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theses

Educators feel overwhelmed by managing challenging behaviors which often leads to burnout and turnover (Clotfelter et al., 2006; Kokkinos, 2007; Simon & Johnson, 2015). However, professional development (PD) in evidenced-based behavior management practices (EBMPs) is sparse with current PD models yielding varied outcomes (Darling-Hammond et al., 2009; Wei et al., 2010). Simulation training has been developed as teacher trainings to address limitations of traditional PD but, no studies to date have examined the implementation practices of simulation training (Martin et al., 2010; Proctor et al., 2011). This study examined the implementation practices of teachers’ using IVT-T through descriptive patterns of use (fidelity) as well as associations between dosage, usability, and teachers’ use of behavioral praise and behavioral corrective feedback. Subjects included 48 teachers from three urban K-8 schools. An exploratory analysis of fidelity revealed that on average teachers played IVT-T for less than 25 minutes per week and 92% of teachers played between 1-10 weeks. Adjusting for non-players, the weekly average minutes met the 40-minute threshold 70% of the weeks. Of the teachers that did not meet the threshold hold, 48% played between 20-39 minutes. Results of the negative binomial regression analyses revealed that dosage was not a significant predictor of behavioral praise or behavioral corrective feedback, when controlling for teachers’ use of the behavioral strategy at Time 1. Finally, a correlational analysis revealed that the usability of IVT-T was moderately, positively correlated with dosage. Limitations and implications for future research and practice are discussed.

http://dissertations.umi.com/rgsapp:10192

Psy.D.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-kw7a-gf86

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