Students with ADHD in School Classrooms: Teacher Factors Related to Compatibility, Assessment, and Intervention

Perhaps the most striking omission of school-based treatment outcome research for students with ADHD has been the examination of teacher factors that may have a significant bearing upon outcome. As a result, the conceptualization of ADHD and its treatment is incomplete. A perspective incorporating goodness-of-fit/systems theory may be a more adequate model from which to view interactions between students with ADHD and their teachers and a more predictive model from which to hypothesize anticipated treatment outcomes. Two compatibility issues are explored in some detail: teacher-treatment compatibility (i.e., the match between teacher characteristics and commonly recommended behavior management procedures) and teacher-student compatibility (i.e., the match between teacher characteristics and student characteristics). Potential teacher factors which might be important to consider in such compatibility equations are discussed, along with the implications of these variables for school-based assessment and intervention processes and future research.