| Abstract: | This study examined the effects of behavioral consultation on teaching practices of elementary school teachers and the behavior of their inattentive and disruptive students. Twenty teachers of inattentive and/or disruptive students were randomly assigned to a behavioral consultation group and a no treatment control group. Evaluation of outcome occurred at pre-intervention and post-intervention. Dependent measures included behavioral observations of teacher and student behavior, teacher ratings on a standardized measure of hyperactivity, and teacher ratings of target behavior severity. Inattentive and/or disruptive students in the treatment group improved significantly more than students in the control group on the standardized measure of hyperactivity and on ratings of target behavior severity. This study also examined the relations between teacher variables (teaching self-efficacy, acceptability ratings of behavioral interventions, years experience) and subsequent consultation outcomes (evaluation of the consultant teacher rating of student improvement, percentage of plan implemented). With the exception of a moderately negative relationship between teaching self-efficacy and consultant evaluation, teacher variables did not predict outcomes. Correlation coefficients were also calculated between the teacher's evaluation of the consultant, the teacher's rating of student improvement, and the percentage of plan implemented. Correlation analyses revealed significant relationships between teachers' evaluation of the consultant and ratings of student improvement, as well as between the percentage of plan implemented and ratings of student improvement. The results are discussed within several methodological limitations of the investigation, and implications of this research for future research in behavioral consultation are discussed. |
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