Assessing Generalization During Professional Development in Child Care: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Area of Science:

• Early Childhood Education
• Professional Development
• Special Education

Background:

• Early childhood educators often lack training in evidence-based strategies for diverse learners, including those with developmental delays.
• Supporting meaningful learning engagement requires effective instructional approaches.
• This gap impacts the quality of education for young children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the effects of a professional development program on early childhood providers.
• To compare the impact of the program with and without generalization training.
• To assess effects on provider implementation fidelity, knowledge, self-efficacy, and child social-communication skills and book reading engagement.

Main Methods:

• A preliminary study involved 12 center-based child care providers.
• Providers participated in the Early Achievements for Child Care Providers program, with one group receiving additional generalization training.
• Outcomes measured included provider fidelity, knowledge, self-efficacy, and child social-communication and engagement.

Main Results:

• Providers receiving generalization training showed greater implementation fidelity in generalization contexts.
• No other significant differences were observed between the groups for provider outcomes.
• Children in both groups demonstrated comparable and significant gains in social-communication skills and book reading engagement.

Conclusions:

• Explicit generalization training is crucial for providers to effectively transfer evidence-based practices to new contexts.
• A short implementation period may not be sufficient to yield differential benefits for child outcomes.
• Future professional development designs should incorporate provider feedback to optimize the feasibility of generalization training.