Month: July 2018

The second Transnational Partner meeting of the TaSDi-PBS project was held in Rethymnon (Crete) during March 30-31, 2017. present main interview and survey outcomes of teacher and principal views on student behavior discipline across five countries (Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Netherlands)

• present main literature findings on violence prevention and intervention efforts across five countries
• delineate action steps to identify the empirical basis of School-Wide Positive Behavior (SWPBS) Support focusing on primary (universal) level of prevention (Tier 1) and evidence-based instructional practices on teacher professional development of behavior discipline
• describe planning steps for an instructional school guide on SWPBS Tier 1 as well as a teacher professional development guide on direct social skill instruction
• discuss training components for preparing school-based leadership teams to implement SWPBS Tier 1 level of prevention, as documented in research literature
• discuss drafted idea of the project’s website and leaflet

Partners discussed best practices and possible challenges regarding the implementation of SWBPS in their country context. A secondary focus was given on module development of effective classroom management practices as well as project management issues. In addition, the partner consortium had a very constructive online meeting and discussion with Professor Tim Lewis, an internationally recognised expert and a co-director of the National PBIS Technical Assistance Center of the United States of America. Following the transnational meeting, partners are ready to design and conduct the teacher training in their local school context and meet again in person in November 2017 in The Netherlands.

The TaSDi-PBS project is funded by the ERASMUS+ Key Action 2 and it purports to establish early steps of the School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) framework. To this end, CARDET conducted an intensive two-day teacher training to prepare school leadership teams to design the eight components of the SWPBS Tier 1 (universals) prevention. Participating school teams consisted of teachers and administrators from the B’ Aradippou and Kathari Elementary Schools. Team training took place at the B’ Aradippou elementary school on April 10-11, 2017. The training objectives included the following:

• to understand the basic principles and elements of the SWPBS framework
• to design the main characteristics of SWPBS Tier 1
• to define the SWPBS leadership team roles and responsibilities in designing and implementing an action plan for the SWPBS Tier 1
• to review survey and direct observation teacher data on student problem behaviors
• to define school’s mission, values, and behavior expectations
• to utilize data for defining and teaching appropriate social behaviors

Teams were asked to develop an action plan that included among others preparing a SWPBS behavioral matrix, drafting lesson plans to teach student expectations across specific school settings, and setting up a schoolwide student reinforcement system. Following teacher training, the next team steps will focus on implementing components of SWPBS Tier 1 (matrix, lesson plans, reinforcement system, data-collection system). The CARDET research team will be providing ongoing technical assistance and professional development to SWPBS leadership teams at the end of this school year as well as over the next school year.