Examining approaches to implementing Responsive Classroom within international schools

2018-08-05The purpose of this study was to examine the implementation of Responsive Classroom (RC) in an international school setting so that Temasek American School (TAS) can successfully implement RC within the elementary school. This study looked at two comparable international schools and their journey to RC implementation. The following research questions were used to guide this study: What are some promising practices these two international schools have used to develop school-wide buy-in of the RC approach, understanding of the four domains, and use of the key RC practices and strategies used with fidelity? What are some barriers experienced by these two international schools when implementing RC? What lessons does the elementary division at TAS need to learn from these two international schools in order to implement RC with fidelity? In order to answer these questions, this qualitative study analyzed data from interviews with administrators from international schools, a consultant from Responsive Classroom and a focus group of elementary international school educators. Findings from this study revealed several promising practices and barriers. The promising practices included shared philosophy, perceived principal buy-in, removal of organizational barriers, providing initial and ongoing training, creating supporting structures to keep RC alive, and the importance of personalizing RC to reflect each school’s unique culture and setting. The barriers were schedule, use of common teacher language, and working with a transient population. Through this study, TAS and other international schools can learn lessons from the data provided in order to successfully implement a social emotional learning (SEL) framework within their setting