Teachers as implementers
Having teachers implement a social-cognitive intervention may
increase the integration of intervention activities with the regular
curriculum. And a teacher-based staff may require little or no
additional funding. However, if teachers implement the
intervention, students may be reluctant to disclose hostile or
sensitive emotions. They may feel there is less confidentiality or
fear that an admission of negative or aggressive feelings may
result in lower grades or disciplinary action.
Be sure that teachers who participate in the intervention do so
voluntarily (Aber et al. 1996; Wiist, Jackson, and Jackson 1996;
Orpinas et al. 1996). Some teachers may resent the burden of
adding extra activities to their already busy class schedule or be
reluctant to spend extra time at school to carry out
extracurricular intervention activities. These teachers may not
devote the effort needed to make the intervention a success.
Limit intervention staff to those teachers who are enthusiastic
about the activities and their intended results.
In addition to being willing to devote extra effort to a socialcognitive
intervention, teachers must believe that violence can be
prevented and that the intervention they are implementing will
have an impact (Slaby 1998). When teachers do not believe in
violence prevention interventions but implement those
interventions anyway, they may inadvertently weaken the
intervention’s effect or cause it to fail. You can assess individual
teacher readiness by having teachers rate their beliefs about
violence prevention efficacy at three levels: