Implementation Readiness for Early Childhood Interventions: A Teacher-Centered Approach

• In Event: Implementation Research in Early Care and Education: Proximal and Distal Factors Influencing Curricula Implementation

Abstract

Background: Implementation readiness is necessary to assure high implementation fidelity of interventions (Durlak & DuPre, 2008). Daycare teachers’ implementation fidelity (e.g., number of lessons delivered) is a significant predictor of early childhood intervention outcomes (e.g. Bleses et al., 2018). However, little is known about teachers’ patterns of readiness to implement early childhood interventions across daycare centers. Since prior theory and research suggest that implementation readiness is multidimensional (Damschroder et al., 2009), we examined daycare teachers’ implementation readiness in an integrated, variable-centered perspective. Adopting this person-centered perspective let us identify teacher profiles and examine implementation readiness as emerging from the intersection of organizational context, personal attributes, and attitudes related to early childhood interventions and their benefits to children.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were threefold. First, teacher profiles were identified in terms of both distal and proximal implementation readiness. Second, the teacher profiles were explained by structural center characteristics, such as amount of turnover and sick leave. Lastly, predictive validity of the teacher profiles was examined by relating them to two measures of implementation fidelity: dosage (number of lessons implemented) and adherence (use of lesson plans as intended).

Study population: Participants were 1,192 Danish daycare teachers in 260 daycare centers that took part in two large-scale RCTs aimed at implementing preliteracy and language interventions for 3-6-year-olds. Prior to the-intervention, teachers completed questionnaires about (a) distal implementation readiness, which concerned the extent to which teachers perceived a supportive organizational setting for educational development combined with their personal development attributes and (b) proximal implementation readiness, which addressed teachers’ attitudes towards the intervention’s characteristics (e.g., procedures, goals and effects).

Methods: Two Multilevel Latent Profile Analyses (MLPA) were conducted to identify teacher profiles in terms of distal and proximal implementation readiness. Predictive validity of the teacher profiles was tested by relating them to implementation fidelity in multilevel regressions.

Results: Results revealed teacher profiles of varying implementation readiness, for distal (Figure 1) and proximal (Figure 2) implementation readiness. Neither set of profiles was significantly related to daycare center characteristics. Variance at the daycare center level indicated that teachers with the same profile of distal implementation readiness did not cluster together in daycares, whereas teachers with the same proximal profile did. Teachers with high distal implementation readiness showed higher implementation dosage (β = .08) and adherence (β = .16) in interventions than teachers with low distal implementation readiness (p < 0.05). Teachers with positive (β = .22) and neutral (β = .16) proximal implementation readiness had higher implementation adherence than teachers with negative proximal implementation readiness (p < 0.05), but profiles were not significantly related to implementation dosage. Overall, we conclude that implementation readiness of daycare teachers predicts implementation fidelity of early education interventions. Findings point to the importance of teachers’ collective implementation readiness and teachers’ pre-intervention attitude preparation. These attributes are important to consider when designing future interventions in childcare settings.

Authors

• Dorthe Bleses, Aarhus
  Presenting Author

• Marinka M. Willemsen, Aarhus University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kelly M Purtell, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laura M. Justice, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Pauline Slot, Universiteit Utrecht
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anders Hojen, University of Southern Denmark
  Non-Presenting Author