Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

School of Education

Abstract

This study measured elementary teachers' perceptions regarding the fidelity to which PBIS has been implemented in their school, and the impact that PBIS has had on student behavior and student-teacher rapport. Participant responses (N=175) were analyzed using correlation, regression, t-test, and ANOVA. Demographic variables included teacher gender, current grade taught, Title I/non-Title I school placement, years of teaching experience, years of PBIS implementation, and teacher perception of PBIS implementation fidelity. The primary focus of this study was to compare teachers' perception of the impact PBIS has on student behavior and the impact PBIS has on student-teacher rapport. The study's primary findings indicate that gender, current grade taught, Title I school placement, and years of teaching experience are not significant variables in teachers' overall perceptions related to student behavior or student-teacher rapport. Most notably, years of PBIS implementation was found to be negatively correlated with perception of student-teacher rapport (p=<.01, r= -.215), suggesting that teachers' perceptions of student-teacher rapport become increasingly negative with each year of PBIS. Additional findings related to specific survey items found that years of teaching experience was positively correlated with increasingly positive views of PBIS impact on student-teacher rapport (Items #16,17,18,19), and Title I school teachers held a significantly more positive view of student-teacher rapport (Item #14). Positive correlations were found between perception of PBIS implementation fidelity and both perception of PBIS impact on student behavior (p=<.001, r=.494) and student-teacher rapport (p=<.001, r=.535), as well as between teacher perception of PBIS impact on student behavior and PBIS impact on student-teacher rapport (p=<.001, r=.761). Implications for future research and practice are also discussed.

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