Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Lucille Beisner
Committee Member
Karen Kimball
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
action research, administrative team, baseline data, classroom management, classroom research, discipline policy, disciplining skills, elementary students, high school students, inservice sessions, middle school students, private school, referrals, RPTIM model, sanctions, staff development, student ejections, student policy, teacher training, teachers, trend data
Abstract
The developmental improvement of 24 teachers’ disciplining skills across one private school’s student body of 249 pupils was studied when trend data revealed that there were 141 student ejections from the classroom to the office in the span of 39 days. The students comprised of three groups: elementary, middle, and high school divisions. The investigation was done to increase teachers’ classroom management skills in order to decrease the number of student ejections from classroom to the administrative team’s office for correction.
Using an A-B-A research design, the investigator collected data across the school departments for eighteen weeks. The time was divided into three six-week periods denoted Phases A, B, and C. During Phase A, the first six weeks phase in which there was no teacher training in discipline, baseline data totaled 133 student ejections from the entire student body. During Phase B, the second six weeks phase in which inservice sessions had begun, there were 105 ejections. In addition to continuing the A-B-A design, the RPTIM model for staff development was utilized in the training sessions.
Week thirteen began Phase C in which the training sessions had concluded. There were 56 ejections during the closing six-week period of this project. Subtracting the number of ejections in Phase C from the number in Phase B resulted in 49 fewer ejections.
The outcome suggested that classroom teachers’ disciplining skills improved because there were fewer ejections than before to the training began. Further, the outcome demonstrated that the administrative team had fewer referrals as a result.