Providing practicing teachers classroom management professional development in a brief self-study format

This study examined the impact of a time efficient self-study method for providing practicing teachers with job-embedded professional development targeting specific classroom management skills. The training method employed print packets and videotapes that provided models of effective classroom management strategies for instruction-giving, praise, and time out. Participants were three master's level speech therapists certified to teach speech and language delayed preschool children. The training materials were evaluated through observations of the teachers' implementation of targeted practices in a multiple baseline across participants. Results indicated increases in all participants use of the management skills after training. The results suggest that this type of training method may help teachers increase their use of effective classroom management procedures. It is potentially noteworthy that the training program examined herein was largely teacher managed and was quite brief. Future directions and limitations of the study are discussed. © Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006.