ABSTRACT

Research Findings: Several barriers can impede the use and effectiveness of intensive professional development programs, such as courses and coaching, for educators across today’s mixed delivery early education system. The present study introduces and tests a light-touch text message-based approach to encourage educators’ use of two high-quality practices with children: (a) making transitions more efficient and (b) promoting children’s language through open-ended questioning. As part of a six-week intervention, 116 educators participating in a statewide study of early education were randomized to a treatment group receiving three text messages per week about the targeted practices or to a control group receiving no messages. At the end of the intervention, teachers in the treatment group, as compared to those in the control group, spoke more to children in their settings, although they listened less. No statistically significant impacts were observed on transition-related outcomes. Moderated impacts by provider type were observed, with educators in family child care programs experiencing the largest changes in language practices. Practice & Policy. Text message supports can influence educators’ practices with young children, though not always in expected ways or for all educators, suggesting that individualized light-touch approaches could respond to early educators’ unique strengths and needs.

摘要

研究成果：一些障碍可能会阻碍密集专业发展计划的使用和有效性，例如课程和辅导，适用于当今混合交付早期教育系统的教育工作者。本研究介绍并测试了一种基于轻触短信的方法，以鼓励教育工作者对儿童使用两种高质量的做法：(a) 提高过渡效率和 (b) 通过开放式提问促进儿童的语言。作为为期六周干预的一部分，参与全州早期教育研究的 116 名教育工作者被随机分配到每周接收三条有关目标实践的短信的治疗组或不接收任何信息的对照组。干预结束时，治疗组教师与对照组相比，在他们的环境中与孩子们说得更多，尽管他们听得更少。没有观察到对过渡相关结果的统计显着影响。观察到提供者类型的适度影响，家庭儿童保育计划的教育者在语言实践方面经历了最大的变化。实践与政策。短信支持可以影响教育工作者对幼儿的实践，尽管并不总是以预期的方式或对所有教育工作者都如此，这表明个性化的轻触式方法可以响应早期教育工作者的独特优势和需求。