Program Profile: The Incredible Years-Teacher Classroom Management Program

This is a preschool-based program designed to strengthen teachers’ classroom-management strategies and develop children’s social and problem-solving skills. The program is rated Promising. Across multiple measures, there was a statistically significant reduction in conduct problems and increase in prosocial behavior among participating children, compared with non-participating children. However, some measures showed no statistically significant effect of the program.

A Promising rating implies that implementing the program may result in the intended outcome(s).

This program's rating is based on evidence that includes either 1) one study conducted in multiple sites; or 2) two or three studies, each conducted at a different site. Learn about how we make the multisite determination.

Program Goals

The Incredible Years–Teacher Classroom Management (IY–TCM) program is a prevention program designed to strengthen teachers’ classroom-management strategies and provide an early intervention for children with conduct problems. The goals include improving teacher-student relationships, increasing teacher competencies in supporting students in the classroom, and developing students’ social and problem-solving skills. 

Target Population & Program Components

The IY–TCM program targets teachers as well as other school staff (such as principals) who work with children 3 to 7 years of age. The program is delivered to a group of teachers for one full-day session per month over a period of 5 to 6 months to allow teachers the opportunity to practice the learned skills in the classroom. Specific skills taught to teachers include the use of collaborative and experiential learning, individual goal-setting and self-monitoring, and building teachers’ self-efficacy. Additionally, there is a focus on teachers’ cognitions, behavior and emotions, and on their ability to generalize the skills learned.

In the program, teachers identify key classroom-management skills through discussion, observations of videotapes, examples of classroom situations, role-play rehearsal, and classroom-based practice between sessions. Feedback is provided at the start of each session, and verbal and written assignments are reviewed for teachers. The five sessions include the following:  

• Session 1
  • Topic of Morning — Building positive relationships with students
  • Topic of Afternoon — Proactive teacher: Preventive approaches
• Session 2
  • Topic of Morning — Teacher attention, praise, and encouragement
  • Topic of Afternoon — Teacher coaching, child-directed play, and friendship skills
• Session 3
  • Topic of Morning — Motivating students through incentives
  • Topic of Afternoon — Dialogic reading
• Session 4
  • Topic of Morning — Decreasing inappropriate behavior
  • Topic of Afternoon — Decreasing inappropriate behavior (continued)
• Session 5
  • Topic of Morning — Teaching children to be socially competent
  • Topic of Afternoon — Teaching children to be socially competent (continued)

Study 1

Baker-Henningham and colleagues (2012) conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial of 24 community preschools in the inner-city areas of Kingston, Jamaica, during the 2009–2010 school year. The preschools were randomly assigned to receive the Incredible Years–Teacher Classroom Management (IY–TCM) training (n = 12) or to a control group (n = 12). The intervention group schools included 37 classrooms and 959 children, while the control group schools included 36 classrooms and 955 children.

Three children from each class with the highest levels of teacher-reported conduct problems were selected for inclusion. The total sample comprised 225 children ages 3 to 6 years. There were 113 children in the intervention group and 112 children in the control group. The average age of children in the intervention group was 4.2 years, and 67 percent were boys. The average age of the control group was also 4.2 years, and 71 percent were boys. No statistically significant differences were found between groups on any baseline characteristics.

Child outcomes were measured using observations of in-class child behavior, as well as teacher and parent reports of child behavior. For the observations of child behavior, within each class, three children were observed for 5 minutes each on a rotational basis for a total of 15 minutes per day, per child, over 4 days. This resulted in a total of 1 hour of observation. Event recording was used to count aggressive/destructive behaviors (such as hitting or pushing) and friendship skills (such as sharing) and was expressed as a frequency per hour. For teacher- and parent-reported child behavior, the Sutter-Eyberg Student Behavior Inventory (SESBI) was used to measure child conduct problems; Connor’s Global Index was used to measure hyperactivity and attention difficulties; the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was used to measure behavior difficulties and prosocial skills; and the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scale (PKBS) was used to measure child social skills. Data was collected at baseline (October–November 2009) and at postintervention (May–June 2010).

The impact of the IY–TCM program on continuous outcome measures was examined using multilevel multiple regression models. An intent-to-treat analysis was conducted using baseline scores for missing data at postintervention. No subgroup analyses were conducted.

Study 2

Hutchings and colleagues (2013) used a single-blind, stratified randomized controlled trial of six intervention and six control classrooms, in both rural and urban areas, in the county of Gwynedd in northwest Wales. The schools were randomly assigned to the Incredible Years–Teacher Classroom Management (IY–TCM) training or to a control group.

Twelve classrooms and a total of 16 teachers participated. Teachers in the study were all women with an average age of 34 years. The study sample consisted of a total of 107 children between the ages of 3 and 7 years. There was a total of 53 children in the intervention group and 54 children in the control group. The average age of children in the intervention group was 5 years, and 55 percent were girls. The average age of the control group was 5 years, and 55 percent were boys. All participating children across study samples were white. No significant differences were found between groups on any baseline characteristics.

The Teacher Version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (TSDQ) was used to assess hyperactivity, peer problems, emotional problems, conduct problems, and pro-sociality. The Teacher-Pupil Observation Toll (TPOT) was used to measure negative traits such as behavioral, social, and emotional problems and positive traits such as pro-sociality. To measure fidelity, three tools were used: 1) The Teacher Satisfaction Questionnaire, 2) Incredible Years teacher workshop evaluations, and 3) the teacher workshop checklist.

To measure the effect of the IY–TCM intervention on child and teacher behavior, a hierarchal linear modeling (HLM) analysis was used. No subgroup analysis was conducted.

Two trained leaders, a certified program mentor, and a trained program leader ran the course. The program mentor had completed the leader certification process that involved submission of a recording of a program session and records of teacher responses to each session from two completed programs. Training on delivering leader training to future program leaders was also a requirement of becoming a program mentor. Fidelity in training was addressed through a series of checklists (both leader- and teacher-completed), as identified by the program manual (Webster-Stratton 2003), to ensure evidence-based implementation. See www.incredibleyears.com for further details on the leader certification process. 

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

Following are CrimeSolutions-rated programs that are related to this practice:

Universal Teacher Classroom Management Practices

This practice includes classroom management techniques and programs for teaching prosocial behaviors and reducing or preventing inappropriate or aggressive behaviors of students in K–12th grades. This practice is rated Effective in reducing disruptive, inappropriate, and aggressive behavior in students. Test

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

Juvenile Problem & At-Risk Behaviors - Aggression

Early Family/Parent Training Programs

This practice includes programs that seek to provide families and parents with training and skills to help promote their children’s physical, mental, and social skills. The practice is rated Effective for reducing child problem behaviors for children whose families participated in early family/parent training programs, compared with control group children whose families did not participate in programming.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

Juvenile Problem & At-Risk Behaviors - Multiple juvenile problem/at-risk behaviors

Why might a practice's outcome ratings differ from the ratings of specific programs encompassed by that practice?