Relationships Between Teachers’ Characteristics and the Implementation Fidelity of the Developmental Designs approach: A Mixed Methods Case Study.

Abstract

Although substantial work has been done regarding the effectiveness of social emotional learning (SEL) programming at the elementary level, additional research is needed at the secondary level to investigate factors that impact program implementation and effectiveness within middle school contexts. These factors include classroom structures and teachers’ and students’ characteristics. In this dissertation, a mixed methods case study design was employed to investigate the roles teachers’ characteristics, beliefs, and attitudes play in the implementation of a school-wide SEL approach known as Developmental Designs (DD). This teaching approach specifically addresses the need for relationship- and community-building practices in middle school classrooms through teacher professional development. Classroom observations were matched with teacher interviews to place 24 middle school teachers, identifying as 60% male, 78% white, 18% African American, and 5% Latino, into one of four typologies: · low-implementing teachers with highly engaged classrooms · low-implementing teachers with low-engaged classrooms · high-implementing teachers with highly engaged classrooms · high-implementing teachers with low-engaged classrooms High-implementing teachers, regardless of whether they had a low- or highly engaged classroom, held beliefs that SEL was necessary to establish classroom climate for the normative academic and social development of students; whereas low-implementing teachers expressed a deficit-minded attitudes towards need for SEL initiatives. However, when typologies were collapsed by engagement status (observed highly engaged classroom vs. observed low-engaged classrooms), integrating SEL practices was more salient to teachers with highly engaged classrooms. Additionally, teachers with highly engaged classrooms demonstrated via interviews and observations that relationship building and proactive classroom management were priorities and professional strengths. The key emergent theme among teachers with highly engaged classrooms (regardless of implementation status) was classroom control. Low-implementing teachers with highly engaged classrooms demonstrated more authoritarianism during interviews and classroom observations, whereas high-implementing teachers with highly engaged classrooms were more constructivist in classroom structure, management, and philosophy. Student surveys (N=325; 50% Free/reduced priced lunch; identifying as 30% white, 30% African American, 17% Latino, 11% Asian, 9% “Other”) substantiated certain qualitative thematic findings: students reported feeling more supported and socially efficacious with high-implementing teachers. However, these findings also called for greater nuanced interpretation of student engagement.PhDEducation & PsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108760/1/akbs_1.pd