ABSTRACT

The quality of early care and education affects a wide range of children’s experiences and developmental outcomes. Family Child Care (FCC) is no exception, and attention to increasing the quality of Family Child Care is needed. The purpose of the current study was to examine an experimental case of intensive Professional Development (PD) in FCC programmes focusing on domain-specific quality (language and literacy) and global quality. Forty-nine FCC providers in two states participated in the study. Thirty-eight FCC providers received intensive PD support, including five three-hour training workshops on early language and literacy, weekly onsite technical assistance, and monthly Community of Practice meetings. Eleven FCC providers served as a comparison group. The Child/Home Environmental Language and Literacy Observation (CHELLO) and Family Child Care Environmental Rating Scale (FCCERS-R) were used to measure the quality of FCC. Results showed significant improvement in the high-intensity PD group on both measures. The study presents a promising model of PD that may be an appropriate approach to embed within Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) in early child care and education.

摘要

早期护理和教育的质量会影响儿童的广泛经历和发展成果。家庭儿童保育（FCC）也不例外，需要注意提高家庭儿童保育的质量。本研究的目的是研究FCC计划中密集专业发展（PD）的实验案例，重点是针对特定领域的质量（语言和素养）和全球质量。两个州的49个FCC提供商参加了该研究。38个FCC提供商获得了广泛的PD支持，包括五个关于早期语言和读写能力的三小时培训班，每周的现场技术援助以及每月的实践社区会议。11个FCC提供者作为比较组。儿童/家庭环境语言和读写能力观察（CHELLO）和家庭儿童保育环境等级量表（FCCERS-R）用于测量FCC的质量。结果表明，高强度PD组在这两种措施上都有显着改善。这项研究提出了一种有前途的PD模型，它可能是嵌入幼儿保育和教育质量等级和改进系统（QRIS）中的合适方法。