Author

Viktoria Papp

Date of Award

5-2020

Degree Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Criminal Justice

First Advisor

D. Joe Olmi

Advisor Department

Psychology

Abstract

Teachers often have to implement interventions in the classroom to address challenging student behaviors. Such issues are often addressed during behavioral consultation which involves working with a specialized consultant, such as a school psychologist, to determine the most robust strategy that will predictably have the greatest impact in addressing the problematic behavior. Equally important in this intervention process is the application of any intervention technique or strategy in the manner in which it has been designed and investigated to work based on supporting research.

There is an increasing need for consultants to consider utilizing strategies that promote the adherence to treatment procedures. Treatment integrity is the adherence to accurate intervention implementation. TI is gaining recognition with regards to its influence on intervention effectiveness and student outcomes. These methods can be consequent or antecedent methods, and the teacher plays a critical role in the selection of either. Consequent techniques for TI improvement are only utilized after the teacher demonstrated poor adherence to implementation. In cases like this, intervention effectiveness and outcomes could be compromised before the teacher receives feedback and training to correct inaccuracies in implementation, and the intervention can occur as intended. Therefore, it is important to explore antecedent options. In contrast to consequent methods, antecedent techniques for TI improvement aim to forego insufficient implementation, and are used in order to prevent poor TI levels from occurring. Thus, antecedent methods can produce more effective and efficient intervention outcomes. Test-driving is an antecedent method that provides teachers the initial opportunity to assess the acceptability of different treatment procedures, and its goal is to promote high levels of treatment integrity from the beginning of the implementation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of test-driving interventions, and the role it plays in intervention integrity.

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