Tired Consultation to Improve and Maintain Teachers’ Behavior Specific Praise

Many teachers are ill prepared in behavior management and literature has demonstrated the relationship between poor classroom management and academic outcomes. Common strategies to address teachers’ skill deficits in classroom management include didactic training and school-based consultation. Literature suggests that traditional didactic training can immediately increase knowledge acquisition, and school-based consultation is used to respond to ongoing academic and behavioral outcomes. However, both of these methods commonly fail to result in implementation fidelity and long-term maintenance of skill utilization. Research in the education field has demonstrated large to very large effect sizes for systems such as Response to Intervention (RtI) in improving academic and behavioral outcomes of students. These instruction models have inspired a growing body of literature applying tiered instruction to teacher training, with preliminary results supporting tiered approaches to consultation. The purpose of this study was to extend the emergent literature of tiered approaches to consultation by providing teacher training on a foundational classroom management strategy: Behavior Specific Praise (BSP). A multiple baseline design across four high school teachers and classroom dyads was used, with results overall demonstrating that not all teacher participants required the same level of training in order to improve their rates of BSP to 0.5 BSP/minute. In this study, three out of four teachers benefited from the most intensive level of training (i.e., Tier 3), whereas only one teacher participant required a lesser intensive level of training (i.e., Tier 2). Results show variability in classroom behavior that was sometimes consistent with issues of delivering BSP at the prescribed rate. In regards maintenance, all teacher participants demonstrated a decrease in their rate of BSP; however, levels of reprimands for all teachers decreased below baseline levels. Additionally, all teachers rated this tiered consultation approach as socially valid. This dissertation discusses these results in light of visual analysis as well as limitations and directions for future research

Emergent approaches to the meta-analysis of multiple heterogeneous complex interventions.

BACKGROUND: Multiple interventions meta-analysis has been recommended in the methodological literature as a tool for evidence synthesis when a heterogeneous set of interventions is included in the same review—and, more recently, when a heterogeneous set of complex interventions is included. However, there is little guidance on the use of this method with complex interventions. This article suggests two approaches to model complexity and heterogeneity through this method. DISCUSSION: 'Clinically meaningful units' groups interventions by modality or similar theory of change, whereas 'components and dismantling' separates out interventions into combinations of components and either groups interventions by the combination of components they demonstrate or extracts effects for each identified component and, possibly, interactions between components. Future work in systematic review methodology should aim to understand how to develop taxonomies of components or theories of change that are internally relevant to the studies in these multiple interventions meta-analyses. SUMMARY: Despite little meaningful prior guidance to its use in this context, multiple interventions meta-analysis has the potential to be a useful tool for synthesising heterogeneous sets of complex interventions. Researchers should choose an approach in accordance with their specific aims in their systematic review

Combination methods for HIV prevention in men who have sex with men (MSM)

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: This review seeks to examine the effectiveness of prevention interventions for MSM that combine at least two of the three categories of intervention modality (biomedical, behavioural and structural) compared either to other HIV prevention interventions or to minimal/no HIV prevention. Below, descriptions of the criteria that will be used to categorise intervention components are provided under the heading Types of interventions' and the full list of outcomes of interest are provided in the section Types of outcome measures'. All planned comparisons are detailed in the section Data synthesis', followed by the planned variables of interest for subgroup and meta-regression analyses

HIV, sexual risk and ethnicity among gay and bisexual men in England: survey evidence for persisting health inequalities.

To examine ethnic group differences in HIV testing and sexual behaviours among a large sample of gay and bisexual men (GBM), 13 years after similar observations were made, assess national HIV prevention responses and inform planning priorities. Cross-sectional convenience self-completion online survey in summer 2014, designed and recruited in collaboration with community-based health promoters and gay internet services; comparison with earlier findings reporting on similarly designed survey in 2001. We recruited 15 388 GBM living in England who self-reported as follows: 18.5% from ethnic minorities; 9.0% tested HIV positive (cf. 17.0% and 5.4% in 2001). Compared with the white British, Asian men were no longer less likely to report diagnosed HIV but had an equal probability of doing so (2001 OR=0.32, 95% CI 0.13 to 0.79; 2014 OR=1.04, 95% CI 0.71 to 1.54); black men remained significantly more likely to report diagnosed HIV (2001 OR=2.06, 95% CI 1.56 to 3.29; 2014 OR=1.62, 95% CI 1.10 to 2.36) as did men in the other white group (2001 OR=1.54, 95% CI 1.23 to 1.93; 2014 OR=1.31, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.55). Overall annual incidence of reported HIV diagnoses in 2014 was 1.1%. Black men were significantly more likely to report diagnosis with HIV in the last 12 months than the white British (adjusted odds ratios (AOR) 2.57, 95% CI 1.22 to 5.39). No minority ethnic group was more or less likely to report condom unprotected anal intercourse (CUAI) in the last year but men in the Asian, black and all others groups were more likely than the white British to report CUAI with more than one non-steady partners. Among GBM in England, HIV prevalence continues to be higher among black men and other white men compared with the white British. The protective effect of being from an Asian background appears no longer to pertain. Sexual risk behaviours may account for some of these differences

Using qualitative research to explore intervention mechanisms: findings from the trial of the Learning Together whole-school health intervention.

BACKGROUND: This study reports on qualitative research conducted within a randomised controlled trial to explore possible intervention mechanisms. It focuses on the 'Learning Together' whole-school intervention delivered in secondary schools in England from 2014 to 2017 aiming to prevent bullying and aggression and improve student health. Intervention schools received staff training in restorative practice, a social and emotional learning curriculum, and an external facilitator and manual to convene and run a student/staff action group tasked with coordinating the intervention, focusing this on local needs. METHODS: Informed by realist approaches to evaluation, we analysed qualitative data to explore intervention mechanisms and how these might interact with school contexts to generate outcomes. Qualitative analysis drew on 45 interviews and 21 focus groups across three case-study schools and employed thematic content analysis to explore how intervention resources were taken up and used by local actors, how participants described the intervention mechanisms that then ensued, and how these might have generated beneficial outcomes. RESULTS: The thematic content analysis identified three social mechanisms that recurred in participant accounts: (1) building student commitment to the school community, (2) building healthy relationships by modelling and teaching pro-social skills, and (3) de-escalating bullying and aggression and enabling re-integration within the school community. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis provides in-depth exploration of possible mechanisms and the contextual contingencies associated with these, allowing refinement of the initial intervention theory of change. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN registry 10751359 . Registered on 11 March 2014

Effects of a Whole-School Health Intervention on Clustered Adolescent Health Risks: Latent Transition Analysis of Data from the INCLUSIVE Trial

Whole-school interventions are a promising approach to preventing bullying and aggression while promoting broader health. The main analyses from a trial of the INCLUSIVE whole-school intervention reported reductions in bullying victimisation but not aggression and improved mental well-being. Latent transition analysis can examine how interventions ‘move’ people between classes defined by multiple outcomes over time. We examined at baseline what classes best defined individuals’ bullying, aggression and mental well-being and what effects did the intervention have on movement between classes over time? INCLUSIVE was a two-arm cluster-randomised trial with 20 high schools per arm, with 24-month and 36-month follow-ups. We estimated sequential latent class solutions on baseline data. We then estimated a latent transition model including baseline, 24-month and 36-month follow-up measurements. Our sample comprised 8179 students (4082 control, 4097 intervention arms). At baseline, classes were (1) bullying victims, (2) aggression perpetrators, (3) extreme perpetrators and (4) neither victims nor perpetrators. Control students who were extreme perpetrators were equally likely to stay in this class (27.0% probability) or move to aggression perpetrators (25.0% probability) at 24 months. In the intervention group, fewer extreme perpetrators students remained (5.4%), with more moving to aggression perpetrators (65.1%). More control than intervention extreme perpetrators moved to neither victims nor perpetrators (35.2% vs 17.8%). Between 24 and 36 months, more intervention students moved from aggression perpetrators to neither victims nor perpetrators than controls (30.1% vs 22.3%). Our findings suggest that the intervention had important effects in transitioning students to lower-risk classes

Using qualitative research to explore intervention mechanisms: findings from the trial of the Learning Together whole-school health intervention

Background: This study reports on qualitative research conducted within a randomised controlled trial to explore possible intervention mechanisms. It focuses on the ‘Learning Together’ whole-school intervention delivered in secondary schools in England from 2014 to 2017 aiming to prevent bullying and aggression and improve student health. Intervention schools received staff training in restorative practice, a social and emotional learning curriculum, and an external facilitator and manual to convene and run a student/staff action group tasked with coordinating the intervention, focusing this on local needs. / Methods: Informed by realist approaches to evaluation, we analysed qualitative data to explore intervention mechanisms and how these might interact with school contexts to generate outcomes. Qualitative analysis drew on 45 interviews and 21 focus groups across three case-study schools and employed thematic content analysis to explore how intervention resources were taken up and used by local actors, how participants described the intervention mechanisms that then ensued, and how these might have generated beneficial outcomes. / Results: The thematic content analysis identified three social mechanisms that recurred in participant accounts: (1) building student commitment to the school community, (2) building healthy relationships by modelling and teaching pro-social skills, and (3) de-escalating bullying and aggression and enabling re-integration within the school community. / Conclusions: Our analysis provides in-depth exploration of possible mechanisms and the contextual contingencies associated with these, allowing refinement of the initial intervention theory of change. / Trial registration: ISRCTN registry 10751359. Registered on 11 March 2014