Teachers play an essential role in supporting children with ADHD and are often responsible for implementing the classroom-based interventions designed to bolster the academic and behavioral success, and the socio-emotional development of children with ADHD in schools. Unfortunately, several studies suggest teachers are inadequately prepared to take on this role. Evidence suggests there are widespread gaps in teacher knowledge about the meaning of a diagnosis of ADHD and evidence-based interventions used to support children with ADHD in schools. The main purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of a virtual, self-paced professional development seminar for pre-service teachers. The webinar will be aimed at improving pre-service teacher knowledge about the diagnosis of ADHD, characteristics of students with ADHD in the classroom, and evidence-based interventions that can be used to alleviate academic and behavioral problems often experienced by students with ADHD. The webinar also aims to increase pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy as it relates to supporting children with ADHD.

Self-regulation is a multidimensional set of skills critical for providing students the foundation for goal-based, self-controlled behavior. These skills are a predictor of students’ academic success and behavioral, social, and emotional well-being. A wealth of research has been dedicated to implementation of evidence-based interventions targeting students’ self-regulation, particularly for students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) whom teachers often report are more stressful to teach. Lack of knowledge about ADHD, low self-efficacy in supporting students with ADHD, and negative student-teacher relationships have been found to contribute to teacher stress. However, there remains a need to address whether teacher factors (e.g., knowledge about ADHD, experience working with students with ADHD) influence the effectiveness of interventions targeting ADHD symptoms. This dissertation is composed of two studies that aimed to examine the teacher-level factors salient for improving school-based interventions designed for students with ADHD. The first study used a small scale, in-depth systematic literature review to investigate intervention studies that concurrently measured student outcomes and teacher-level factors to elucidate teacher-level barriers and facilitators of each of the interventions. The second study evaluated the effectiveness of a teacher training designed to improve pre-service teacher knowledge about ADHD and self-efficacy in their ability to support students with ADHD. Recommendations are made for future directions in school-based ADHD intervention research and implications are discussed for educators and school psychological practice.