Increasing New Teachers’ Specific Praise Using a Within-School Consultation Intervention

Abstract

Specific praise is an empirically supported classroom management strategy associated with desired academic and behavioral student outcomes when implemented appropriately in classrooms. Unfortunately, new teachers often begin their careers without the background knowledge or support to implement this strategy effectively and consistently. We investigated the effects of a within-school consultation intervention provided by mentors (i.e., veteran teachers), which involved self-management, regular structured meetings, and focused performance feedback, on new teachers’ specific praise rates across three new teachers using a concurrent multiple-baseline across participants design. Specific praise rates increased for each new teacher when within-school consultation was implemented, indicating a functional relation. Study limitations and implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.