Teaching is regarded as one of the most challenging yet rewarding professions. Moreover, research has shown that stress and burnout are likely to undermine teacher effectiveness and negatively impact their willingness and intentions to implement evidence-based practices. The present study sought to contribute to a growing body of research implicating the importance of teacher well-being by evaluating the efficacy of a theoretically based training that integrates several practices into a single program (e.g., mindfulness, values clarification, gratitude practices, sleep hygiene, etc.) that are designed to promote the well-being of teachers-the ACHIEVER Resilience Curriculum (ARC). To evaluate the ARC, a randomized block controlled study was conducted with pre-post measurement. Results from the study indicated that, compared with an active control group, teachers who participated in the ARC experienced significantly better outcomes, characterized by medium effect sizes, including reductions in job-related stress, improvements in teaching self-efficacy, and stronger intentions to implement evidence-based classroom practices. The implications of these findings for teacher preparation and professional development, along with the limitations of the study, are discussed. C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Maximizing academic engagement and student learning demands that teachers effectively and positively manage student behavior within the classroom. Proactive classroom management (PCM) has been advocated as a preventionoriented and intentional approach to promoting high levels of academic engagement as incompatible to classroom problem behaviors (Rathvon, 2008). PCM involves a variety of classroom management techniques and is distinguishable from other classroom management models by three primary characteristics. First, PCM seeks to optimize academic engagement as a means of preventing inappropriate behaviors that interfere with learning (Gettinger, 1988). Second, PCM integrates instruction and management into a comprehensive classroom system, rather than treating them as separate domains (Rathvon, 2008). In other words, teachers deliver and maintain the flow of academic instruction within the context of ongoing PCM strategies. Third, PCM focuses on group rather than individual aspects of student behavior (Gettinger, 1988). Prior research highlights several effective PCM strategies (Simonsen, Fairbanks, Briesch, Myers, & Sugai, 2008). However, few experimental studies have examined teacher-student interactions as a classwide PCM strategy, and more precisely, whether increasing ratios of positive-to-negative interactions can reduce problem behaviors and promote better academic engagement. One of the most readily available and dispensable resources teachers can deliver to proactively manage desirable classroom behavior is their own attention through positive interactions with students. There are abundant opportunities provided on a daily basis to strategically and positively interact with students to recognize them for their behavior and performance, as well as engage in positive conversations that enable students to feel like a respected and valued member of the classroom. Although teacher behavior and attention can be 679137P BIXXX10.
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