as intended. Treatment integrity is comprised of multiple dimensions that capture quantity of the intervention delivered, quality of that delivery, and implementers' engagement with the intervention procedures. Whereas research in this area often focuses on the integrity with which interventions are delivered to students, treatment integrity can be measured and assessed across the intervention implementation process from training implementers to use an intervention to the actual use of an intervention. In fact, engagement in early intervention implementation processes may be critical for the immediate and sustained success of an intervention, particularly engagement during professional development or trainings designed to teach the skills associated with an intervention. One evidence-based intervention that includes structured training in intervention procedures (e.g., effective classroom management) is the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management (IY TCM) program. The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' engagement in IY TCM training sessions, their sustained intervention implementation, and student behavior over time. Using a sample of 44 teachers implementing IY TCM, we found that teachers' sustained implementation of intervention skills and students' disruptive behavior in the classroom differed based on how engaged they reportedly were in the intervention trainings. The findings underscore the importance of assessing and promoting engagement in training sessions.