Promoting the Quality of Teacher-Toddler Interactions: A Randomized Controlled Trial of "Thrive by Three" In-Service Professional Development in 187 Norwegian Toddler Classrooms.

Stian Lydersen,Elisabet Solheim Buøen,Ratib Lekhal,Turid Suzanne Berg-Nielsen,May Britt Drugli

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.778777

Abstract

The effectiveness of the Thrive by Three intervention, a 10-month, multicomponent, in-service professional development model to promote the quality of caregiver-toddler interactions (i.e., process quality), was tested utilizing a clustered randomized controlled design. Eighty childcare centers with 187 toddler classrooms in Norway were randomly assigned to either the Thrive by Three intervention group (n=87) or a usual-activity wait list control group (n=100). Interactional quality was assessed with the Toddler version of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS-Toddler) at three timepoints: pre-, mid-, and post-intervention. There were significant group differences in change in quality during the intervention period in both CLASS domains, Emotional and Behavioral Support (EBS), and Engaged Support for Learning (ESL), with greater overall differences in the ESL domain. Quality increased in the intervention groups, but quality decreased in the control group from baseline to post-intervention. There were significant group differences in quality at baseline. The Thrive by Three intervention had a positive effect on teacher-toddler interactions in both the EBS and ESL domains. Results need to be replicated preferably in more diverse samples.Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT03879733.

Highlights

A third of all children in OECD countries under the age of 3 years attend professional childcare (OECD, 2019)
Several in-service continuous professional development programs have been developed to improve the quality of caregiver-child interactions
In an attempt to fill this void, we developed, implemented, and tested a multicomponent, professional development model, Thrive by Three, aimed at improving the quality of caregiver-toddler interactions in 187 toddler classrooms in Norway

Summary

Introduction

A third of all children in OECD countries under the age of 3 years attend professional childcare (OECD, 2019). Studies with sufficiently rigorous designs to study the effects of such programs on process quality are lacking for the youngest children (ages 1 to 3 years) in childcare (see Eurofond, 2015; Egert et al, 2018). The model is based on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; La Paro et al, 2012) and previous research on professional development (Sheridan, 2001; Sheridan et al, 2009; Eurofond, 2015) It has a specific focus on competence building with all staff in the toddler classroom to foster more positive caregiver-toddler interactions

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Conclusion