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Teacher Training for Prevention and Management of School Bullying Situations: A Systematic Literature Review* * Support: CAPES - funding code 001. The article is part of the author’s doctoral thesis.

Abstract

This article presents a systematic review of empirical studies on teacher training in school bullying through goal analysis, research design, participants, dependent and independent variables, taught content and skills, training results, and research limitations. Ten databases were consulted, with 12 articles being selected. Although the studies involve teachers as participants, teacher training in bullying has not yet been the subject of study itself, as only four of the analyzed studies evaluated the effect of training in relation to the teacher. The lack of a detailed description of training contents, study procedures and lack of baseline and follow-up were important limitations. Possibilities for future research are discussed.

Keywords:
bullying; teacher training; teacher capacity; building; systematic review

Resumo

Este artigo apresenta uma revisão sistemática de estudos empíricos sobre treinamento de professores em bullying escolar por meio da análise de objetivos, delineamento da pesquisa, participantes, variáveis dependentes e independentes, conteúdos e habilidades ensinadas, resultados do treinamento e limitações das pesquisas. Foram consultadas 10 bases de dados, sendo selecionados 12 artigos. Apesar dos estudos envolverem professores como participantes, a capacitação docente em bullying ainda não tem sido objeto de estudo em si, pois apenas quatro das pesquisas analisadas avaliaram o efeito do treinamento em relação ao professor. A falta de descrição detalhada dos conteúdos das capacitações, dos procedimentos dos estudos e a ausência de linha de base e de follow up foram limitações importantes encontradas. Discutem-se possibilidades para pesquisas futuras.

Palavras-chave:
bullying; capacitação de professores; treinamentos de professores; revisão sistemática

Violence is a growing public health problem worldwide (Krug et al., 2002Krug, E. G, Dahlberg, L. L., Mercy, J. A., Zwi A. B., & Lozano, R. (2002). World report on violence and health. World Health Organization Library Cataloguing-in-Publication.). Each year, more than one million people lose their lives, and just as many suffer nonfatal injuries resulting from self-harm, interpersonal aggression, or collective violence (World Health Organization; WHO, 2014Organização Mundial de Saúde. (2014). Relatório mundial sobre a prevenção da violência [World report on violence prevention]. Núcleo de Estudos da Violência da Universidade de São Paulo.). One of the most visible forms of violence is perpetrated by young people between the ages of 10 and 21 (youth violence) and, in general, the assaults are witnessed within the school institution (Lopes, 2005Lopes, N. (2005). Bullying comportamento agressivo entre estudantes [Bullying: Aggressive behavior among students]. Jornal de Pediatria, 81(5), 164-172. https://doi.org/10.1590/s002175572005000700006
https://doi.org/10.1590/s002175572005000...
). The term school violence refers to all aggressive and antisocial behaviors, including damage to property, criminal acts, interpersonal conflicts, aggression between students and teachers, institutionalized practices of rights violation, and aggression between peers, better known as bullying (Lopes, 2005Lopes, N. (2005). Bullying comportamento agressivo entre estudantes [Bullying: Aggressive behavior among students]. Jornal de Pediatria, 81(5), 164-172. https://doi.org/10.1590/s002175572005000700006
https://doi.org/10.1590/s002175572005000...
; Stelko-Pereira & Williams, 2010Stelko-Pereira, A. C., & Williams, L. C. A. (2010). Reflexões sobre o conceito de violência escolar e a busca por uma definição abrangente [On the concept of school violence and the search for its definition]. Temas em Psicologia, 18(1), 45-55. http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/pdf/tp/v18n1/v18n1a05.pdf
http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/pdf/tp/v18n1/v...
).

The definition of bullying was developed in the 1970s by Dan Olweus as behaviors involving intentional aggression, repeated over time, and involving an imbalance of power between the aggressor, perpetrator, and victim (Olweus, 1997Olweus, D. (1997). Bully/victim problems in school: Facts and intervention. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 12(4), 495-510. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03172807
https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03172807...
). Bullying can be classified as direct, which involves physical and/or verbal aggression, and indirect, which presents itself through social exclusion of peers, slander, defamation, etc. (Fekkes et al., 2005Fekkes, M., Pijpers, F. I. M., & Verloove-Vanhorick, S. P. (2005). Bullying: Who does what, when and where? Involvement of children, teachers and parents in bullying behavior. Health Education Research, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyg100
https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyg100...
). With the advent of technology, new forms of bullying have emerged through electronic means such as cyberbullying (Olweus, 1997Olweus, D. (1997). Bully/victim problems in school: Facts and intervention. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 12(4), 495-510. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03172807
https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03172807...
).

As a result of bullying, victims are more likely to experience physical and emotional consequences such as sleep problems, headaches, stomachaches, depression, anxiety, loneliness, suicidal ideation, low self-esteem, and poor school performance (Forero et al., 1999Forero, R., McLellan, L., Rissel, C., & Bauman, A. (1999). Bullying behaviour and psychosocial health among school students in New South Wales, Australia: Cross sectional survey. British Medical Journal, 319, 344-348. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.319.7206.344
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.319.7206.344...
; Salmon et al., 1998Salmon, G., James, A., & Smith, D. M. (1998). Bullying in schools: Self-reported anxiety, depression and self-esteem in secondary school children. British Medical Journal, 317, 924- 925. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.317.7163.924
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.317.7163.924...
). Those who engage in bullying generally have higher rates of depression and behavioral disorders such as violent, aggressive, and delinquent behaviors (Fekkes et al., 2005Fekkes, M., Pijpers, F. I. M., & Verloove-Vanhorick, S. P. (2005). Bullying: Who does what, when and where? Involvement of children, teachers and parents in bullying behavior. Health Education Research, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyg100
https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyg100...
).

The presence of bullying, especially in the Brazilian school context has become so evident that, in 2015, Law No. 13,185 (2015Lei nº 13.185. (2015, 6 de novembro). Institui o programa de combate à intimidação sistemática (bullying) [Institutes a program against bullying]. http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2015-2018/2015/lei/l13185.htm
http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_at...
) came into force establishing the program to Combat Systematic Intimidation (Bullying) and, among others, aims to:

Art. 4 The objectives of the Program referred to in the head of article 1 are:

II - training teachers and pedagogical teams to implement actions for discussion, prevention, guidance and solution to the problem;

IX - promoting measures to raise awareness, prevent and combat all types of violence, with emphasis on recurrent practices of systematic intimidation (bullying), or physical and psychological embarrassment, carried out by students, teachers, and other professionals belonging to the school and school community.

Given these objectives, it seems vital that teachers are included in studies aimed at understanding and preventing the phenomenon, once in these professionals’ education path there is little preparation for identifying and dealing with situations in which this type of aggression occurs (Fekkes et al., 2005Fekkes, M., Pijpers, F. I. M., & Verloove-Vanhorick, S. P. (2005). Bullying: Who does what, when and where? Involvement of children, teachers and parents in bullying behavior. Health Education Research, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyg100
https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyg100...
; Gorsek & Cunningham, 2014Gorsek, A. K., & Cunningham, M. M. (2014). A review of teachers’ perceptions and training regarding school bullying. PURE Insights, 3, 6. https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/pure/vol3/iss1/6
https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/pure/vol3...
). Teacher training has been presented as one of the strategies in confronting bullying (Berger, 2007Berger, K. S. (2007). Update on bullying at school: Science forgotten? Developmental Review, 27, 90-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2006.08.002
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2006.08.002...
), and Law No. 13,185 (2015Lei nº 13.185. (2015, 6 de novembro). Institui o programa de combate à intimidação sistemática (bullying) [Institutes a program against bullying]. http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2015-2018/2015/lei/l13185.htm
http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_at...
) reinforces this need.

In view of this, this article presents a systematic review of empirical studies that applied training to teachers on bullying and aims to: identify the main characteristics of the studies, focusing on objectives, research design, participants, dependent and independent variables; analyze the process of teacher training highlighting content and skills taught, as well as results obtained from the training and, finally, identify the main limitations of the studies and possibilities of future research. The present study was the first systematic review of teacher training on school bullying.

Method

A search for scientific articles was conducted in 10 databases: PsicINFO, PsicArticles, Scielo, Science Direct, ERIC, Wiley Online Library, Scopus, Lilacs, Springer, Web of Science, published until March 2022.

In the search fields, descriptors were entered, from the areas of Psychology, Education and Health, accompanied by the Boolean operators OR and AND: bullying OR bully AND “teacher training”; “bullying prevention” AND “teacher training” and “bullying prevention” and their corresponding terms in Portuguese: bullying, combined with the words: capacitação de professores; treinamento de professores; capacitação docente; treinamento docente (meaning teacher training); prevenção ao bullying (meaning bullying prevention). The descriptors were taken from the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms (APA), BVS Thesaurus Psychology, Thesaurus HSDs (health science descriptors) and Brazilian Thesaurus of Education (Brased) and from terms most commonly used in the literature to refer to bullying and teacher training programs.

The criteria for the selection of articles were: empirical studies related to teacher training/teacher education and training of other school community members that were peer-reviewed. Literature review articles, empirical studies whose intervention was exclusively with children/adolescents and/or their parents, and duplicate articles were excluded. Most of the excluded articles were characterized as theoretical studies, research studies on participants’ perceptions of school bullying, or had children, adolescents, or parents as research participants.

A total of 2,118 articles were retrieved, of which 168 were removed as they were duplicates. The title and abstract of 1,106 articles were read, and 12 articles that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria previously defined for this systematic review were selected. These were read in full, extracting information such as: authors and year of publication of the study, participants, objectives, identification and form of evaluation of the dependent variable, design, training content, skills/behaviors taught, and limitations, including the results. Figure 1 schematically presents the path taken in the survey of articles identified in the research period.

Figure 1.
Articles retrieved and selected for analysis.

Three categories were developed for data analysis: 1) Studies characteristics: such as authors/year of study publication, participants, study objective, dependent variable, dependent variable assessment, design; 2) Contents and skills/behaviors taught in the training programs conducted with teachers as participants; 3) Studies limitations: identified by the authors of this article and/or by the studies’ authors.

Results and Discussion

Characterization of the Studies

Most studies were conducted by researchers from the European continent (50%; n = 5) (Benitez et al., 2009Benitez, J. L, García-Berbén, A., & Fernández-Cabezas, M. (2009). The impact of a course on bullying with the pre-service teacher training curriculum. Journal of Research in Psychology, 7(1), 191-207.; Boulton, 2014Boulton, M. J. (2014). Teachers’ self-efficacy, perceived effectiveness beliefs, and reported use of cognitive-behavioral approaches to bullying among pupils: Effects of in-service training with the I DECIDE Program. Behavior Therapy, 45, 328-343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.004
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.0...
; Buils et al., 2020Buils, R. F., Miendes, A. C., & Oliver, M. R. (2020). Effect of a cyberbullying prevention program integrated in the primary education curriculum. Revista de Psicodidáctica, 25(1), 23-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicod.2019.08.001
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicod.2019.08...
; Mendes, 2011Mendes, C. S. (2011). Prevenção da violência escolar: Avaliação de um programa de intervenção [Preventing school violence: An evaluation of an intervention program]. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, 45(3), 581-588. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0080-62342011000300005
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0080-6234201100...
; O’Moore & Minton, 2005O’Moore, A. M., & Minton, S. J. (2005). Evaluation of the effectiveness of an anti-bullying programme in primary schools. Aggressive Behavior, 31, 609-622. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098
https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098...
; Salmivalli et al., 2005Salmivalli, C., Kaukiainen, A., & Voeten, M. (2005). Anti-bullying intervention: Implementation and outcome. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 75, 465-487. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905x26011
https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905x26011...
; Verseveld et al., 2021Verseveld, M.D.A.V., Fekkes, M., Fukkink, R.G., & Oostdam, R.J. (2021) Teacher’s experiences with difficult bullying situations on the school: An explporative study. Journal of Early Adolescence,41(1), 43-69. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431620939193
https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431620939193...
), followed by other locations such as North America (40%; n = 4) (Goncy et al., 2015Goncy, E. A., Sutherland, K. S., Farrell, A. D., Sullivan, T. N., & Doyle, S. T. (2015). Measuring teacher implementation in delivery of a bullying prevention program: The impact of instructional and procedural adherence and competence on student responsiveness. Prevention Research, 16, 440-450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-...
; Leadbeater et al., 2016Leadbeater, B. J., Thompson, K., & Sukhawathanakul, P. (2016). Enhancing social responsibility and prosocial leadership to prevent aggression, peer victimization, and emotional problems in elementary school children. American Journal of Community Psychology, 58(3-4), 365-376. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12092
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12092...
; Newman-Carlson & Horne, 2004Newman-Carlson, D., & Horne, A. M. (2004) Bully busters: A psychoeducational intervention for reducing bullying behavior in middle school students. Journal of Counseling & Development, 82, 259-267. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004.tb00309.x
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004...
; Ross & Horne, 2009Ross, S. W., & Horner, R. H. (2009). Bully prevention in positive behavior support. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 747-759. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2009.42-747
https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2009.42-747...
) and Asia (10%; n = 1) (Ju et al., 2009Ju, Y., Wang, S., & Zhang, W. (2009). Intervention research on school bullying in primary schools. Frontiers of Education in China, 4, 111-122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-0
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-...
). The largest number of publications were concentrated in 2009 (30%; n = 3) (Benitez et al., 2009Benitez, J. L, García-Berbén, A., & Fernández-Cabezas, M. (2009). The impact of a course on bullying with the pre-service teacher training curriculum. Journal of Research in Psychology, 7(1), 191-207.; Ju et al., 2009Ju, Y., Wang, S., & Zhang, W. (2009). Intervention research on school bullying in primary schools. Frontiers of Education in China, 4, 111-122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-0
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-...
; Ross & Horne, 2009Ross, S. W., & Horner, R. H. (2009). Bully prevention in positive behavior support. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 747-759. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2009.42-747
https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2009.42-747...
), followed by the year 2005 (20%; n = 2) (O'Moore & Minton, 2005O’Moore, A. M., & Minton, S. J. (2005). Evaluation of the effectiveness of an anti-bullying programme in primary schools. Aggressive Behavior, 31, 609-622. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098
https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098...
; Salmivalli et al., 2005Salmivalli, C., Kaukiainen, A., & Voeten, M. (2005). Anti-bullying intervention: Implementation and outcome. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 75, 465-487. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905x26011
https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905x26011...
).

In the searched databases, there is lack of research carried out by Brazilians related to teacher training focused on knowledge and behavior development for the prevention and/or management of situations involving school bullying behaviors. Recent research on teachers’ knowledge and intervention strategies adopted to deal with this type of violence has shown that educators have insufficient knowledge on the main characteristics of bullying, an inadequate behavioral repertoire on how to deal with this phenomenon, and most of them report to feel unprepared to identify and deal with aggression by students (Santos et al., 2015Santos, M. M., Perkoski, I. R., & Kinen, N. (2015). Bullying: Atitudes, consequências e medidas preventivas na percepção de professores e alunos do ensino fundamental [Bullying: Attitudes, consequences and preventive strategies in elementary school teachers and students perception]. Temas em Psicologia, 23(4), 1017-1033. https://doi.org/10.9788/TP2015.4-16
https://doi.org/10.9788/TP2015.4-16...
; Silva & Rosa, 2013Silva, E. N., & Rosa, E. C. S. (2013). Professores sabem o que é bullying? Um tema para a formação docente [Do teachers know what is bullying? A teacher training issue]. Revista Semestral da Associação Brasileira de Psicologia Escolar e Educacional, 17(2), 329-338. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-85572013000200015
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-8557201300...
; Silva et al., 2014Silva, J. L., Oliveira, W. A., Bazon, M. R., & Cecílio, S. (2014). Bullying: Conhecimentos, atitudes e crenças de professores [Bullying: Teachers’ knowledge, attitudes and beliefs]. Psico, 45(2), 147-156. https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-8623.2014.2.12683
https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-8623.2014....
).

The need for training programs became more evident in 2015 when Law No. 13,185 (2015Lei nº 13.185. (2015, 6 de novembro). Institui o programa de combate à intimidação sistemática (bullying) [Institutes a program against bullying]. http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2015-2018/2015/lei/l13185.htm
http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_at...
) came into force establishing the program to Combat Systematic Bullying and one of its objectives provides for training teachers and educational teams to implement actions to discuss, prevent, guide and solve the problem.

Even in the international studies retrieved, although they all featured teachers as participants, most of them (66%, n = 8) aimed to evaluate the effect of the training on students’ knowledge or behavior (Buils et al., 2020Buils, R. F., Miendes, A. C., & Oliver, M. R. (2020). Effect of a cyberbullying prevention program integrated in the primary education curriculum. Revista de Psicodidáctica, 25(1), 23-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicod.2019.08.001
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicod.2019.08...
; Ju et al., 2009Ju, Y., Wang, S., & Zhang, W. (2009). Intervention research on school bullying in primary schools. Frontiers of Education in China, 4, 111-122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-0
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-...
; Leadbeater et al., 2016Leadbeater, B. J., Thompson, K., & Sukhawathanakul, P. (2016). Enhancing social responsibility and prosocial leadership to prevent aggression, peer victimization, and emotional problems in elementary school children. American Journal of Community Psychology, 58(3-4), 365-376. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12092
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12092...
; Mendes, 2011Mendes, C. S. (2011). Prevenção da violência escolar: Avaliação de um programa de intervenção [Preventing school violence: An evaluation of an intervention program]. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, 45(3), 581-588. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0080-62342011000300005
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0080-6234201100...
; O’Moore & Minton, 2005O’Moore, A. M., & Minton, S. J. (2005). Evaluation of the effectiveness of an anti-bullying programme in primary schools. Aggressive Behavior, 31, 609-622. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098
https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098...
; Ross & Horner, 2009Ross, S. W., & Horner, R. H. (2009). Bully prevention in positive behavior support. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 747-759. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2009.42-747
https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2009.42-747...
; Salmivalli et al., 2005Salmivalli, C., Kaukiainen, A., & Voeten, M. (2005). Anti-bullying intervention: Implementation and outcome. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 75, 465-487. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905x26011
https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905x26011...
; Verseveld et al., 2021Verseveld, M.D.A.V., Fekkes, M., Fukkink, R.G., & Oostdam, R.J. (2021) Teacher’s experiences with difficult bullying situations on the school: An explporative study. Journal of Early Adolescence,41(1), 43-69. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431620939193
https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431620939193...
). The remaining studies aimed to assess the effect of training on teachers’ knowledge about bullying (16%; n = 2) (Benitez et al., 2009Benitez, J. L, García-Berbén, A., & Fernández-Cabezas, M. (2009). The impact of a course on bullying with the pre-service teacher training curriculum. Journal of Research in Psychology, 7(1), 191-207.; Newman-Carlson & Horne, 2004Newman-Carlson, D., & Horne, A. M. (2004) Bully busters: A psychoeducational intervention for reducing bullying behavior in middle school students. Journal of Counseling & Development, 82, 259-267. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004.tb00309.x
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004...
); evaluate the effects of attending a workshop on teachers’ beliefs about the effectiveness of a program based on the cognitive-behavioral approach (8%; n = 1) (Boulton, 2014Boulton, M. J. (2014). Teachers’ self-efficacy, perceived effectiveness beliefs, and reported use of cognitive-behavioral approaches to bullying among pupils: Effects of in-service training with the I DECIDE Program. Behavior Therapy, 45, 328-343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.004
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.0...
) and examine the relationships between teachers’ instructional and procedural adherence and competence and, students’ responsiveness to the OBPP program (8%; n = 1) (Goncy et al., 2015Goncy, E. A., Sutherland, K. S., Farrell, A. D., Sullivan, T. N., & Doyle, S. T. (2015). Measuring teacher implementation in delivery of a bullying prevention program: The impact of instructional and procedural adherence and competence on student responsiveness. Prevention Research, 16, 440-450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-...
).

Table 1 presents the authors, publication date, objective, and the studies’ subjects.

Table 1
Study characteristics: authors, publication date, objective and participants.

Aligned to the objectives of the retrieved studies, it is observed that a large part of the papers presented as Dependent Variable the students’ knowledge about bullying and/or ways of dealing with it (58%; n = 7) (Buils et al., 2020Buils, R. F., Miendes, A. C., & Oliver, M. R. (2020). Effect of a cyberbullying prevention program integrated in the primary education curriculum. Revista de Psicodidáctica, 25(1), 23-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicod.2019.08.001
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicod.2019.08...
; Ju et al., 2009Ju, Y., Wang, S., & Zhang, W. (2009). Intervention research on school bullying in primary schools. Frontiers of Education in China, 4, 111-122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-0
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-...
; Leadbeater et al., 2016Leadbeater, B. J., Thompson, K., & Sukhawathanakul, P. (2016). Enhancing social responsibility and prosocial leadership to prevent aggression, peer victimization, and emotional problems in elementary school children. American Journal of Community Psychology, 58(3-4), 365-376. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12092
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12092...
; Mendes, 2011Mendes, C. S. (2011). Prevenção da violência escolar: Avaliação de um programa de intervenção [Preventing school violence: An evaluation of an intervention program]. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, 45(3), 581-588. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0080-62342011000300005
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0080-6234201100...
; Ross & Horner, 2009Ross, S. W., & Horner, R. H. (2009). Bully prevention in positive behavior support. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 747-759. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2009.42-747
https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2009.42-747...
; Salmivalli et al., 2005Salmivalli, C., Kaukiainen, A., & Voeten, M. (2005). Anti-bullying intervention: Implementation and outcome. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 75, 465-487. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905x26011
https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905x26011...
; Verseveld et al., 2021Verseveld, M.D.A.V., Fekkes, M., Fukkink, R.G., & Oostdam, R.J. (2021) Teacher’s experiences with difficult bullying situations on the school: An explporative study. Journal of Early Adolescence,41(1), 43-69. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431620939193
https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431620939193...
), followed by teachers’ knowledge about school bullying (16%; n = 2) (Benitez et al., 2009Benitez, J. L, García-Berbén, A., & Fernández-Cabezas, M. (2009). The impact of a course on bullying with the pre-service teacher training curriculum. Journal of Research in Psychology, 7(1), 191-207.; Newman-Carlson & Horne, 2004Newman-Carlson, D., & Horne, A. M. (2004) Bully busters: A psychoeducational intervention for reducing bullying behavior in middle school students. Journal of Counseling & Development, 82, 259-267. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004.tb00309.x
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004...
), students’ knowledge and teachers’ adherence and instructional competence on bullying (8%; n = 1) (Goncy et al., 2015Goncy, E. A., Sutherland, K. S., Farrell, A. D., Sullivan, T. N., & Doyle, S. T. (2015). Measuring teacher implementation in delivery of a bullying prevention program: The impact of instructional and procedural adherence and competence on student responsiveness. Prevention Research, 16, 440-450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-...
), students’ knowledge of bullying and teachers’ perception of the occurrence of bullying among students (8%; n = 1) (O’Moore & Minton, 2005O’Moore, A. M., & Minton, S. J. (2005). Evaluation of the effectiveness of an anti-bullying programme in primary schools. Aggressive Behavior, 31, 609-622. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098
https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098...
), teachers’ beliefs and perception of the effectiveness of an anti-bullying program based on the cognitive-behavioral approach (8%; n = 1) (Boulton, 2014Boulton, M. J. (2014). Teachers’ self-efficacy, perceived effectiveness beliefs, and reported use of cognitive-behavioral approaches to bullying among pupils: Effects of in-service training with the I DECIDE Program. Behavior Therapy, 45, 328-343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.004
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.0...
). Although all research involved teacher training as the main intervention or part of it, the knowledge and/or behaviors of these participants were not always defined as the dependent variable (58%; n = 7) (Boulton, 2014Boulton, M. J. (2014). Teachers’ self-efficacy, perceived effectiveness beliefs, and reported use of cognitive-behavioral approaches to bullying among pupils: Effects of in-service training with the I DECIDE Program. Behavior Therapy, 45, 328-343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.004
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.0...
; Buils et al., 2020Buils, R. F., Miendes, A. C., & Oliver, M. R. (2020). Effect of a cyberbullying prevention program integrated in the primary education curriculum. Revista de Psicodidáctica, 25(1), 23-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicod.2019.08.001
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicod.2019.08...
; Ju et al., 2009Ju, Y., Wang, S., & Zhang, W. (2009). Intervention research on school bullying in primary schools. Frontiers of Education in China, 4, 111-122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-0
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-...
; Leadbeater et al., 2016Leadbeater, B. J., Thompson, K., & Sukhawathanakul, P. (2016). Enhancing social responsibility and prosocial leadership to prevent aggression, peer victimization, and emotional problems in elementary school children. American Journal of Community Psychology, 58(3-4), 365-376. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12092
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12092...
; Mendes, 2011Mendes, C. S. (2011). Prevenção da violência escolar: Avaliação de um programa de intervenção [Preventing school violence: An evaluation of an intervention program]. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, 45(3), 581-588. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0080-62342011000300005
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0080-6234201100...
; O’Moore & Minton, 2005O’Moore, A. M., & Minton, S. J. (2005). Evaluation of the effectiveness of an anti-bullying programme in primary schools. Aggressive Behavior, 31, 609-622. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098
https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098...
; Ross & Horner, 2009Ross, S. W., & Horner, R. H. (2009). Bully prevention in positive behavior support. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 747-759. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2009.42-747
https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2009.42-747...
; Salmivalli et al., 2005Salmivalli, C., Kaukiainen, A., & Voeten, M. (2005). Anti-bullying intervention: Implementation and outcome. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 75, 465-487. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905x26011
https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905x26011...
) and, consequently, evaluated.

Research data (Bauman et al., 2008Bauman, S., Rigby, K., & Hoppa, K. (2008). U.S. teachers’ and school counsellors’ strategies for handling school bullying incidents. Educational Psychology, 28, 837-856. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410802379085
https://doi.org/10.1080/0144341080237908...
; Bell & Wills, 2016Bell, K. J., & Wills, W. G. (2016). Teachers’ perceptions of bullying among youth. The Journal of Educational Research, 109(2), 159-168. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2014.931833
https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2014.93...
; Burger et al., 2015Burger, C., Strohmeier, D., Sprober, N., Bauman, S., & Rigby, K. (2015). How teachers respond to school bullying: An examination of self-reported intervention strategy use, moderator effects, and concurrent use of multiple strategies. Teaching and Teacher Education, 51, 191-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.07.004
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.07.0...
) has highlighted that teachers still have many questions about bullying and the appropriate intervention strategies to effectively deal with this phenomenon. Misconceptions about knowledge and intervention strategies used can inhibit efforts related to prevention and management of the phenomenon (Hazler et al., 2001Hazler, R. J., Miller, D. L., Carney, J. V., & Green, S. (2001). Adult recognition of school bullying situations. Educational Research, 43(2), 133-146. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131880110051137
https://doi.org/10.1080/0013188011005113...
).

It was observed that in trainings on the subject of bullying, the teachers’ behavior has not yet been considered an object of study in itself, for of the four studies that evaluated the effect of teacher training, only two investigated teacher ability/behavior (Goncy et al., 2015Goncy, E. A., Sutherland, K. S., Farrell, A. D., Sullivan, T. N., & Doyle, S. T. (2015). Measuring teacher implementation in delivery of a bullying prevention program: The impact of instructional and procedural adherence and competence on student responsiveness. Prevention Research, 16, 440-450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-...
; Newman-Carlson & Horne, 2004Newman-Carlson, D., & Horne, A. M. (2004) Bully busters: A psychoeducational intervention for reducing bullying behavior in middle school students. Journal of Counseling & Development, 82, 259-267. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004.tb00309.x
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004...
). This highlights that, there is lack of training development for teachers to teach skills/behaviors to directly intervene on the phenomenon through prevention or management of situations involving bullying behaviors, even in studies conducted in other countries.

The study by Burger et al. (2015Burger, C., Strohmeier, D., Sprober, N., Bauman, S., & Rigby, K. (2015). How teachers respond to school bullying: An examination of self-reported intervention strategy use, moderator effects, and concurrent use of multiple strategies. Teaching and Teacher Education, 51, 191-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.07.004
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.07.0...
) corroborates this observation by examining what intervention strategies teachers used in a hypothetical episode of school bullying. The results showed that the teachers’ preferred strategies were authority-based interventions, followed by non-punitive work with the bully and the involvement of another adult. Also, the participants indicated that they were less likely to work with the victims of bullying demonstrating certain inability to deal with the phenomenon. The authors discuss the need to prioritize teacher training at universities as there is no systematic education on how to prevent and manage bullying incidents in most curricula, and for those already in school, that there should be intervention to increase self-efficacy and skills in alternative methods of dealing with bullying cases.

In addition to the need for further studies that have teacher knowledge/behavior as the dependent variable, it is also important to provide conditions for them to be effectively evaluated. In the retrieved studies, the dependent variable “Teacher knowledge on school bullying” was assessed by questionnaire (8%; n = 1) (Benitez et al., 2009Benitez, J. L, García-Berbén, A., & Fernández-Cabezas, M. (2009). The impact of a course on bullying with the pre-service teacher training curriculum. Journal of Research in Psychology, 7(1), 191-207.), scale (8%; n = 1) (Newman-Carlson & Horne, 2004Newman-Carlson, D., & Horne, A. M. (2004) Bully busters: A psychoeducational intervention for reducing bullying behavior in middle school students. Journal of Counseling & Development, 82, 259-267. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004.tb00309.x
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004...
), and teacher adherence and instructional competence by direct observation (8%; n = 1) (Goncy et al., 2015Goncy, E. A., Sutherland, K. S., Farrell, A. D., Sullivan, T. N., & Doyle, S. T. (2015). Measuring teacher implementation in delivery of a bullying prevention program: The impact of instructional and procedural adherence and competence on student responsiveness. Prevention Research, 16, 440-450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-...
). However, there were some limitations to the use of these measures. For example, although the study by Goncy et al. (2015Goncy, E. A., Sutherland, K. S., Farrell, A. D., Sullivan, T. N., & Doyle, S. T. (2015). Measuring teacher implementation in delivery of a bullying prevention program: The impact of instructional and procedural adherence and competence on student responsiveness. Prevention Research, 16, 440-450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-...
) proposed to conduct constant measures regarding teacher behavior, an important condition to increase control over the experimental variables and, consequently, the internal validation of the study, it does not describe the use of a pretest. Using such a measure to check teachers’ skills prior to training would contribute to increasing the internal validity of the overall study (Ttofi & Farington, 2012Ttofi, M. M., & Farrington, D. P. (2012). Risk and protective factors, longitudinal research, and bullying prevention. New Directions for Youth Development, 133, 85-98. https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.20009
https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.20009...
). The limitations of each study will be fully discussed below.

Table 2 presents the dependent variable, the assessment of the dependent variable performed, and the design employed in each study.

Table 2
Dependent variable evaluated and design applied in the studies.

It is observed that the studies presented a diversity in the evaluation form of the dependent variable as well as the use of a variety of designs. The majority of the designs employed in the research were Experimental Group and Control Group Design (50%; n = 6) (Boulton, 2014Boulton, M. J. (2014). Teachers’ self-efficacy, perceived effectiveness beliefs, and reported use of cognitive-behavioral approaches to bullying among pupils: Effects of in-service training with the I DECIDE Program. Behavior Therapy, 45, 328-343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.004
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.0...
; Buils et al., 2020Buils, R. F., Miendes, A. C., & Oliver, M. R. (2020). Effect of a cyberbullying prevention program integrated in the primary education curriculum. Revista de Psicodidáctica, 25(1), 23-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicod.2019.08.001
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicod.2019.08...
; Goncy et al., 2015Goncy, E. A., Sutherland, K. S., Farrell, A. D., Sullivan, T. N., & Doyle, S. T. (2015). Measuring teacher implementation in delivery of a bullying prevention program: The impact of instructional and procedural adherence and competence on student responsiveness. Prevention Research, 16, 440-450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-...
; Ju et al., 2009Ju, Y., Wang, S., & Zhang, W. (2009). Intervention research on school bullying in primary schools. Frontiers of Education in China, 4, 111-122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-0
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-...
; Leadbeater et al., 2016Leadbeater, B. J., Thompson, K., & Sukhawathanakul, P. (2016). Enhancing social responsibility and prosocial leadership to prevent aggression, peer victimization, and emotional problems in elementary school children. American Journal of Community Psychology, 58(3-4), 365-376. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12092
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12092...
; Verseveld et al., 2021Verseveld, M.D.A.V., Fekkes, M., Fukkink, R.G., & Oostdam, R.J. (2021) Teacher’s experiences with difficult bullying situations on the school: An explporative study. Journal of Early Adolescence,41(1), 43-69. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431620939193
https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431620939193...
) and Quasi-experimental Design with pre-test and post-test (33%; n = 4) (Benitez et al., 2009Benitez, J. L, García-Berbén, A., & Fernández-Cabezas, M. (2009). The impact of a course on bullying with the pre-service teacher training curriculum. Journal of Research in Psychology, 7(1), 191-207.; Mendes, 2011Mendes, C. S. (2011). Prevenção da violência escolar: Avaliação de um programa de intervenção [Preventing school violence: An evaluation of an intervention program]. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, 45(3), 581-588. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0080-62342011000300005
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0080-6234201100...
; Newman-Carlson & Horne, 2004Newman-Carlson, D., & Horne, A. M. (2004) Bully busters: A psychoeducational intervention for reducing bullying behavior in middle school students. Journal of Counseling & Development, 82, 259-267. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004.tb00309.x
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004...
; O’Moore & Minton, 2005O’Moore, A. M., & Minton, S. J. (2005). Evaluation of the effectiveness of an anti-bullying programme in primary schools. Aggressive Behavior, 31, 609-622. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098
https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098...
). In a systematic review (Cantone et al., 2015Cantone, E., Piras, A. P., Vellante, M., Preti1, A., Daníelsdóttir, S., D’Aloja, E., Lesinskiene, S., Angermeyer, M. C., Carta, M. G., & Bhugra, D. (2015). Interventions on bullying and cyberbullying in schools: A systematic review. Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental Health, 11, 58-76. https://doi.org/10.2174/1745017901511010058
https://doi.org/10.2174/1745017901511010...
) of international research that analyzed the outcomes of interventions to reduce or prevent bullying and cyberbullying, a wide variety of experimental design and a lack of common outcome measures were identified, indicating that there is no systematic approach to data collection in this area of research.

Despite the variety of designs and the form of results evaluation identified in the studies, it was observed that there was no use of a single-subject design with teachers as participants. Experiments with single-subject designs analyze data from individual behavior, that is, even though several subjects have been subjected to the same conditions, the results are treated individually (Sidman, 1960/1972). Participants are exposed to a variety of conditions, their performance is repeatedly measured, and an orderly relationship between the conditions manipulated in the experiment and changes in these measures is verified (Matos, 1990Matos, M. A. (1990) Controle experimental e controle estatístico: A filosofia do caso único na pesquisa comportamental [Experimental and statiscal control: The philosophy of single case in behaviorial research]. Ciência e Cultura, 42(8), 585-592.).

The subject is said to be his or her own control because he or she is subjected to the experimental conditions and multiple behavioral measures are performed for the same subject, rather than statistical treatment of data, where the group average is verified (Andrey, 2010Andrey, M. A. P. A. (2010). Métodos de pesquisa em análise do comportamento [Research methods in behavior analysis]. Psicologia USP, 21(2), 313-342. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0103-65642010000200006
https://doi.org/10.1590/s0103-6564201000...
; Sidman, 1960/1972Sidman, M. (1972). Táticas da pesquisa científica: Avaliação dos dados experimentais na psicologia [Tactics of scientific research: Evaluation of experimental data in Psychology]. Brasiliense (Original publicado em 1960).). One of the great advantages of single subject research is the employment of a rigorous, scientific methodology used to define basic behavior principles and establish evidence-based practices by documenting causal or functional relationships between independent and dependent variables (Horner et al., 2005Horner, R., Carr, E., Halle, J., McGee, G., Odom, S., & Wolery, M. (2005). The use of single-subject research to identify evidence-based practice in special education. Exceptional Children, 71, 165-179. https://doi.org/10.1177/001440290507100203
https://doi.org/10.1177/0014402905071002...
). For future studies with the interest of evaluating the effect of training on teacher behavior, this design may be an interesting variable to more systematically measure the results.

Content and Skills/Behaviors Taught in the Training Programs Conducted with Teachers as Participants

The content delivered in the trainings of the reviewed studies were categorized into: information/facts about the phenomenon of bullying (contextualization about violence, identification of bullying, definition and characteristics, assessment of the phenomenon, research findings, feedback of the occurrence of bullying in the teachers’ classroom) (50%; n = 5); content about intervention to the bullying phenomenon (40%, N=4); content on bullying prevention (30%; n = 3); knowledge about research (action research) (10%; n = 1); one of the studies did not present the content of training (10%; n = 1); positive reinforcement; social and material reinforcement; modeling; extinction and differential reinforcement of the students’ target behavior; self-control techniques; role-playing and the directed game (10%; n = 1).

In Boulton (2014Boulton, M. J. (2014). Teachers’ self-efficacy, perceived effectiveness beliefs, and reported use of cognitive-behavioral approaches to bullying among pupils: Effects of in-service training with the I DECIDE Program. Behavior Therapy, 45, 328-343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.004
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.0...
)’s study, although the author describes that in the training teachers were taught how to prepare students at risk of bullying or how to teach the perpetrators of bullying to build more effective alternatives for dealing with situations, the author does not describe the behaviors/skills, besides describing in a few details the content taught, citing only the basic steps addressed by the I Decide Program, adopted in the training: thoughts, triggers, feelings, behaviors, and consequences.

The training of Ju et al. (2009Ju, Y., Wang, S., & Zhang, W. (2009). Intervention research on school bullying in primary schools. Frontiers of Education in China, 4, 111-122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-0
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-...
) addressed knowledge about research procedure and methodology; knowledge about school bullying; action research; intervention skills including brainstorming, quality circle, self-confidence training and roleplay, intervention program with the bullying victim and perpetrator, and the implementation of the intervention program conducted from the action research model: planning-action-observation-reflection. Although the authors mentioned that the training presented themes related to school bullying, this content was not described operationally by them.

Benitez et al. (2009Benitez, J. L, García-Berbén, A., & Fernández-Cabezas, M. (2009). The impact of a course on bullying with the pre-service teacher training curriculum. Journal of Research in Psychology, 7(1), 191-207.) developed the content contextualization on school violence and introduction to the bullying phenomenon: characteristics and definition of the problem, etiological factors, analysis of the agents involved, effects of bullying, phenomenon evaluation, knowledge and practice for intervention in bullying prevention.

Ross and Horne (2009Ross, S. W., & Horner, R. H. (2009). Bully prevention in positive behavior support. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 747-759. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2009.42-747
https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2009.42-747...
) did not describe the content presented in teacher training. The study only shows that the training involved the implementation of the BP-PBS program in 2 steps: 1) training involving the whole school: institutional, administrative staff and supervisors and 2) use of BP-PBS in the curriculum, by the staff, school, to train students. School staff received a one-hour workshop using the BP-PBS program manual. The article only indicated the website where this program would be available, but did not present which skills and/or contents were taught to teachers.

The study by Leadbeater et al. (2016Leadbeater, B. J., Thompson, K., & Sukhawathanakul, P. (2016). Enhancing social responsibility and prosocial leadership to prevent aggression, peer victimization, and emotional problems in elementary school children. American Journal of Community Psychology, 58(3-4), 365-376. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12092
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12092...
) involved students and teachers as participants and data collection was carried out in five phases. The one that involved teacher training was available online so that they could access the training. The research teams followed the online training of teachers, in groups of 20 to 40 people, as well as the fidelity of implementation. The article cites the main contents of the WITS program: resolving peer conflicts, increasing social responsibility (helping and caring) and promoting the use of teaching strategies in times of conflict. Professionals completed the training module questions individually. Each month, teachers were asked to select a book from a given list to use in their lesson plan by creating conversations to convey the messages of the WITS program.

O’Moore and Minton (2005O’Moore, A. M., & Minton, S. J. (2005). Evaluation of the effectiveness of an anti-bullying programme in primary schools. Aggressive Behavior, 31, 609-622. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098
https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098...
) implemented an intervention program consisting of four key elements: training of trainers who would work with the school community, training with teachers, meeting with parents, and informational brochures and manuals to students and parents. In one day of training developed with teachers, the content of the program involved: information about bullying behavior with emphasis on classroom management, the development of a positive atmosphere in the classroom and at school, leadership of people, and cooperation between parents and teachers.

Salmivalli et al. (2005Salmivalli, C., Kaukiainen, A., & Voeten, M. (2005). Anti-bullying intervention: Implementation and outcome. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 75, 465-487. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905x26011
https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905x26011...
) addressed topics such as facts about bullying including research findings and information about alternative methods of bullying intervention at the individual, classroom and school level. During the training, teachers received: feedback on their own classroom situation with pre-intervention data; facts about bullying, including research findings; information about alternative methods of bullying intervention at the individual, classroom and school level; free discussions and experience sharing about the effectiveness of interventions and plans for future interventions; consultations about individual cases. The main emphasis was on classroom interventions.

Mendes’ (2011Mendes, C. S. (2011). Prevenção da violência escolar: Avaliação de um programa de intervenção [Preventing school violence: An evaluation of an intervention program]. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, 45(3), 581-588. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0080-62342011000300005
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0080-6234201100...
) training for teachers addressed strategies and techniques for promoting social skills such as self-control, interpersonal relationships, and response repertoire to deal with bullying situations, aimed at reducing/preventing violence, to be used in the classroom with students. In their interventions with students, teachers used positive reinforcement, social and material reinforcement, modeling, extinction and differential reinforcement of the target behavior, self-control techniques, role-playing, and the directed game, teaching processes and strategies that they most likely learned during the training.

In the aforementioned studies, it is possible to identify that they focused on teaching teachers only content related to the issue of bullying at school, to the detriment of the concomitant teaching of important behaviors to deal with the social reality presented in schools. This still seems to be a limitation of the studies, especially when considering that the skills to deal with bullying situations involve much more than just “learning theoretically” about this phenomenon. From a behavior analytic perspective, for example, it is possible to define teaching as “an arrangement of contingencies under which students learn” (Skinner, 1968/1972Skinner, B. F. (1972). Tecnologia do ensino [The techonology of teaching]. Herder (Publicado originalmente em 1968)., p. 62), with learning understood as a change in behavior resulting from this arrangement (Kubo & Botomé, 2001Kubo, O. M., & Botomé, S.P. (2001) Ensino-aprendizagem: Uma interação entre dois processos comportamentais [Teaching and learning: An interaction between two behavioural processes]. Interação em Psicologia, 5, 133-170. https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v5i1.332
https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v5i1.332...
; Skinner, 1968/1972Skinner, B. F. (1972). Tecnologia do ensino [The techonology of teaching]. Herder (Publicado originalmente em 1968).). The contingencies are arranged by a trainer/teacher in order to make the learner able not only to “know a knowledge” but to “know how to deal with the world in light of the knowledge” (Kienen, 2008Kienen, N. (2008). Classes de comportamentos profissionais do psicólogo para intervir, por meio de ensino, sobre fenômenos e processos psicológicos, derivadas a partir das diretrizes curriculares, da formação desse profissional e de um procedimento de decomposição de comportamentos complexos [Classes of professional behavior of the psychologist to intervene, through teaching, on psychological phenomena and processes, derived from the curricular guidelines, the training of this professional and a procedure of decomposition of complex behaviors, PhD Dissertation in Psychology, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina]. Repositório Institucional UFSC. http://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/92016
http://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/...
; Kubo & Botomé, 2001Kubo, O. M., & Botomé, S.P. (2001) Ensino-aprendizagem: Uma interação entre dois processos comportamentais [Teaching and learning: An interaction between two behavioural processes]. Interação em Psicologia, 5, 133-170. https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v5i1.332
https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v5i1.332...
). Teaching, therefore, is not only about “transmitting content” but about developing behaviors that enable the learner to deal with aspects of their professional context (Bordignon & Botomé, 2017Bordignon, L. F., & Botomé, S. P. (2017). Avaliação de objetivos de ensino de história a partir da contribuição da Análise do Comportamento [Evaluation of History teaching objectives based on the contributions of Behavior Analysis]. Acta Comportamentalia: Revista Latina de Análisis de Comportamiento, 25(3), 329-346. https://www.revistas.unam.mx/index.php/acom/article/view/61630
https://www.revistas.unam.mx/index.php/a...
; Kubo & Botomé, 2001Kubo, O. M., & Botomé, S.P. (2001) Ensino-aprendizagem: Uma interação entre dois processos comportamentais [Teaching and learning: An interaction between two behavioural processes]. Interação em Psicologia, 5, 133-170. https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v5i1.332
https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v5i1.332...
).

Evidence suggests that universal, that is, school-wide interventions are the most effective means of reducing bullying behavior (Cross et al., 2011Cross, D., Epstein, M., Hearn, L., Slee, P., Shaw, T., & Monks, H. (2011). National Safe Schools Framework: Policy and practice to reduce bullying in Australian schools.International Journal of Behavioral Development,35(5), 398-404.https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025411407456
https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025411407456...
), and one factor determining the effectiveness of anti-bullying programs is the quality of training for school staff. However, research on training teachers and school staff on prevention and intervention in school bullying situations is still limited (Gorsek & Cunningham, 2014Gorsek, A. K., & Cunningham, M. M. (2014). A review of teachers’ perceptions and training regarding school bullying. PURE Insights, 3, 6. https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/pure/vol3/iss1/6
https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/pure/vol3...
).

Although all of the studies presented teacher training in their descriptions, only two of them presented and described the skills/behaviors taught to these participants, in addition to content. Table 3 presents the skills/behaviors taught.

Table 3
Description of the skills/behaviors taught.

In the study by Goncy et al. (2015Goncy, E. A., Sutherland, K. S., Farrell, A. D., Sullivan, T. N., & Doyle, S. T. (2015). Measuring teacher implementation in delivery of a bullying prevention program: The impact of instructional and procedural adherence and competence on student responsiveness. Prevention Research, 16, 440-450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-...
) teachers received training conducted by the School’s Bullying Prevention Coordinating Committee (BPCC) and an Olweus certified trainer. The meetings were characterized by teaching content such as identification of bullying and skills such as anger management, respect, stress, and problem solving through role-play, small group activities, discussions, information presentation, and then assessed teachers’ abilities to provide students with adequate instruction on how to handle conflict situations. The Psychoeducational intervention program Bully Busters: A Teacher's Manual for Helping bullies, victims and bystanders was used, in seven modules, which aimed to teach skills such as relaxation, coping and collaborative problem solving in addition to information on bullying and victimization, intervention strategies, stress management techniques and classroom activities.

In the study by Verseveld et al. (2021Verseveld, M.D.A.V., Fekkes, M., Fukkink, R.G., & Oostdam, R.J. (2021) Teacher’s experiences with difficult bullying situations on the school: An explporative study. Journal of Early Adolescence,41(1), 43-69. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431620939193
https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431620939193...
), training to teachers was aimed at teaching different skills that would enable them to identify, prevent, and reduce bullying. The e-learning was developed to increase teachers’ and staff’s awareness and their ability to respond to bullying; encourage them to model pro-social and positive behavior; help them actively create and maintain anti-bullying norms; and support them in implementing the program.

In the aforementioned studies, there was the teaching of skills/behaviors. Behavior is understood as the relationship between the subject’s actions and aspects of the physical and social environment, which concern both what precedes his action and what results from it (Kubo & Botomé, 2001Kubo, O. M., & Botomé, S.P. (2001) Ensino-aprendizagem: Uma interação entre dois processos comportamentais [Teaching and learning: An interaction between two behavioural processes]. Interação em Psicologia, 5, 133-170. https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v5i1.332
https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v5i1.332...
). The Experimental Behavior Analysis has teaching technology capable of effectively contributing to the teacher’s education based on knowledge about behavior (Skinner, 1968/1972Skinner, B. F. (1972). Tecnologia do ensino [The techonology of teaching]. Herder (Publicado originalmente em 1968).). One of these technologies is the Programming of Conditions for Behavior Development (PCDC) or Teaching Programming (Kienen et al., 2013Kienen, N., Kubo, O. M., & Botomé, S. P. (2013). Ensino programado e programação de condições para o desenvolvimento de comportamentos: Alguns aspectos no desenvolvimento de um campo de atuação do psicólogo [Programmed learning and programming of conditions to development of behaviors: Some aspects on development of an action field of psychology]. Acta Comportamentalia, 21(4), 481-494.), which proposes the teaching of behaviors that are relevant to the learner and the environment of which he/she is a part (Kienen, 2008Kienen, N. (2008). Classes de comportamentos profissionais do psicólogo para intervir, por meio de ensino, sobre fenômenos e processos psicológicos, derivadas a partir das diretrizes curriculares, da formação desse profissional e de um procedimento de decomposição de comportamentos complexos [Classes of professional behavior of the psychologist to intervene, through teaching, on psychological phenomena and processes, derived from the curricular guidelines, the training of this professional and a procedure of decomposition of complex behaviors, PhD Dissertation in Psychology, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina]. Repositório Institucional UFSC. http://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/92016
http://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/...
; Kubo & Botomé, 2001Kubo, O. M., & Botomé, S.P. (2001) Ensino-aprendizagem: Uma interação entre dois processos comportamentais [Teaching and learning: An interaction between two behavioural processes]. Interação em Psicologia, 5, 133-170. https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v5i1.332
https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v5i1.332...
), contributing to the development of behaviors that will allow him/her to solve problems that he/she faces in his/her daily life.

Such training initially proposes to characterize the social needs of the target audience, in this case teachers, and to survey the possibilities of action derived from these needs (Kienen et al., 2013Kienen, N., Kubo, O. M., & Botomé, S. P. (2013). Ensino programado e programação de condições para o desenvolvimento de comportamentos: Alguns aspectos no desenvolvimento de um campo de atuação do psicólogo [Programmed learning and programming of conditions to development of behaviors: Some aspects on development of an action field of psychology]. Acta Comportamentalia, 21(4), 481-494.). In order to teach the relevant behaviors, the programming of the teaching conditions will take into account: (1) the problem situations that the learners will have to deal with in their natural environment, (2) the outcomes that will be produced by the learners’ actions, both during the learning process (training) and in the natural environment (outside the classroom) and, finally, (3) the responses that will have to be emitted by them in order to produce such outcomes (Cortegoso & Coser, 2011Cortegoso, A. L., & Coser, D. S. (2011). Elaboração de programas de ensino: Material autoinstrutivo [Teaching programs elaboration: self instructive material]. EdUFSCar.).

In order to do so, it is necessary to identify the repertoire of entry of these learners, i.e., which behaviors they are not presenting on a daily basis, but should, and those that are presented, but should not (Cortegoso & Coser, 2011Cortegoso, A. L., & Coser, D. S. (2011). Elaboração de programas de ensino: Material autoinstrutivo [Teaching programs elaboration: self instructive material]. EdUFSCar.). From this, the trainer will be able to decide where to start teaching and which relevant behaviors should be developed for the teacher’s performance in the school context.

In teaching by behavior development, in addition to the dimensions of “time” and “content”, the behaviors that the learner should be able to present in their reality are considered (Botomé & Kubo, 2002Botomé, S. P., & Kubo, O. M. (2002). Responsabilidade social dos Programas de Pós- Graduação e formação de novos cientistas e professores de nível superior [Social responsibility of postgraduate courses and programs of formation of new scientists and teachers of superior level]. Interação em Psicologia, 6(1), 81-110. https://doi.org/10.5380/psi/v6i1.3196
https://doi.org/10.5380/psi/v6i1.3196...
). Therefore, unlike just presenting information about the bullying phenomenon, its characteristics or even content on prevention and management, as proposed by most of the studies reviewed in this article, training developed through PCDC may be an efficient and effective alternative (Carvalho, 2015Carvalho, G. S. (2015). Estabelecer objetivos de ensino: Um programa de ensino para capacitar futuros professores [Stablish teaching objectives: A teaching program to train future teachers, Master’s Thesis in Beahorial Analysis, Universidade Estadual de Londrina]. Programa de Mestrado em Análise do Comportamento. http://www.uel.br/pos/pgac/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/“Estabelecer-objetivos-de-ensino”-um-programa-de-ensino-para-capacitar-futuros-professores.pdf
http://www.uel.br/pos/pgac/wp-content/up...
; Gonçalves, 2015Gonçalves, V. M. (2015). Avaliação da eficiência de um programa de ensino para capacitar estudantes de graduação em Psicologia a “definir variáveis relacionadas a processos comportamentais” [Evaluation of the efficiency of a teaching program to train graduate students in Psychology to “define variables related to behavioral processes”, Master’s Thesis in Behavioral Analysis, Universidade de Londrina]. Programa de Mestrado em Análise do Comportamento. http://www.uel.br/pos/pgac/dissertacoes-defendidas/
http://www.uel.br/pos/pgac/dissertacoes-...
; Luca, 2013Luca, G. G. (2013). Avaliação da eficácia de um programa de contingências para desenvolver comportamentos constituintes da classe geral “avaliar a confiabilidade de informações” [Evaluation of the effectiveness of a contingency program to develop behaviors of the general class “evaluate the reliability of information”, PhD Dissertation in Psychology, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina]Repositório Institucional da UFSC . https://repositorio.ufsc.br/handle/123456789/122722
https://repositorio.ufsc.br/handle/12345...
; Teixeira, 2010Teixeira, F. C. (2010). Avaliação da eficácia de um programa para ensinar pais a analisar e sintetizar comportamentos na interação com seus filhos [Evaluation of the effectiveness of a program to teach parents to analyze and synthesize behaviors in interactions with their children, PhD Dissertation in Psychology, Universidade de Santa Catarina]. Repositório Institucional da UFSC. https://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/94390
https://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle...
) for teaching relevant behaviors to teachers so that they can act in bullying situations that arise in the school environment.

Study Limitations

The study by Boulton (2014Boulton, M. J. (2014). Teachers’ self-efficacy, perceived effectiveness beliefs, and reported use of cognitive-behavioral approaches to bullying among pupils: Effects of in-service training with the I DECIDE Program. Behavior Therapy, 45, 328-343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.004
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.0...
) presented limitations such as lack of detailed description of the procedure, making it difficult to replicate the study to future interested parties, as well as providing only the general topics addressed by the workshop developed with the teachers.

In the studies by Buils et al. (2020Buils, R. F., Miendes, A. C., & Oliver, M. R. (2020). Effect of a cyberbullying prevention program integrated in the primary education curriculum. Revista de Psicodidáctica, 25(1), 23-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicod.2019.08.001
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicod.2019.08...
), Ju et al. (2009Ju, Y., Wang, S., & Zhang, W. (2009). Intervention research on school bullying in primary schools. Frontiers of Education in China, 4, 111-122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-0
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-...
), and Verseveld et al. (2021Verseveld, M.D.A.V., Fekkes, M., Fukkink, R.G., & Oostdam, R.J. (2021) Teacher’s experiences with difficult bullying situations on the school: An explporative study. Journal of Early Adolescence,41(1), 43-69. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431620939193
https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431620939193...
), the measurement of the dependent variable was conducted only in relation to student behavior, even though they developed a training with teachers as participants. The study did not make clear how the intervention with teachers contributed to the results. The description of the study was very general about how the teachers actually participated in the intervention. Furthermore, there was no follow up to verify if the effect of the intervention was maintained over time. Studies such as those of Benitez et al. (2009Benitez, J. L, García-Berbén, A., & Fernández-Cabezas, M. (2009). The impact of a course on bullying with the pre-service teacher training curriculum. Journal of Research in Psychology, 7(1), 191-207.) and Salmivalli et al. (2005Salmivalli, C., Kaukiainen, A., & Voeten, M. (2005). Anti-bullying intervention: Implementation and outcome. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 75, 465-487. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905x26011
https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905x26011...
) described the procedure without detail making replication difficult for future interested parties. Like the study by Ju et al. (2009Ju, Y., Wang, S., & Zhang, W. (2009). Intervention research on school bullying in primary schools. Frontiers of Education in China, 4, 111-122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-0
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-009-0007-...
) and Newman-Carlson and Horne (2004Newman-Carlson, D., & Horne, A. M. (2004) Bully busters: A psychoeducational intervention for reducing bullying behavior in middle school students. Journal of Counseling & Development, 82, 259-267. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004.tb00309.x
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004...
), there was no follow up to see if the effect of the intervention was maintained over time.

Regarding the evaluation of the intervention with teachers, in the study by Goncy et al. (2015Goncy, E. A., Sutherland, K. S., Farrell, A. D., Sullivan, T. N., & Doyle, S. T. (2015). Measuring teacher implementation in delivery of a bullying prevention program: The impact of instructional and procedural adherence and competence on student responsiveness. Prevention Research, 16, 440-450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-...
), the authors indicated that too many observers in a small room may have influenced the behavior of the participants. Also, there was no baseline to verify how teachers carried out instruction to students before the intervention and, as the authors themselves indicate, it would be necessary to reevaluate the reliability and validity of the measures.

In Ross and Horner’s (2009Ross, S. W., & Horner, R. H. (2009). Bully prevention in positive behavior support. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 747-759. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2009.42-747
https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2009.42-747...
) study there was no evaluation of teachers’ behavior before and after training, only from the students. The research by Leadbeater et al. (2016Leadbeater, B. J., Thompson, K., & Sukhawathanakul, P. (2016). Enhancing social responsibility and prosocial leadership to prevent aggression, peer victimization, and emotional problems in elementary school children. American Journal of Community Psychology, 58(3-4), 365-376. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12092
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12092...
) was conducted in rural schools which limited the generalizability of the results, as indicated by the authors. Also, the study was a long-term study and, during the course of the study, there were no constant measures in order to minimize the possibility of extraneous variables’ influence. Although the study by O’Moore and Minton (2005O’Moore, A. M., & Minton, S. J. (2005). Evaluation of the effectiveness of an anti-bullying programme in primary schools. Aggressive Behavior, 31, 609-622. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098
https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20098...
) presented a training program with interesting themes in the theoretical and practical spheres with the professionals responsible for training teachers, with enough time to cover issues of extreme relevance for those who live in environments where bullying situations recur, the training of teachers covered few contents and in a period of few hours. Finally, in the study by Mendes (2011Mendes, C. S. (2011). Prevenção da violência escolar: Avaliação de um programa de intervenção [Preventing school violence: An evaluation of an intervention program]. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, 45(3), 581-588. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0080-62342011000300005
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0080-6234201100...
) there was no evaluation of the behavior of teachers before and after the training, only of students. There was no detailed description of the contents presented to the teachers in the training sessions, nor of the procedure, making replication difficult. No follow up was performed.

Regarding the results, only 33% of the studies (Benitez et al., 2009Benitez, J. L, García-Berbén, A., & Fernández-Cabezas, M. (2009). The impact of a course on bullying with the pre-service teacher training curriculum. Journal of Research in Psychology, 7(1), 191-207.; Boulton, 2014Boulton, M. J. (2014). Teachers’ self-efficacy, perceived effectiveness beliefs, and reported use of cognitive-behavioral approaches to bullying among pupils: Effects of in-service training with the I DECIDE Program. Behavior Therapy, 45, 328-343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.004
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2013.12.0...
; Goncy et al., 2015Goncy, E. A., Sutherland, K. S., Farrell, A. D., Sullivan, T. N., & Doyle, S. T. (2015). Measuring teacher implementation in delivery of a bullying prevention program: The impact of instructional and procedural adherence and competence on student responsiveness. Prevention Research, 16, 440-450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-...
; Newman-Carlson & Horne, 2004Newman-Carlson, D., & Horne, A. M. (2004) Bully busters: A psychoeducational intervention for reducing bullying behavior in middle school students. Journal of Counseling & Development, 82, 259-267. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004.tb00309.x
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004...
) presented the evaluation of knowledge, perception and/or behaviors of teachers after the training provided to them. It is observed that in all studies there was teacher training. However, in only 25% (Goncy et al., 2015Goncy, E. A., Sutherland, K. S., Farrell, A. D., Sullivan, T. N., & Doyle, S. T. (2015). Measuring teacher implementation in delivery of a bullying prevention program: The impact of instructional and procedural adherence and competence on student responsiveness. Prevention Research, 16, 440-450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-...
; Newman-Carlson & Horne, 2004Newman-Carlson, D., & Horne, A. M. (2004) Bully busters: A psychoeducational intervention for reducing bullying behavior in middle school students. Journal of Counseling & Development, 82, 259-267. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004.tb00309.x
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004...
) the behaviors/skills taught were assessed and presented in the results. It is likely that the conditions arranged to assess the dependent variable interfered with the imprecise and detailed description of the study results that assessed teachers' knowledge and skills.

Table 4 shows the studies that evaluated and presented the results of teacher knowledge, perception and/or behavior.

Table 4
Results about teachers’ knowledge, perception and/or behaviors.

In addition to the lack of description of skills/behaviors, another limitation presented by the studies was lack of detailed description of the content presented to teachers in the training sessions. In addition, in 83% of the studies, although there was teacher training in their interventions, there was no assessment of the participants’ knowledge. Therefore, there is a difficulty in identifying whether, in fact, the contents addressed in the trainings, even if presented in a general way, contributed to the teachers’ knowledge.

The few studies that evaluated teacher knowledge (Benitez et al., 2009Benitez, J. L, García-Berbén, A., & Fernández-Cabezas, M. (2009). The impact of a course on bullying with the pre-service teacher training curriculum. Journal of Research in Psychology, 7(1), 191-207.; Newman-Carlson & Horne, 2004Newman-Carlson, D., & Horne, A. M. (2004) Bully busters: A psychoeducational intervention for reducing bullying behavior in middle school students. Journal of Counseling & Development, 82, 259-267. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004.tb00309.x
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004...
) did so with the use of questionnaires through which improvements in teacher knowledge on the subject could be verified. However, the lack of follow up did not allow us to identify whether the results of the intervention were maintained over time. Finally, one of the studies (Goncy et al., 2015Goncy, E. A., Sutherland, K. S., Farrell, A. D., Sullivan, T. N., & Doyle, S. T. (2015). Measuring teacher implementation in delivery of a bullying prevention program: The impact of instructional and procedural adherence and competence on student responsiveness. Prevention Research, 16, 440-450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0508-...
) that had teacher behavior as the dependent variable, did not conduct baseline (pre-test) in order to verify teachers’ skills (how they issued instructions) before training. When there are no measurements before the intervention the internal validity of the study is further compromised (Ttofi & Farington, 2012Ttofi, M. M., & Farrington, D. P. (2012). Risk and protective factors, longitudinal research, and bullying prevention. New Directions for Youth Development, 133, 85-98. https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.20009
https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.20009...
). Furthermore, when proposing a training, identifying and describing the learners’ input repertoire is of fundamental importance for the trainer to be clear about what should be taught and where to begin teaching their program (Cortegoso & Coser, 2011Cortegoso, A. L., & Coser, D. S. (2011). Elaboração de programas de ensino: Material autoinstrutivo [Teaching programs elaboration: self instructive material]. EdUFSCar.).

In short, the most frequent limitations presented by the studies were: lack of description and assessment of the skills/behaviors taught to the teachers in the trainings (83%, n = 10); lack of detailed description of the content presented to the teachers in the trainings (75%, n = 9); lack of follow up (75%, n = 9); and lack of detailed description of the procedure, which hinders the possibilities of replication (50%, n = 6). Furthermore, similar to the findings of Cantone et al. (2015Cantone, E., Piras, A. P., Vellante, M., Preti1, A., Daníelsdóttir, S., D’Aloja, E., Lesinskiene, S., Angermeyer, M. C., Carta, M. G., & Bhugra, D. (2015). Interventions on bullying and cyberbullying in schools: A systematic review. Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental Health, 11, 58-76. https://doi.org/10.2174/1745017901511010058
https://doi.org/10.2174/1745017901511010...
) in a systematic review of studies that described interventions on bullying and cyberbullying in schools, it was noted in the present review that in the studies that conducted teacher training, there was a wide variability of experimental designs and lack of common standardized measures in outcome evaluation, which characterizes important limitations in this research field.

Therefore, it is suggested that future studies that aim to enable teachers to intervene in the school bullying phenomenon can include measures such as pre-test, post-test and follow-up in their research, in addition to constant measures of teacher behavior throughout the experiment, thus allowing a greater control of variables, increase of the internal and external validity of the study and, consequently, a more adequate evaluation of the intervention’s effectiveness.

Also, developing training for teachers based on PCDC, which proposes from the elaboration of teaching objectives relevant to the learner and his social context, to the programming, application, evaluation and improvement of both learning processes and teaching procedures (Kienen et al., 2013Kienen, N., Kubo, O. M., & Botomé, S. P. (2013). Ensino programado e programação de condições para o desenvolvimento de comportamentos: Alguns aspectos no desenvolvimento de um campo de atuação do psicólogo [Programmed learning and programming of conditions to development of behaviors: Some aspects on development of an action field of psychology]. Acta Comportamentalia, 21(4), 481-494.), can be efficient and effective alternatives given the scientific evidence of training programs developed based on this area of study (Carvalho, 2015Carvalho, G. S. (2015). Estabelecer objetivos de ensino: Um programa de ensino para capacitar futuros professores [Stablish teaching objectives: A teaching program to train future teachers, Master’s Thesis in Beahorial Analysis, Universidade Estadual de Londrina]. Programa de Mestrado em Análise do Comportamento. http://www.uel.br/pos/pgac/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/“Estabelecer-objetivos-de-ensino”-um-programa-de-ensino-para-capacitar-futuros-professores.pdf
http://www.uel.br/pos/pgac/wp-content/up...
; Gonçalves, 2015Gonçalves, V. M. (2015). Avaliação da eficiência de um programa de ensino para capacitar estudantes de graduação em Psicologia a “definir variáveis relacionadas a processos comportamentais” [Evaluation of the efficiency of a teaching program to train graduate students in Psychology to “define variables related to behavioral processes”, Master’s Thesis in Behavioral Analysis, Universidade de Londrina]. Programa de Mestrado em Análise do Comportamento. http://www.uel.br/pos/pgac/dissertacoes-defendidas/
http://www.uel.br/pos/pgac/dissertacoes-...
; Luca, 2013Luca, G. G. (2013). Avaliação da eficácia de um programa de contingências para desenvolver comportamentos constituintes da classe geral “avaliar a confiabilidade de informações” [Evaluation of the effectiveness of a contingency program to develop behaviors of the general class “evaluate the reliability of information”, PhD Dissertation in Psychology, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina]Repositório Institucional da UFSC . https://repositorio.ufsc.br/handle/123456789/122722
https://repositorio.ufsc.br/handle/12345...
; Teixeira, 2010Teixeira, F. C. (2010). Avaliação da eficácia de um programa para ensinar pais a analisar e sintetizar comportamentos na interação com seus filhos [Evaluation of the effectiveness of a program to teach parents to analyze and synthesize behaviors in interactions with their children, PhD Dissertation in Psychology, Universidade de Santa Catarina]. Repositório Institucional da UFSC. https://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/94390
https://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle...
).

This study showed some limitations, such as the reduced number of selected and reviewed studies and their methodological diversity, which prevented the realization of a meta-analysis. Still, it is possible that, when carrying out searches in other databases, different results are found, recovering studies that were not included in this review. Despite these limitations, it is noteworthy that the present study seems to be the first systematic review, to the authors’ knowledge, about teacher training on the subject of school bullying.

Final Considerations

Systematic literature reviews, such as this one, are fundamental to scientific research as they allow the identification of the knowledge produced in a particular field of study, identify relevant variables to be investigated, and possibilities for future research (Randolph, 2009Randolph, J. J. (2009). A guide to writing the dissertation literature review. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 14(13), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.7275/b0az-8t74
https://doi.org/10.7275/b0az-8t74...
).

The selection and characterization of the studies retrieved made it possible to identify that teacher training on the school bullying theme has not yet been considered an object of study itself, especially in Brazil. The methodology employed by the few studies that evaluated teachers’ behavioral repertoire makes it difficult to identify whether the research participants actually developed a repertoire that the training proposed to teach. Furthermore, it was possible to identify that the focus of the training courses is more on providing theoretical knowledge to teachers than on promoting the development of behaviors that make them more capable of dealing with school bullying. Besides a change in perception, it is necessary that teachers are taught how to behave and use appropriate strategies to manage this problem.

One of the main determinant factors in the effectiveness of an anti-bullying program is the quality of staff training (Lund et al., 2012Lund, E. M., Thoas, K. B., Sias, C. M., & Bradley, A. R. (2012). School counselors’ and school psychologists’ bullying prevention and intervention strategies: A look into real-world practices. Journal of School Violence, 11, 246-265. https://doi.org/10.1080/15388220.2012.682005
https://doi.org/10.1080/15388220.2012.68...
). However, researches on teacher training focused on school bullying prevention and intervention are still limited (Gorsek & Cummingam, 2014Gorsek, A. K., & Cunningham, M. M. (2014). A review of teachers’ perceptions and training regarding school bullying. PURE Insights, 3, 6. https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/pure/vol3/iss1/6
https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/pure/vol3...
). It is suggested that future research that has as an independent variable training for teachers proposes to teach content and behaviors for the prevention and management of bullying situations in order to prepare them to deal with day-to-day situations that arise in the school environment. Furthermore, it is suggested to evaluate the participants’ behavior with pre-test, post-test, follow-up and constant measures throughout the training, in addition to the use of a single-subject design.

This study made it possible to identify what has been produced about teacher training on school bullying, nationally and internationally, in terms of variables researched in such studies, identification of gaps present in these studies, and possibilities of improvement for future studies, with the intent of contributing to the advancement of scientific research, either by conducting systematic replications, or even, arranging contingencies for planning and researching new variables.

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  • *
    Support: CAPES - funding code 001. The article is part of the author’s doctoral thesis.

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    07 July 2023
  • Date of issue
    2023

History

  • Received
    13 July 2018
  • Accepted
    08 Apr 2020
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