Elsevier

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Volume 38, 1st Quarter 2017, Pages 57-70
Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Improving teacher-child interactions: A randomized controlled trial of Making the Most of Classroom Interactions and My Teaching Partner professional development models

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2016.08.005Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Tested effects of two professional development models on teacher-child interactions.

  • Design included random selection of teachers and random assignment to condition.

  • Both models significantly improved scores on some CLASS domains relative to control.

  • Teachers perceived both models as more valuable than professional development provided to control teachers.

Abstract

The effectiveness of two professional development interventions, each designed to strengthen teacher-child interactions in preschool classrooms, was tested using a teacher-level randomized controlled trial. Georgia’s Pre-K teachers (n = 486 in 336 schools/centers) were randomly selected from specified regions and randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1) Making the Most of Classroom Interactions (MMCI), a cohort-model where small groups of teachers met for five days of instruction and support; 2) My Teaching Partner (MTP), in which teachers worked one-on-one with a coach using cycles of videotaped observations of teaching, review, and feedback; or 3) control. Each participating teacher received a Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008) visit before and after the intervention from a trained, independent, blinded observer. Posttest scores were estimated as a linear function of condition and pretest score, using 2-level hierarchical linear models (HLMs). Findings indicated MMCI resulted in significantly higher posttest scores on Emotional Support and Instructional Support, and marginally higher posttest scores on Classroom Organization, as compared to controls. MTP resulted in significantly higher scores on Emotional Support. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for large-scale interventions to improve teacher-child interactions in early childhood programs.

Keywords

Pre-kindergarten
Professional development
Teacher-child interactions
Quality

Cited by (0)

This study was funded by Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL). The opinions in this report do not necessarily reflect those of the funding agency. Portions of this manuscript have appeared in a publically available report and technical appendix available at: http://www.decal.ga.gov/BftS/EvaluationGAPreKProfDev.aspx.

1

Deceased. In memory of Dr. Yi Pan who cared deeply about the provision of quality early childhood education for disadvantaged children worldwide. The co-authors are greatly saddened by the loss of a friend and colleague.