Evaluation of emailed prompts to promote generalization and maintenance of preschool teachers' effective instruction delivery
A weekly email alone can make preschool teachers give better directions and get quicker child compliance.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team sent preschool teachers one short email each week. The email reminded them to give clear, quick instructions to students.
No meetings, no workshops, no extra pay. Just a two-line prompt in the inbox.
Researchers watched to see if teachers used the skill and if children listened better.
What they found
Teachers started giving accurate instructions more often after the emails began.
Children followed directions more, too.
The teachers kept using the skill with new students they had not been watched with, showing the change spread.
How this fits with other research
Gerald et al. (2019) used a timer instead of email. Their staff also got better at classroom tasks. Timer or email, the tool is the prompt, not the person.
Shea et al. (2020) had mothers learn alone online. Johnson et al. (2024) did the same with teachers: no live coach, still success. Together they show grown-ups can train themselves if the prompt is simple.
Ferreri et al. (2011) used a hand signal at crosswalks. The idea is the same: a small cue lifts adult behavior in the real world.
Why it matters
You can help teachers without pulling them out of class. Write one email each Monday. Remind them to give one clear instruction at a time. Watch their kids line up faster and talk less during lessons. Cheap, fast, and it sticks.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
AbstractYoung children's noncompliance with adult instructions has the potential to lead to a variety of other internalizing and externalizing difficulties that impact learning, behavior, and overall development. Although a variety of effective intervention strategies exist, early childhood teachers may not be well equipped to consistently implement these strategies to prevent and address young children's noncompliance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of a novel teacher implementation support, emailed prompts, to promote early childhood teachers' effective instruction delivery with three children referred for noncompliance and related challenging behaviors. Results indicated that all three teachers increased their accuracy of effective instruction delivery with concomitant improvements in children's response to instructions, including compliance. Furthermore, data suggested that all three teachers spontaneously generalized effective instruction delivery to other non‐referred children in their classrooms. Results, implications, and limitations are discussed.
Behavioral Interventions, 2024 · doi:10.1002/bin.1973