The Technology-Enhanced, Research-Based, Instruction, Assessment, and Professional Development (TRIAD) Scale-Up Model and Its Effects: Teaching Early Mathematics With Trajectories and Technologies

• In Event: 58.026 - Longitudinal Evaluation of a Scale-Up Model: Critical Components and Effects on Persistence and Sustainability

Abstract

Objectives

This presentation summarizes the theoretical framework, the TRIAD model, and its immediate effects, including moderators and mediators.=

Theoretical Framework

The overarching theoretical framework is an elaboration of the Network of Influences framework, which considers successful implementation of an intervention at scale to involve multiple coordinated efforts to introduce, implement, and maintain the integrity of the vision and practices of an innovation through increasingly numerous and complex socially-mediated filters (see Figure 1).

From this model we developed the scale-up model is called TRIAD, for Technology-enhanced, Research-based, Instruction, Assessment, and professional Development. The model’s acronym suggests that successful scale-up must address the triad of essential components of any educational intervention and that the model is based on research and enhanced by the use of technology. TRIAD consists of 10 guidelines (full descriptions and myriad citations will be shared) such as #5, “Provide professional development that is ongoing, intentional, reflective, goal-oriented, focused on content knowledge and children’s thinking, grounded in particular curriculum materials, situated in the classroom and the school.”

Methods for Empirical Evaluation

A series of studies have been conducted to evaluate instantiations of the TRIAD model and its components. We emphasize the largest here.

Data Sources

This study included 1,375 preschoolers in 106 classrooms serving low-resource communities in two states. The administration of both school systems agreed to the implementation across their districts. Therefore, we could both randomly select and randomly assign schools. Further, teachers were not volunteers—a common limitation in many such studies.

Results

We attempted a complete implementation of the TRIAD-based intervention in these two school districts. This led to similar results to the earlier studies, including adequate fidelity (e.g., mean of 4, or “Agree,” on 1-5 Likert scale) and outcomes for children (g = 0.72). Further, TRIAD group outperformed children in the control group on a measure of oral language, suggesting general educational benefits. Also:

• Use of the technology component increased achievement.
• African-Americans benefitted more than other groups.
• The follow-through TRIAD component decreased fade out in Kindergarten and 1st grade.
• Observational factors mediated the effect of treatment on students’ math outcome scores, especially the “classroom culture” score (the quality of teacher/students interactions, as well as teacher attributes such as confidence, joy, curiosity and enthusiasm).

Scientific Significance

The TRIAD model shows promise in scaling up at least one educational intervention across a large number of diverse populations and contexts in the early childhood system, avoiding the dilution and pollution that often frustrates interventionists. This supports not only the TRIAD model, but also the more general hypothesis that intentional, theoretically- and empirically-based models can support initial interventions, scale up, and sustainability.

We will end by illustrating what aspects of our theoretical model were tested during the project (e.g., certain intervention components, such as J and M to O in Figure 1, and especially O to R) and what had not yet been evaluated—the purpose of the remainder of the papers.

Authors

• Douglas H. Clements, University of Denver

• Julie Sarama, University of Denver

• Carrie Germeroth, University of Denver