High quality implementation increases the effectiveness of school-wide social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). Unfortunately, intervention implementation varies widely (Weise, 1992; Weisz, Sandler, Durlak, & Anton, 2005). This high degree of variability is concerning because higher levels of implementation often relate to better outcomes for children (Hansen, 2001). Strategies to improve fidelity of implementation have often been uniform within an intervention, but may be more effective if individualized by teacher, principal, and school characteristics. In the present study, we looked at baseline predictors of fidelity of implementation for a social-emotional learning intervention, the Responsive Classroom approach. Specifically, we examined the relationship between initial alignment and the aims of the intervention, self-efficacy, and demographic characteristics and fidelity of implementation after two years of training. We also investigated possible indirect relations between these baseline characteristics and implementation via teachers’ engagement in intervention training. Discussion will focus on findings from this work as well as future implications for efforts to assess readiness to implement a socialemotional learning intervention.
- Wanless Jan 2012 Penn State Prc
