TEMPLATE DESIGN © Skillstreaming: Prosocial Skills Training Burris Laboratory School Bullying Prevention Program Samantha Fitzjarrald, Rebecca Hammons, Kaylee Wilson, Grace Haglund, Elise Chupp, Julie Maugherman Rationale What is Skillstreaming Skillstreaming (McGinnis, 2005) is a prosocial skills training program designed for use in schools with elementary or adolescent students. This intervention has been implemented at Burris Laboratory School for three years with demonstrated efficacy during the and academic years (using pre and post-test surveys, self-report, and teacher observations). Evidence-based practice in education supports the use of roleplaying as an instructional method for social skills training (Wolfe et al., 2012). Further, research in counseling and child behavior has established modeling, feedback, and reinforcement as effective methods for transfer learning (Spence, 2003). Skillstreaming is an ideal approach for social skills training because it incorporates elements of each of the abovementioned techniques. Why Skillstreaming Skillstreaming satisfies the Indiana public school mandate to offer research-based plans for school discipline and behavior improvement (HEA 1419, 2009). The curriculum aligns with current developments in the field of school counseling because it helps students gain knowledge, attitudes, and skills in the personal/social domain (ASCA, 2012). Skillstreaming meets the requirements of stakeholders regarding school discipline and classroom behavior. Also, the Skillstreaming program is appropriate for use in schools and can be implemented effectively in brief sessions (15-25 minutes) with opportunities for expansion and personalized approaches. For example, the current school counseling interns included dramatic aids (props) and activities along with ongoing reinforcement to improve classroom management outcomes during and after each lesson. Finally, Skillstreaming was fun for the participants and instructors! Students and teachers actively engaged in roleplaying and ongoing reinforcement in the classroom and enjoyed the process of learning and practicing prosocial behavior skills. Method Lesson Development All lessons were based upon the Skillstreaming Teaching Procedures developed by Dr. Arnold P. Goldstein and Dr. Ellen McGinnis. These procedures include defining the skill, modeling the skill, establishing student skill need, student role- play, providing feedback about the role-play, and assigning skill homework. Using modeling and role-play of the skill, students could see the skill first-hand and practice before implementing the skill in the classroom without the aid of the school counselors. Skillstreaming Topics Skills chosen for the monthly lessons included: Skill 1: Listening Skill 2: Saying Thank You Skill 3: Setting A Goal Skill 4: Dealing With Embarrassment Skill 5: Responding to Teasing Lesson Procedure The skills were presented on a monthly basis. Before each presentation, the school counselors restated the skills from previous months and took student examples of when each skill was used appropriately. This also was an indicator used to determine if the previous skills were still used effectively in the classrooms. After each presentation, the school counselors left two Skill Posters in each classroom so that students could be reminded of the individual steps for each skill. This memory aid also encouraged students to practice their skill throughout the month. Teacher Post-Survey: Skillstreaming Checklist Near the end of the school year, all elementary teachers were given a Skillstreaming Checklist to determine if the classrooms had seen improvement in the overall frequency of each skill that had been presented during the school year. These were the exact same questions used during the Needs Assessment given at the beginning of the year and used the same Likert scale. The checklist also asked the teachers if Skillstreaming was beneficial to their students and whether they had observed any behavioral changes within the classroom. Results Data The main purpose for implementing the Skillstreaming program was to satisfy the need for social skills curriculum in the K-5 classrooms and decrease problem behaviors. Year-end, schoolwide data for discipline referrals, attendance, and school climate have not been compiled, so the featured data are from the Skillstreaming Checklist that teachers filled out. To measure the amount of learning from the beginning to the end of the Skillstreaming program, the Needs Assessment was used to calculate averages between all elementary classrooms and compare to see how frequently students used the given skills. The difference in averages was evaluated, which can be seen in the figures below. According to the checklist, students increased their use of each skill from the beginning to the end of the program. “Listening” started at 3.1 on a Likert Scale and ended at 3.7. “Saying Thank You” went from 2.4 to 3.3 on the scale. “Setting a Goal” changed from 2.4 to 2.9. “Dealing with Embarrassment” increased from 2.8 to 3.6. Finally, “Responding to Teasing” went from 3.3 to 3.5 on the Likert Scale. Results Discussion Teacher Pre-Survey: Needs Assessment Skillstreaming consists of sixty different prosocial behaviors/skills for students. To establish which skills to choose, a Needs Assessment was administered to all elementary (K-5) teachers in the building. The Needs Assessment asked teachers to assess the frequency of multiple skills and/or behaviors using a 1 to 5 Likert scale where 1 is Almost Never and 5 is Almost Always. After the Needs Assessments were turned in, the school counselors analyzed the data and determined which skills needed the most improvement by averaging the responses given from each teacher. Skillstreaming is an effective social skills program for Burris Laboratory School. After the Skillstreaming intervention, 10 out of 11 teachers surveyed reported that the program was “beneficial.” Also, teachers were given an opportunity to mention any specific changes exhibited in the classroom. One teacher wrote that students had a larger vocabulary due to Skillstreaming and used terminology learned in the lessons. This teacher also stated that, “They (the students) are more aware sometimes of how their actions impact others.” Another teacher mentioned that the greatest improvement observed in her classroom was with listening skills. Finally, one teacher specifically mentioned that the students were saying “thank you” more often and were practicing active listening skills. One of the limitations of the results is that there are not any immediate indicators to see how the students are progressing on each skill other than self-report from the teacher. Another limitation was that not all teachers returned the pre-test Needs Assessment at the beginning of the school year. However, almost all teachers completed the Skillstreaming Checklist at the end of the year. For future Skillstreaming, recommendations include using a short-term progress indicator and collecting the Needs Assessment from each teacher at the beginning of the school year to get more pre-test data. The Skillstreaming program could be further extended by incorporating schoolwide data (attendance, achievement, discipline referral rates, and climate survey results). Small Group Counseling Unit There was also a small group counseling unit, a social skills group for fifth-grade, elementary school students (22 students). Data were collected on both males and females in this group (12 females and 10 males). The unit was designed to meet ASCA’s standards for personal/social development. The counseling unit was comprised of three sessions of teaching/counseling followed by an evaluation of the unit. A baseline evaluation was performed at the beginning of the year to help understand the needs of the students. So, this unit specifically focused on the needs of fifth-grade students who were struggling with specific skills required before transitioning to middle school next year. The goal was to prepare students for their transition to middle school and help them improve their functioning in class. This included staying on task, working cooperatively and collaboratively with students and teachers, showing self-control in difficult situations, and using problem-solving skills. Results from behavior data points showed improvement after the social skills intervention training. The topics covered were: self-control, problem- solving, and bullying prevention. The data used were from a classroom behavior system that awarded points based on staying on task and demonstrating helpful behaviors. The first data set, from the end of September, 2013, is shown on the line graph as the “Before Intervention” line. The second data set, from the beginning of November, 2013, is displayed on the line graph as the “After Intervention” line. Qualitatively, many teachers and students expressed that they enjoyed the small group counseling unit and found it helpful. Both classroom teachers involved in the behavior intervention reported that their overall classroom experience was improved and that many students achieved higher levels on the subjective behavior clip system in the classroom as well.