Poster #89 - The Association Between Teacher Fidelity to the Conscious Discipline Curriculum and Executive Functioning Development

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

Conscious Discipline is a classroom management curriculum that emphasizes social and emotional learning (Bailey, 2000). Although the Conscious Discipline curriculum is based on theories in child development and neuropsychology, the effectiveness of Conscious Discipline has not been extensively studied. We examined the association between teachers’ adherence to the Conscious Discipline curriculum and preschoolers’ executive functioning (EF) skill development over the course of the school year.

Participants included a sample of 317 preschool children (49.5% female; Mage= 52.9 months, SDage = 4.3 months) who were enrolled in public preschools, Head Start preschools, and community childcare centers where teachers had been taught the Conscious Discipline curriculum by the same certified coach. Children’s EF skills were assessed in the fall and spring semesters using the Minnesota Executive Function Scale (MEFS; Carlson & Zelazo, 2014), a standardized tablet game that measures “cool” EF skills, such as working memory, inhibitory control, and set shifting. During the fall semester, the Conscious Discipline coach visited each of the 42 classrooms and assessed teachers’ fidelity to the curriculum in seven domains: composure, encouragement, adult assertiveness, teaching assertiveness to children, choices, positive intent, and empathy. Each domain was rated using a 1-4 likert scale (1= little or no implementation; 4= fully functional development and implementation) and the average of these scores yielded an overall Conscious Discipline fidelity score.

Of the 317 children assessed, there were 213 children who had completed the MEFS in both the fall and spring semesters and who had complete demographic and attendance data. The average class size was 5 students (SD= 4) and class sizes ranged between 1 and 14 children (2 classrooms had only 1 child). We used multilevel models that accounted for the nesting of children within classrooms to analyze our data. These models controlled for program type, student demographics, and attendance rates. We found that higher overall Conscious Discipline fidelity scores were significantly associated with greater improvements in EF skills (β = .19; p = .007). In other words, children in classrooms where the Conscious Discipline curriculum was adhered to more closely displayed larger gains in EF skills over the course of the school year compared to children whose teachers implemented the curriculum to a lesser extent (see Figure 1).

This study suggests that the Conscious Discipline curriculum is most effective at developing children’s EF skills when it is consistently utilized and reinforced by classroom teachers. Further research is necessary, however, to determine whether students who are learning in classrooms that use the Conscious Discipline curriculum exhibit greater improvements in EF skills compared to children whose classrooms utilize traditional behavior management strategies.

Authors

• Kirsten L. Anderson, University of Dayton
  Presenting Author

• Mary Fuhs, University of Dayton
  Non-Presenting Author

• Madison Weimer, University of Dayton
  Non-Presenting Author