PROMOTING SECONDARY TEACHERS’ WELL-BEING AND INTENTIONS TO IMPLEMENT EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICES: RANDOMIZED EVALUATION OF THE ACHIEVER RESILIENCE CURRICULUM

Teaching is regarded as one of the most challenging yet rewarding professions. Moreover, research has shown that stress and burnout are likely to undermine teacher effectiveness and negatively impact their willingness and intentions to implement evidence-based practices. The present study sought to contribute to a growing body of research implicating the importance of teacher well-being by evaluating the efficacy of a theoretically based training that integrates several practices into a single program (e.g., mindfulness, values clarification, gratitude practices, sleep hygiene, etc.) that are designed to promote the well-being of teachers—the ACHIEVER Resilience Curriculum (ARC). To evaluate the ARC, a randomized block controlled study was conducted with pre–post measurement. Results from the study indicated that, compared with an active control group, teachers who participated in the ARC experienced significantly better outcomes, characterized by medium effect sizes, including reductions in job-related stress, improvements in teaching self-efficacy, and stronger intentions to implement evidence-based classroom practices. The implications of these findings for teacher preparation and professional development, along with the limitations of the study, are discussed.