Breaking down buy-in: Can lessons from social psychology increase teacher use of proactive behavior management?

Disruptive student behavior poses significant challenges for teachers and is associated with negative student outcomes. Research shows that teacher use of empirically-based proactive behavior management (PBM) can improve student outcomes; however, research also indicates that teacher use of PBM is low. One prominent factor in teacher use of PBM is "buy-in," or personal interest, agreement, and investment in the implementation of a practice. When teachers buy in to an intervention, they may be more likely to implement and maintain the intervention with fidelity. Yet, there is little empirically-based understanding of buy-in or strategies known to increase the buy-in of school staff. The purpose of this paper is to describe research from social psychology that may be useful in developing a theoretical framework for buy-in, as well as approaches to increasing teacher buy-in and use of PBM. Implications for incorporating strategies from social psychology into teacher professional development to increase buy-in and use of PBM are discussed.