Poster #207 - Getting Ready to Learn: The Importance of Initial Feasibility Studies in Large Scale Research Design

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Social and emotional experiences early in life bolster children’s development and establish the foundation for strong academic and personal outcomes (Denham, 2006; Konold & Pianta, 2005). Yet, social-emotional learning has been referred to as the “missing piece” of education because it is not traditionally a focus of teacher preparation, curricula, or learning standards (CASEL, 2013). Teachers report that they struggle to balance competing demands of both academic and social-emotional teaching, as well as limited training around how to best support children’s social-emotional needs (Torres, Domitrovich, & Bierman, 2015). This underscores the importance of providing teachers with resources to support social-emotional teaching and learning, as emerging challenging behaviors can be linked to lower social-emotional competencies (Spokek, 2007).

A four-week Social Emotional Learning (SEL) program designed to support children and teachers in social-emotional and approaches to learning content during the first month of school was piloted in a single classroom in an urban, community-based, preschool. Get Ready to Learn (GRTL) is a full-day program for three- and four-year-olds that focuses on acclimating children to the school environment while helping teachers use sustainable, developmentally appropriate classroom management practices. Lessons emphasize social-emotional skills and approaches to learning, and include explicit links to early learning standards. Although integrated into a larger curriculum, GRTL was developed to function with any curriculum, and has potential to serve as a stand-alone program that helps children adjust to the classroom and excel socially and academically (Curby et al., 2015; Denham & Brown, 2010). The authors are investigating the possibility of using this program as a standalone support for early childhood classrooms. The purpose of this small-scale feasibility pilot was to gather feedback and evaluative data before launching a 60-classroom randomized control trial (RCT) evaluation of the program. Results and lessons learned were incorporated into changes for the full-scale RCT, including changes to content, measurement, and training and support resources.

Initial results suggest that GRTL is associated with improvements in teacher quality and children’s social-emotional skills. Specifically, teachers showed improvements in the Emotional Support and Classroom Organization domains of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). The classroom moved from mid-range to high-range scores in both domains, suggesting that GRTL participation supported improvements in emotional climate and teachers’ general classroom management practices (see Table 1). Additionally, children in the study classroom showed meaningful improvements in the Total Protective Factors subscales of the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for Preschoolers (DECA), with gains made in children’s Initiative, Self-Regulation, and Relationships. Children also showed improvements on the Positive Behavior Rating Scale (PBRS) (see Table 2). Lessons learned and applied to the full RCT included: adaptations to accommodate constraints of many commonly-used curricula, implementation challenges associated with enrollment and teacher pedagogy, measurement changes to better fit the project, and the extreme importance of communication with schools.

In summary, the GRTL feasibility study provided valuable information to inform a full pilot study. In addition to lessons learned, initial findings are promising and suggest links from GRTL participation to improvements in teacher quality and child social-emotional outcomes.

Authors

• Abby Carlson, AppleTree Institute
  Presenting Author

• Felicia Truong, AppleTree Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Leah Dowling, AppleTree Institute for Education Innovation
  Non-Presenting Author

• Megan Newman, AppleTree Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kelly Trygstad, AppleTree Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Daniel Friel, LIFT
  Non-Presenting Author