Title and acronym: Building School-Wide Inclusive, Positive and Equitable Learning Environments Through A Systems-Change Approach [SWPBS]

Project type: Erasmus+ KA3 Project, Support for Policy Reform

Ref. no.: 606687-EPP-1-2018-2-CY-EPPKA3-PI-POLICY

Promoter /Coordinator: Centre for the Advancement of Research & Development in Educational Technology Limited (CARDET), Cyprus

Duration: 28/02/2019 to 27/02/2022  Extended to: 31/08/2022

Total project grant: 2.265.916 Euro

Total expenditure (grant) for the University of Pitești: 141.896 Euro

Local coordinator for the University of Piteşti: Assoc. Professor Dr. Eng. Dumitru CHIRLEȘAN

Summary:

School-wide Positive Behaviour Supports (SWPBS) is “an implementation framework for maximizing the selection and use of evidence-based prevention and intervention practices along a multi-tiered continuum that supports the academic, social, emotional, and behavioural competence of all students” (U.S. Office of Special Education Programs [OSEP], Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, 2018, p.1). Extensive research knowledge base has been established in USA, where SWPBS has been researched and implemented for more than three decades reaching out to more than 26,000 schools (OSEP, 2018) and acquiring an extensive knowledge base on SWPBS implementation, scalability and sustainability. So far, three meta-analyses have been conducted giving support to SWPBS positive impact on school outcomes (Mitchell, Hatton, Lewis, 2018; Chitiyo, May, & Chitiyo, 2012; Horner et al., 2010).

The purpose of this project is to implement SWPBS across four countries. SWPBS aims to establish an inclusive non-discriminatory social culture and necessary socio-emotional and behavioural supports for all children in a school. It is a systems-change approach and NOT a packaged program or a social skill curriculum; it enhances the capacity of schools, families and communities to design effective and efficient learning environments that (a) address student needs by providing a continuum of supports; (b) monitor regularly the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) and outcomes, and (c) follow data-based decision making through continuous data-collection process (Horner, Sugai, & Lewis, 2015). This systems-change approach requires at least 3-to-5-year investment to efficiently differentiate behavioural instruction for all students across three tiers, as presented in the above diagram (OSEP, 2017).

• Tier 1 support (Universal/Primary prevention) is built on the assumption that all children can exhibit appropriate behaviour. As a result, school staff is trained, coached and supported to assess the contextual setting events and environmental conditions and incorporate evidence-based practices and resources to increase the probability of appropriate behaviour. Teachers work to effectively teach, encourage and model school-wide values (e.g., respect, safety, responsibility) and appropriate behaviours (e.g., respect means use kind words and actions) to all children across all school areas (e.g., classroom, hallways, playground). Staff engage families and students in developing a universal positive and inclusive language about school’s vision and mission, identifying schoolwide social values, teaching explicitly expected behaviors and routines, recognizing student and teacher positive behaviours, and providing corrective feedback on student social errors inside and outside of classrooms. Teachers are trained and supported through an active SWPBS leadership team and an external SWPBS coach. Families are encouraged to use the common language and social expectations at home.
• Tier 2 supports (Secondary prevention) are to those students whose social and academic needs are more intense and they would benefit from additional layers of instructional support. Interventions are usually of low intensity and can be administered by school personnel with high efficiency. A Tier 2 school team is established to coordinate intervention efforts. Family members become involved by providing consent to their child’s receiving support and becoming involved, where applicable, in the intervention. Moving to Tier 2 means that the school has already met the readiness criteria for Tier 2 participation and has been implementing Tier 1 with more than 80% fidelity (OSEP, 2015).
• Tier 3 supports (Tertiary prevention) are provided to non-responders to Tiers 1 and 2 and focus on individual students who exhibit chronic behavioural difficulties. For these student cases, schools would need to provide intensive individual supports. At this stage the collaboration between school and family is continuous for the design and implementation of an individualized student support plan.

Objectives:

In SWPBS we aim to develop a positive learning environment in our classrooms by:

• Teaching appropriate social behaviors (e.g., be active listener, follow directions, wait my turn)
• Acknowledging systematically student expected behaviors and correcting in an instructional manner the inappropriate ones
• Asking adults to become positive role models in school (For instance, if an adult is using loud voice to talk to students, then students are more likely to imitate such verbal behavior)

These are the important components of the first level of SWPBS.

Outcomes:

1. A research report named “State of the art literature review on schoolwide discipline prevention and student socio-emotional supports”;
2. SWPBS Tier 1 training manual addressed to school and administration teams interested in implementing Tier 1 supports;
3. SWPBS Tiers 2 and 3 training manual intended for school and administration teams interested in implementing Tiers 2 and 3 supports;
4. Coaching and professional development manual for: (a) trainers, coaches, facilitators to support coaching activities related to SWPBS at the school and national level; (b) coordinators and administrators to provide an overview of the content and process of SWPBS coaching to others;
5. Piloting reports for SWPBS Tiers 1, 2 and 3 training manuals;
6. Piloting reports for coaching and professional development training manual on SWPBS;
7. Implementation report for SWPBS Tier 1;
8. Implementation report for SWPBS Tiers 2 and 3;
9. Video summarizing project, findings, and impact;
10. Collaboration space and online platform;
11. Development of e-learning course with online modules for teacher professional development;
12. Development of the digital collection tool/MobileApp;
13. Evaluation Plan and reports; fidelity assessment tools for school teams; coaching protocols for evaluating external coaches’ performance;
14. Dissemination Plan; dissemination workshops and European Conference;
15. Exploitation Plan;
16. Project Management Plan and Guidelines; progress and financial reports;
17. Quality Assurance Plan and reports;
18. Development of national level sustainability tool for SWPBS implementation;
19. Development of guidelines for policy and practice scalability and sustainability.

Partnership:

1. Centre for the Advancement of Research and Development in Educational Technology (CARDET), Cyprus (coordinator)
2. Paidagogiko Instituto Kyprou, Ministry of Education, Cyprus
3. Innovade Ltd, Cyprus
4. Jyvaskylan Yliopisto, Finland
5. Kontiolahden kunta, Finland
6. City of Varkaus, Finland
7. Lappeenrannan Kaupunki, Finland
8. Aristotelio Panepistimio Thessalonikis, Greece
9. Perifereiaki Diefthinsi Protovathmias Kai Defterovathmias Ekpaidefsis, Greece
10. Universitatea din Pitești, Romania
11. Inspectoratul Școlar Județean Argeș, Romania

Project website: https://pbiseurope.org/

English text

First year of the SWPBS project successfully implemented!

Inclusive education and addressing the needs of all learners, is a key priority across European education systems.

“Building School-Wide Inclusive, Positive and Equitable Learning Environments Through A Systems-Change Approach” (SWPBS), an innovative policy experimentation project that seeks to promote inclusive education for all students, has completed its first year of implementation.

Despite the challenges relating to the pandemic, partners have actively implemented the Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) Tier 1 approach in 46 primary schools across Cyprus, Greece and Romania, engaging more than 2,000 teachers and 20,000 students. During the second year, another 45 primary schools are expected to implement PBS across the 3 participating countries.

The key aim of the SWPBS Tier 1 approach is to establish a school framework that promotes inclusive education for all students, affording socio-psychological support to the staff and children, and enacting proactive strategies to address school behaviour. To that end, the project partners designed processes and structures to support all students in all premises of schools. During the first year of operation, a number of face-to-face and online trainings and meetings took place to support schools in their implementation efforts and to provide the school leadership teams with the necessary coaching sessions. These sessions aimed, among others, to help schools develop their vision and values, define desired social behaviours and teach these behaviours to students.

In Romania, the SWPBS project is being implemented in 30 primary schools by the University of Pitești together with Argeș County School Inspectorate. In June 2020, the two Romanian partners met online with the leadership teams from all schools to review the progress marked in each school unit and prepare for a dynamic return with regards to PBS implementation in September 2020, when the primary schools will continue to implement the PBS approach in Romania. In July, the school teams have remained in touch with the SWPBS coaches via email and the e-learning platform, where they continue to perform specific activities.

Stay tuned with SWPBS online at the project's website https://www.pbiseurope.org/en/ and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CPPDD/?ref=page_internal

Text în limba română

Primul an al proiectului SWPBS a fost implementat cu succes!

Educația incluzivă și abordarea tuturor nevoilor persoanelor care învață este o prioritate esențială în sistemele de învățământ europene.

„SWPBS: Construirea unor medii de învățare incluzive, pozitive și echitabile la nivel de școală” (în original “Building School-Wide Inclusive, Positive and Equitable Learning Environments Through A Systems-Change Approach”), un proiect inovativ de experimentare a politicilor care încearcă să promoveze educația incluzivă pentru toți elevii, și-a încheiat primul an de implementare.

În ciuda provocărilor legate de pandemie, partenerii au pus în aplicare într-o manieră activă abordarea ‘Sprijin pentru un comportament pozitiv - Pilonul 1’ (în original Positive Behaviour Support - PBS), în 46 de școli primare din Cipru, Grecia și România, implicând peste 2.000 de profesori și 20.000 de elevi. În al doilea an, se preconizează că alte 45 de școli primare vor implementa PBS în cele 3 țări participante.

Obiectivul cheie al abordării SWPBS Pilon 1 este de a stabili un cadru școlar care să promoveze educația incluzivă pentru toți elevii, oferind sprijin socio-psihologic personalului școlar și copiilor și adoptând strategii proactive pentru abordarea comportamentului școlar. În acest scop, partenerii proiectului au conceput procese și structuri pentru a sprijini toți elevii, în toate spațiile școlare. Pe parcursul primului an de operare, au avut loc o serie de instruiri și întâlniri față în față cât și online, pentru a sprijini școlile în eforturile lor de implementare și pentru a oferi echipelor de conducere din școli sesiuni necesare de coaching. Aceste sesiuni au vizat, printre altele, să ajute școlile să își dezvolte viziunea și valorile, să definească comportamentele sociale dorite și să instruiască elevii pentru a învăța aceste comportamente.

În România, proiectul SWPBS este implementat de către Universitatea din Pitești împreună cu Inspectoratul Școlar Județean Argeș în 30 de școli primare. În iunie 2020, cei doi parteneri români s-au întâlnit online cu echipele de conducere din toate școlile pentru a examina progresele realizate în fiecare unitate școlară și pentru a se pregăti pentru o revenire dinamică în ceea ce privește implementarea PBS în septembrie 2020, când școlile primare selectate vor continua să implementeze abordarea PBS în România. În iulie, echipele școlare au rămas în contact cu antrenorii SWPBS prin e-mail și platforma de e-learning, unde continuă să desfășoare activități specifice.

Rămâneți conectați online cu SWPBS pe webite-ul proiectului https://www.pbiseurope.org/en/ și pe Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CPPDD/?ref=page_internal

News 1

News 2

News 3

SWPBS news from 31 mai 2021

SWPBS news from 2 iunie 2021

SWPBS news from 7 iulie 2021

SWPBS news from 14 august 2021

SWPBS Newsletter1

SWPBS Newsletter2

SWPBS Newsletter3

SWPBS Newsletter4

Video summarizing project, findings, and impact (short): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pk6x5zD0MQ

Video summarizing project, findings, and impact (long): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBwANdmm32I