Table 1.

Possible Research Questions for Early Childhood Professional Development

Process Variables in Professional Development

1. (How) Do the various forms of professional development (i.e., specialized training, coaching/consulting, and Communities of Practice), individually and in combination, promote (a) increased knowledge, skill, dispositions, and practices among early childhood practitioners; and (b) a culture for ongoing professional growth?

2. What elements or components of each of the forms of professional development contribute to positive and lasting change? How do these components function to effect change in knowledge, skills, dispositions, and practice?

3. What is the process by which early childhood practitioners move from a focus on mastery of intervention implementation to self-regulated professional growth?

4. What is the best mechanism for scaffolding practitioners’ skill development over time? What is the developmental course for skill development, and how does that interact with coaching strategies?

5. (How) Does reflection on intervention and practice relate to/predict change in practice or ongoing development? Does it mediate the effects of professional development?

6. How does delivery of training/coaching/consulting (e.g., face-to-face; web-mediated; group versus individual) effect skill acquisition and practice?

7. What strategies do effective coaches/trainers/facilitators use? What specific behaviors of the trainer, coach/consultant, and facilitator lead to observed change and positive growth in the early childhood practitioner?

8. What supports do coaches need to be most effective?

9. What are the functional mechanisms/strategies that facilitate meaningful self-reflection in early childhood practitioners?

10. What types or forms of feedback are effective at producing which outcomes? What are the elements of feedback that influence knowledge and behavior change?

11. What professional development strategies facilitate fidelity of intervention implementation?

12. How are professional development efforts related to outcomes of children and families for whom early childhood educators are responsible?

13. What is the relationship between competency and decision-making skill in a coach/consultant, and the associated change in skill and practice among learners?

14. What is the process by which coaches, consultants, and facilitators make decisions about the practitioners’ needs, and the selection of strategies to scaffold their learning, promote their skill acquisition, and facilitate their change in practice?

Personal and Relational Variables in Professional Development

1. What makes an effective coach/consultant/facilitator? What makes an effective learner?

2. How do characteristics of the coach and of the early childhood educator influence the professional development relationship?

3. How do personal characteristics of the early childhood practitioner (e.g., beliefs, values, role construct, readiness for change) relate to knowledge and skill acquisition, and readiness for change?

4. What is motivating to facilitate professional change? What is an effective incentive?

5. What is the effect of an early childhood professional’s conceptualization of the link between their practices and child/family outcomes?

6. What factors influence the best fit between coach and practitioner?

7. What is the influence of trust, shared goals, respect, commitment, and other intangible relationship qualities on coaching effectiveness?

8. Does a positive trainer/coach/practitioner relationship mediate the effects of professional development on practitioner change?

Contextual and Systemic Variables in Professional Development

1. What factors within the early childhood agency or work environment influence uptake of professional development efforts? How do they effect change in skill/practice?

2. What is the influence of an agency’s culture on uptake and maintenance of effective professional development outcomes?

3. How does professional work setting (school versus home) or context (Early Head Start, Head Start, public or private pre-Kindergarten) influence professional development delivery or uptake?

Means to Promote Sustained Change

1. What actions engaged in by individuals and agencies produce long-term maintenance and institutionalization of professional change?

2. What intensity and duration of coaching is needed to promote sustained change?

3. What are the costs of effective professional development models? How much does it cost in terms of resources on the part of trainers, coaches and practitioners? What resources and supports are necessary to produce results?

4. What is the effect of Communities of Practice on climates for ongoing professional growth? How do personal and relational variables in work settings interact with CoPs?

5. How do agencies sustain effective professional development activities once external resources are removed? How do programs sustain best practices in professional development once external resources are removed?