Identifying Patterns of Coaching to Support the Implementation of the Good Behavior Game: The Role of Teacher Characteristics

There is growing interest in coaching to support teacher implementation of evidence-based interventions; yet, there is limited research examining the tailoring of coaching support to teachers’ needs. This paper examined coaching dosage across one school year, and the relationship between coaching contacts and teacher baseline and end-of-year data. Data came from a randomized controlled trial including 210 teachers in 18 schools implementing the Good Behavior Game (GBG), either as a stand alone or when integrated with a social–emotional learning curriculum. The overarching goal was to determine whether coaches provided varying levels of teacher contacts and how this support related to condition assignment, implementation, and teachers’ beliefs and perceptions data. Growth mixture modeling (GMM) was used to examine the frequency of teacher contacts across the school year. GMM indicated three distinct patterns: about 58 % of teachers received a moderate number of contacts; 27 % received a consistently low number of contacts; and 15 % received high and increasing support. Teachers who received a high degree of support were more often implementing the integrated GBG and reported more negative beliefs and perceptions at the start of the school year than those in the low contact class. Teachers in the low contact class implemented the least number of games and minutes of GBG, but reported better perceptions of organizational health and burnout, at the end of the year. Coaching dosage was unrelated to observer ratings of implementation quality.