Role Playing to Train Elementary Teachers to Use a Classroom Management “Skill Package”1

Two teachers who led regular third‐grade classrooms in a suburban elementary school were trained via role‐playing to use a broad range of social skills in dealing with group behavioral management in the classroom. Teacher training reduced disruptive student behavior during both seat work and group discussions in both classrooms. A measure of student productivity during arithmetic period in one classroom showed significant gains in arithmetic problems correct per day for the middle and bottom thirds of the class, with the bottom third increasing by 76%.