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IES Grant

Title: Motivational Interviewing Skills for Coaches (MISC)
Center: NCSER Year: 2019
Principal Investigator: Scott, Terrance Awardee: University of Louisville
Program: Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Competence      [Program Details]
Award Period: 4 years (07/01/2019–6/30/2023) Award Amount: $1,396,097
Type: Development and Innovation Award Number: R324A190173
Description:

Co-Principal Investigator: Frey, Andy

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to develop the Motivational Interviewing Training and Assessment System (MITAS) for Coaches to equip instructional personnel who serve in coaching roles with the interpersonal skills necessary to more effectively engage teachers in the coaching process, improve teacher implementation of evidence-based classroom behavior management strategies, and ultimately improve student education outcomes. Coaching, which includes assessment, performance feedback, and planning, has emerged as a promising professional development model to improve teacher implementation of effective classroom management strategies. In coaching, the quality of conversational skills used by coaches directly influences the coach-teacher relationship and subsequent teacher use of effective instructional strategies, yet the coaching literature does not clearly identify those skills that coaches need to effectively influence teacher behavior. Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an established counseling technique that uses critical conversational skills to promote behavior change, yet MI is rarely used in school-based coaching. Thus, there is a need for professional development models that incorporate MI and clearly and comprehensively specify (a) the conversational skills coaches need to successfully influence teacher practices, (b) the scope and sequence of professional development activities that will equip coaches with these conversational skills, and (c) skill-based proficiency standards for coaches that are shown to be associated with improvements in teacher management practices and student outcomes. To address this need, this research team will iteratively develop and pilot test the MITAS for Coaches to efficiently and effectively promote teacher behavior change that leads to improved student social, behavioral, and academic outcomes.

Project Activities: In the first phase of the project, a research advisory committee will review and provide written feedback on initial MITAS for Coaches materials and procedures. In the next phase, coaches will receive training and then implement the revised MITAS for Coaches with teachers. During this Phase, one student with externalizing behavior in their classroom will be identified as the focal child for the research. Focus groups will be conducted with coaches and teachers. Data will also be collected on the intervention's social validity, usability, and feasibility as well as teacher and student outcomes. After revisions are made to MITAS for Coaches based on this initial implementation, the procedures will be repeated with another cohort. In the final phase, a small randomized controlled trial pilot study will be used to determine the promise of the refined MITAS for Coaches for improving the quality of the coach-teacher relationship, teacher classroom management (providing opportunities to learn and positive feedback), and student academic engagement and behavioral outcomes.

Products: The products of this project will include a fully developed MITAS for Coaches programto improve the quality of the coach-teacher relationship, teacher implementation of evidence-based classroom behavior management strategies, and subsequent student academic engagement and behavioral outcomes. The project will result in peer-reviewed presentations and publications as well as additional dissemination products that reach education stakeholders such as practitioners and policymakers.

Structured Abstract

Setting: The research will take place in elementary and middle schools in Kentucky.

Sample: The research advisory committee includes six experts in the areas of social emotional development, mental health, intervention development, and coaching and/or consultation in school settings. Approximately 12 coach-teacher-student triads will participate in the first implementation of the intervention, and 12 additional triads will participate in the second implementation. For the pilot study, 40 coaches will be recruited to work with 80 teacher-student dyads. Participating teachers will have demonstrated low levels of targeted instructional practices and target students will be identified as having externalizing behavior problems.

Intervention: The MITAS for Coaches has three components: workshops, simulated practice, and a learning community. The workshops are designed to teach the core elements of motivational interviewing (MI), which is a collaborative, goal-oriented style of communication designed to strengthen personal motivation for and commitment to a specific goal. The guiding principle of MI is that how people talk about change is related to how they act. During the workshops, several didactic and interactive teaching methods are used, including lecture, discussion of key concepts, modeling (through video and live demonstration), and role-play. During the simulated practice component, the coach will engage in MI with a research assistant who is portraying a teacher considering changing his/her classroom management strategies. The coaching session will be audio recorded and research staff will evaluate the recording and provide performance feedback to the coach. The learning community component is implemented once coaches begin coaching teachers. Coaches will share audio recordings of their authentic coaching sessions to share with an experienced MI practitioner, as well as other coaches who are learning to use MI, to discuss the successes and challenges of implementation.

Research Design and Methods: The research will be conducted across three phases. In Phase 1, the research advisory committee will review and provide written feedback on initial MITAS for Coaches materials and procedures. Revisions to the intervention will be made based on the committees' feedback. In Phase 2, the researchers will run two cycles of MITAS for Coaches implementation with two cohorts of coaches, teachers, and students. Participating teachers will be screened for low base rates of effective instructional practices (active teaching, opportunities to respond, and positive and negative feedback) and those teachers will use a behavioral screener to identify one student with externalizing behavior in their classroom. Coaches will participate in the MITAS for Coaches training and engage a teacher in the coaching process. Focus group data will be collected from coaches and teachers, and data will be collected on the intervention's social validity, usability, and feasibility as well as a brief set of teacher and student behavioral outcomes. Revisions will be made to MITAS for Coaches based on this initial implementation, and the procedures will be repeated with another cohort of coaches, teachers, and students. For this cohort, the researchers will add more outcome measures in preparation for the pilot study, including teacher motivation, teacher efficacy, attitudes towards inclusion, teacher burnout, and student-teacher relationship. The pilot study will be a small randomized controlled trial with coaches randomly assigned to a MITAS for Coaches (experimental) or coaching best practices procedures only (comparison). Each coach will work with two teachers and each teacher will work with one student. Researchers will determine the promise of the refined intervention for improving the quality of the coach-teacher relationship, teacher classroom management practices, and student academic engagement and behavioral outcomes. The research team will also conduct cost analyses to help schools and districts understand the monetary costs of implementing MITAS for Coaches.

Control Condition: In the pilot study, coaches randomized to the control condition will implement coaching best practices with teachers to improve teacher classroom management practices, but not participate in the MITAS for Coaches training.

Key Measures: Coaching training outcomes are assessed with the Written Assessment of Simulated Encounters and the Video Assessment of Simulated Encounters, which are measures of MI competency. The Therapeutic Alliance Measure will be used to assess coach-teacher relationship quality. Teacher measures will include the Teacher Motivation Inventory to measure their motivation to change, the Teacher's Sense of Efficacy Scale to assess their perception of their classroom management skills (specifically with children who demonstrate disruptive behavior), the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale to rate their perceptions of their relationships with the participating students, the Maslach Burnout Inventory Educators Survey to measure the pattern and level of teacher burnout, and the Scale of Teachers' Attitudes Toward Inclusion to measure their perceptions and attitudes towards inclusion (including their confidence in teaching children with special needs). Additional outcomes include teacher use of opportunities to respond (OTRs) and positive feedback, and student engagement and disruptive behaviors, all measured through direct observations in classrooms using the Multiple Option Observation System for Experimental Studies Version 3. Coach adherence to the coaching procedures will be assessed through a fidelity checklist and MI skill will be assessed by evaluating audio recordings of meetings between coaches and teachers using the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity tool. A variety of surveys will be used to assess social validity, usability, and feasibility. Cost data will be collected through the ingredients method.

Data Analytic Strategy: Qualitative and quantitative data collected from the researcher advisory committee and the iterative development process will be analyzed descriptively. Qualitative data from focus groups will also be coded and a content analysis conducted on responses. Mixed-model analysis of covariance will be used to estimate the effect of the intervention with students nested in teachers/coaches, and student/teacher/coach triads nested in schools. A cost analysis will be conducted to understand the monetary costs of implementing the intervention.


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