Aligning Classroom Management Strategies with a Social Emotional Learning Curriculum in Early Childhood

Abstract

Traditionally, school-based preventative frameworks have been implemented in isolation with little consideration of alignment and integration of practices throughout the school day. The present study aims to address this gap by increasing school psychologists’ preventative involvement with consultation in early childhood school settings. Using an integrated approach through a multiple baseline design, four Head Start educators were trained in classroom management practices, to increase opportunities throughout the day for teaching, prompting, and reinforcing key skills taught through the Second Step Early Learning (SSEL) social emotional learning curriculum. Findings suggest that a brief professional development session (1-hour) followed by weekly performance feedback (15 minutes) largely increased educator use of aligning classroom management strategies with weekly SSEL lessons (ES = .94, p-value =