The impact of in-service professional development on the quality of teacher-child interactions in early education and care: A meta-analysis

Abstract

A growing body of evidence reveals the importance of high-quality teacher-child interactions in early childhood education and care (ECEC) for learning and the behavioral engagement of young children before they enter school (Mashburn et al., 2008;Ponitz, Rimm-Kaufman, Grimm, & Curby, 2009). In general, teachers' performance and effectiveness is seen a function of their behavior in classrooms and their interactions with students. In line with that, the "Teaching Through Interactions" framework (Hamre et al., 2013) assumes that the quality of interactions between children and adults is the primary mechanism to promote developmental gains. This paper therefore focuses on efforts to improve the quality of teacher-child-interactions in ECEC classrooms. According to the framework, interactions between teacher and child are distinguished in three domains, namely emotional support (ES), classroom organization (CO), and instructional support (IS). The observational measure Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS Pre-K) was developed to assess the quality of teacher-child interactions in ECEC for these three domains based on this framework (Hamre et al., 2013;Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008a). Emotional support (ES) involves teacher sensitivity and their responsiveness to children's signals, as well as regard for student perspectives, interests, and motivation (Pianta et al., 2008a). Classroom organization (CO) comprises a variety of teacher-child interactions that help students to organize their behavior and attention related to classroom routines and academic goals (Hamre et al., 2013). A teacher who sets clear rules, organizes stable classroom routines, uses proactive approaches to discipline, and provides interesting and diversified activities contributes significantly to children's motivation and engagement in learning tasks (Pianta et al., 2008a). Instructionally supportive teachers (IS) offer a wide range of learning activities to enhance knowledge of concepts and language, relate new information to students' background knowledge and real-world experiences, and provide learning feedback that is immediate, corrective, and specific (Hamre et al., 2013;Pianta et al., 2008a). High levels of ES, CO or IS indicate that a teacher provides high-quality teacher-child interactions consistently throughout the day and during different activities (Hamre et al., 2013;Pianta et al., 2008a). Teacher-child interactions and child developmentEmpirical research has found consistent associations between the quality of teacher-child interactions measured with the CLASS and children's outcomes. The magnitude of this association is small (see Keys et al., 2013;Perlman et al., 2016). Recent research indicates that a certain quality threshold must be reached to affect students' school readiness skills (Hatfield, Burchinal, Pianta, & Sideris, 2016;Wieland, Ulvestad, Sachs, & Yoshikawa, 2013). Further, different quality domains of teacher-child interactions seem to be predictive for specific competencies of children in preschool and kinderga...

Intervention Programs to Promote the Quality of Caregiver–Child Interactions in Childcare: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Previous metanalyses highlighted some characteristics of the training programs that seem to be related to outcomes. Egert et al [17] found that the intensity of CLASS-based trainings (defined as hours spent in group training sessions per month) is negatively associated to ES outcomes. Werner et al [11] found that programs with individual training were more effective than programs without individual training, while program duration and intensity had not been found to moderate program effectiveness.…”

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“…The TSYT is designed to solicit the tutors' instruction, help and guidance, and to speed up young teachers' professional development in their teaching and research. It is a fundamental initiative for faculty development for colleges and a key means for in-service professional training [4].…”

Development of Group-Based Differentiated Learning (GBDL) Models

“…The development of effective social abilities can be carried out using group or cooperative learning. [11] established that the teaching model can be grouped into 4, including information processing, personal, social, and behavioral groups. All student activities in learning programs have to be democratic, meaning that the learning process should develop the ability as individuals and have a beneficial social ability, which is beneficial for students.…”