Examining the effects of a teacher-led coaching intervention on increasing paraprofessionals’ use of behavior-specific praise in an approved private school setting

Philadelphia, PA

INTRODUCTION: The role of paraprofessionals in education is important as they support students in classrooms in conjunction with teachers. While the role of a paraprofessional can vary based on the needs of the school, classroom, and student, paraprofessionals are known to support students at the individual and group levels by providing academic and/or behavioral support. Despite their roles being prevalent in education, paraprofessionals may benefit from additional training methods, specifically when working with students with behavioral needs and applying behavior-specific praise (BSP) to students in the classroom setting. Research has shown that performance feedback (PF), when applied to paraprofessionals through a teacher coaching intervention, can increase their use of BSP rates.

OBJECTIVES: This study will aim to evaluate the effectiveness of a teacher-led coaching intervention and its use of performance feedback within the intervention to increase paraprofessionals’ rates of behavior-specific praise in an approved private school setting in classrooms with students receiving special education services. This study is intended to increase paraprofessionals’ BSP rates through teacher-led coaching intervention in an approved private school setting.

METHODS: A multiple baseline design across participants' single-case research design will be used to measure the teacher-led coaching intervention’s effectiveness on paraprofessionals' BSP rates pre- and post-intervention. In addition, to further evaluate the effectiveness of the coaching intervention, treatment integrity and interobserver agreement (IOA) data were collected to ensure the intervention is being implemented as intended.

RESULTS: Data analysis will consist of visual analysis to inspect the variability, trend, and level of the multiple baseline design across participants. Once a functional relation is determined, additional data analysis will include a statistical analysis of the effect size, confidence interval, and p-value. The analysis is intended to demonstrate the teacher-led coaching intervention is effective in increasing paraprofessionals’ BSP rates using performance feedback.

CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a teacher-led coaching intervention on increasing paraprofessionals’ rates of BSP in an approved private school setting. Regarding potential findings, the teacher-led coaching intervention and its use of performance feedback are intended to be effective in increasing paraprofessionals’ rates of BSP from baseline level to post-intervention and increasing student engagement for students (ages 14 to 18) receiving special education services under IDEA classifications.