Development and evaluation of an integrated early childhood development and violence prevention teacher-training intervention in Jamaican preschools

“IRIE课堂工具箱”是一个普遍的暴力预防方案，为低收入和中等收入国家(LMIC)制定，涉及对学龄前教师进行课堂行为管理以及如何促进幼儿的社会情感能力的培训。我们最近在牙买加进行了一项研究，随机分配了76所学前教育机构，要么在“IRIE课堂工具箱”中接受培训(38所学校，115名教师)，要么在以后接受培训(38所学校，114名教师)。我们发现，与没有接受过培训的教师相比，接受过Irie课堂工具箱培训的教师使用针对儿童的暴力(包括体罚、言语虐待和恐吓)的次数减少了67%。此外，培训显著改善了课堂的情绪和组织气氛，并观察了孩子们在班级中的亲社会技能。对随机抽样的儿童(n=865)进行了评估，发现干预对儿童抑制性控制和临床水平行为困难儿童的比例有好处。虽然干预教师提供的教学支持也有显著的好处，但干预教师和对照教师的得分都很低(满分为7分)，表明认知和语言刺激不足。为了最大限度地发挥“IRIE课堂工具箱”的有效性，以促进儿童在认知和语言领域以及社交和情感领域的发展，教师需要额外的培训。在这项研究中，我们计划评估一个关于教学支持的模块，包括i)如何促进儿童的高阶思维和认知，ii)如何提供反馈以扩大儿童的学习和理解，以及iii)如何促进儿童的语言发展。在“IRIE课堂工具箱”中接受培训的20所学龄前儿童将被随机分配到一组教师接受教学支持培训(10所学校，30间教室)或不接受任何额外培训的第二组(10所学校，30间教室)。还将对每个班级随机抽取5名儿童进行评估(300名儿童，每组150名)。干预包括2个全天培训讲习班和4个课堂支持会议(为期4个月，每月一次)。我们将评估干预对教师在教与学活动中使用教学策略的影响。我们还将评估被选中的儿童的入学准备和语言技能。为确保这项额外培训不会降低教师的行为管理技巧，我们会衡量两组教师使用暴力侵害儿童的情况和儿童的行为困难，并会持续记录与实施干预措施有关的因素，包括教师对教材的投入程度、他们在实施策略方面的优势和需要，以及实施策略的障碍和推动因素。通过这项研究，我们将调查干预措施的可接受性、可行性和有效性，并将利用这些数据制定适合全国传播的干预手册，包括供教师使用的材料(如活动指南)和供培训者使用的材料(如培训手册)。通过这项研究产生的增强的“IRIE课堂工具箱”将是一个教师培训计划，旨在：1)防止教师对儿童的暴力行为；2)防止反社会行为的早期发展；3)在幼儿课堂上促进儿童的社交、情感认知和语言技能。该干预措施将适用于训练有素的教师，他们在LMIC资源匮乏的环境中工作。这项研究的成果将对全球预防暴力议程和改善儿童发展的全球目标作出重大贡献。

The 'Irie Classroom Toolbox' is a universal violence prevention programme, developed for use in low and middle-income countries (LMIC), which involves training preschool teachers in classroom behaviour management and in how to promote young children's social-emotional competence. We recently conducted a study in Jamaica in which 76 preschools were randomly assigned to either receive training in the 'Irie Classroom Toolbox' (38 schools, 115 teachers) or to receive the training at a later date (38 schools, 114 teachers). We found that teachers trained in the 'Irie Classroom Toolbox' used 67% less violence against children (including physical punishment, verbal abuse and intimidation) than teachers who did not receive the training. Furthermore, the training led to significant improvements to the emotional and organisational climate of the classroom, and to observations of children's class-wide prosocial skills. A random sample of children was evaluated (n=865) and benefits of intervention were found for children's inhibitory control and for the proportion of children with clinical level behaviour difficulties. Although significant benefits were also found to the instructional support offered by intervention teachers; the scores for both intervention and control teachers were low (<2 on a 7-point scale); indicating that cognitive and language stimulation was inadequate. To maximise the effectiveness of the 'Irie Classroom Toolbox' to promote children's development across the cognitive and language domains in addition to the social and emotional domains, teachers need additional training. In this study, we plan to evaluate a module on instructional support which will include include i) how to promote children's higher order thinking and cognition, ii) how to provide feedback to expand child learning and understanding and iii) how to facilitate children's language development. 20 preschools who been trained in the 'Irie Classroom Toolbox' will be randomly assigned to a group in which teachers receive training in instructional support (10 schools, 30 classrooms) or a second group that will receive no additional training (10 schools, 30 classrooms). A random sample of 5 children per class will also be evaluated (300 children; 150 in each group). The intervention involves 2 full-day training workshops and 4 in-class support sessions (once a month for four months). We will evaluate the effect of the intervention on teachers' use of the instructional strategies during teaching and learning activities. We will also evaluate the selected children's school readiness and language skills. To monitor that this additional training does not reduce teachers' behaviour management skills, we will measure teachers' use of violence against children and child behaviour difficulties in both groups.We will document factors relating to the implementation of the intervention on an on-going basis including teachers' engagement with the material, their strengths and needs in implementing the strategies and barriers and enablers to implementation. Through this study we will investigate the acceptability, feasibility and effectiveness of the intervention and we will use the data to develop intervention manuals that are suitable for national dissemination including materials for teachers (e.g. activity guides) and materials for trainers (e.g. training manuals).The enhanced 'Irie Classroom Toolbox' produced through this study will be a teacher-training programme to i) prevent violence against children by teachers, ii) prevent the early development of antisocial behaviour and iii) promote children's social, emotional cognitive and language skills in early childhood classrooms. The intervention will be suitable for use with poorly trained teachers, working in poorly resourced settings in LMIC. The outputs of this study will make a strong contribution to the global agenda on violence prevention and the global goal of improved child development.