Abstract
Background
Adult–child relational interactions constitute an essential component of out-of-school-time programs, and training staff to effectively interact with children is key to improving program quality. Efficient staff training, that meets the limited time availability of out-of-school time staff, is particularly needed.
Objective
This pilot study introduces Simple Interactions (SI), an innovative, strengths-based, and interaction-based professional development approach. Rather than attempting to teach generic competencies or targeting weakness areas for improvement, SI is designed to help program staff build from their strengths.
Methods
In two cohorts over the course of 10 months, ten afterschool programs (N = 70 staff) participated in a pilot of SI. Program staff watched short video clips of themselves working with children and used the intuitive, 1-page SI Tool to guide discussion of adult–child interactions; specifically, connection (affective intune-ness), reciprocity (balanced roles of engagement), participation (involving all children), and progression (incremental challenge).
Results
Results suggest that participants valued the professional development process, the strengths-based approach, and the use of self-video despite initial apprehension, and reported perceived improvements in their professional learning communities. Pre-post videos of Cohort 2 staff (n = 20), coded blind to time point (pre or post), indicate significant and substantive improvements in staff–child connection, reciprocity, and participation.
Conclusion
These results support the use of this simple, practical, and potentially effective model of supporting quality improvement for and by local staff.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, J. P., Pianta, R. C., Gregory, A., Mikami, A. Y., & Lun, J. (2011). An interaction-based approach to enhancing secondary school instruction and student achievement. Science, 333(6045), 1034–1037.
Amobi, F. A., & Irwin, L. (2009). Implementing on-campus microteaching to elicit preservice teachers’ reflection on teaching actions: Fresh perspective on an established practice. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 9(1), 27–34.
Benson, P. (2008). Sparks: How parents can ignite the hidden strengths of teenagers. San Francisco, CA: Jossy-Bass.
Borko, H., Jacobs, J., Eiteljorg, E., & Pittman, M. E. (2008). Video as a tool for fostering productive discussions in mathematics professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 417–436.
Bouffard, S. M., & Little, P. M. (2004). Promoting quality through professional development: A framework for evaluation. Issues and opportunities in out-of-school time evaluation, 1(8), 1–12.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Browne, D. (2015). Growing together, learning together: What cities have discovered about building afterschool systems. New York: The Wallace Foundation.
Bushe, G. R. (2011). Appreciative inquiry: Theory and critique. In D. Boje, B. Burnes, & J. Hassard (Eds.), The Routledge companion to organizational change (pp. 87–103). Oxford: Routledge.
Cohen, J. (1960). A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20(1), 37–46.
Cooperrider, D. L., & Whitney, D. (2005). Appreciative inquiry: A positive revolution in change. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.
Cresswell, J. W., Plano-Clark, V. L., Gutmann, M. L., & Hanson, W. E. (2003). Advanced mixed methods research designs. In A. Tashakkori & C. Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research (pp. 209–240). New York: Sage Publications.
De Vries, H., Elliott, M. N., Kanouse, D. E., & Teleki, S. S. (2008). Using pooled kappa to summarize interrater agreement across many items. Field Methods, 20(3), 272–282.
Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., & Pachan, M. (2010). A meta-analysis of after-school programs that seek to promote personal and social skills in children and adolescents. American Journal of Community Psychology, 45(1), 294–309.
Eccles, J., & Gootman, J. A. (2002). Community programs to promote youth development. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
Fisher, J., & Wood, E. (2012). Changing educational practice in the early years through practitioner-led action research: An Adult–child interaction project. International Journal of Early Years Education, 20(2), 114–129.
Friedman, S. R., de Jong, W. M., Rockwell, R., Rossi, D., & Touze, G. (2006). Two kinds of positive deviance approaches to HIV prevention by IDUs: “Molecular” (small group) and formal organizational prevention models. Washington DC: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Fukkink, R. G., & Lont, A. (2007). Does training matter? A meta-analysis and review of caregiver training studies. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 22(3), 294–311.
Greene, J. C., Caracelli, V. J., & Graham, W. F. (1989). Toward a conceptual framework for mixed-method evaluation designs. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 11(3), 255–274.
Halpern, R. (2003). Making play work: The promise of after-school programs for low income children. New York: Teacher’s College Press.
Hammond, S. (2013). The thin book of appreciative inquiry (3rd ed.). Bend, OR: Thin Book Publishing.
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York: Routledge.
Hill, S., Matloff-Nieves, S., & Townsend, L. O. (2009). Putting our questions at the center: Afterschool Matters practitioner fellowships. Afterschool Matters, 8(1), 46–50.
Hirsch, B. J., Deutsch, N. L., & DuBois, D. L. (2011). After-school centers and youth development: Case studies of success and failure. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Holton, E. F., Wilson, L. S., & Bates, R. A. (2009). Toward development of a generalized instrument to measure andragogy. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 20(2), 169–193.
Howard, G. S. (1980). Response-shift bias: A problem in evaluating interventions with pre/post self-reports. Evaluation Review, 4(1), 93–106.
Kaasila, R., & Lauriala, A. (2010). Towards a collaborative, interactionist model of teacher change. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(4), 854–862.
Kirkpatrick, D. L. (1998). Evaluating training programs: The four levels. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.
Knowles, M. J. (1973). The adult learner: A neglected species. Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing Company.
Landis, J. R., & Koch, G. G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33(1), 159–174.
Lerner, R. M. (2009). The positive youth development perspective: Theoretical and empirical bases of a strengths-based approach to adolescent development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J. V., Lewin-Bizan, S., Bowers, E. P., Boyd, M., Meuller, M. K., et al. (2011). Positive youth development: Processes, programs, and problematics. Journal of Youth Development, 6(3), 41–64.
Li, J. (2014). Simple interactions tool. The Fred Rogers Center. Retrieved from http://www.simpleinteractions.org/the-si-tool.html.
Li, J., & Julian, M. M. (2012). Developmental relationships as the active ingredient: A unifying working hypothesis of “what works” across intervention settings. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 82(2), 157–166.
Mahoney, J. L., Parente, M. E., & Lord, H. (2007). After school program engagement: Links to child competence and program quality and content. The Elementary School Journal, 107(4), 385–404.
Marsh, D. R., Schroeder, D. G., Dearden, K. A., Sternin, J., & Sternin, M. (2004). The power of positive deviance. British Medical Journal, 329(1), 1177–1179.
Mashburn, A., Pianta, R., Hamre, B., Downer, J., Barbarin, O., Bryant, D., et al. (2008). Measures of pre-k quality and children’s development of academic, language and social skills. Child Development, 79(1), 732–749.
Morse, J. M. (1991). Strategies for sampling. In J. M. Morse (Ed.), Qualitative nursing research: A contemporary dialogue. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications.
National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. (2004). Young children develop in an environment of relationships. Working Paper No. 1. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/reports_and_working_papers.
Nickols, F. W. (2005). Why a stakeholder approach to evaluating training. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 7(1), 121–134.
Portney, L. G., & Watkins, M. P. (2000). Foundations of clinical research: Applications to practice. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc.
Quinn, J. (2012). Advancing youth work: Opportunities and challenges. In D. Fusco (Ed.), Advancing youth work: Current trends, critical questions (pp. 207–215). New York: Routledge.
Sabol, T. J., Hong, S. L. S., Pianta, R. C., & Burchinal, M. R. (2013). Can rating pre-K programs predict children’s learning. Science, 341(6148), 845–846.
Saldana, J. (2009). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Los Angelos, CA: Sage.
Scherer, L. A., Chang, M. C., Meredith, J. W., & Battistella, F. D. (2003). Videotape review leads to rapid and sustained learning. American Journal of Surgery, 185(6), 516–520.
Seidel, T., Stürmer, K., Blomberg, G., Kobarg, M., & Schwindt, K. (2011). Teacher learning from analysis of videotaped classroom situations: Does it make a difference whether teachers observe their own teaching or that of others? Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(2), 259–267.
Shrout, P. E., & Fleiss, J. L. (1979). Intraclass correlations: Uses in assessing rater reliability. Psychological Bulletin, 86(2), 420–428.
Smith, C., Akiva, T., Lo, Y.-J., Sugar, S., Frank, K. A., Peck, S. C., et al. (2012). Continuous quality improvement in afterschool settings: Impact findings from the Youth Program Quality Intervention study. Washington, DC: The Forum for Youth Investment.
Smith, C., Peck, S., Denault, A. S., Blazevski, J., & Akiva, T. (2010). Quality at the point of service: Profiles of practice in after-school settings. American Journal of Community Psychology, 45(3–4), 358–369.
Sternin, M., Sternin, J., & Marsh, D. R. (1997). Sustained childhood malnutrition alleviation through a positive deviance approach in rural Vietnam: Preliminary findings. In O. Wollinka, E. Keeley, B. Burkhalter, & N. Bashir (Eds.), The hearth nutrition model: Applications in Haiti, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. Arlington, VA: BASICS.
Stigler, J. W., & Hiebert, J. (1999). The teaching gap: Best ideas from the world’s teachers for improving education in the classroom. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
Van Vonderen, A., Duker, P., & Didden, R. (2010). Instruction and video feedback to improve staff’s trainer behaviour and response prompting during one-to-one training with young children with severe intellectual disability. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 31(6), 1481–1490.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. In M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman (Eds. and trans.) Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Walker, J., & Walker, K. (2012). Establishing expertise in an emerging field. In D. Fusco (Ed.), Advancing youth work: Current trends, critical questions (pp. 39–51). New York: Routledge.
What Works Clearinghouse. (2014). WWC Procedures and Standards Handbook (Version 3.0). Washington, DC: What Works Clearinghouse, Institute of Education Sciences, US Department of Education. Available from: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/referenceresources/wwc_procedures_v3_0_standards_handbook.pdf.
Yohalem, N., Wilson-Ahlstrom, A., Fischer, S., & Shinn, M. (2009). Measuring youth program quality: A guide to assessment tools (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://forumfyi.org/files/MeasuringYouthProgramQuality_2ndEd.pdf.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by grants from The Grable Foundation (132R10) and The Heinz Endowments (E1386).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Akiva, T., Li, J., Martin, K.M. et al. Simple Interactions: Piloting a Strengths-Based and Interaction-Based Professional Development Intervention for Out-of-School Time Programs. Child Youth Care Forum 46, 285–305 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-016-9375-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-016-9375-9