Assessing the Efficacy of a Comprehensive Intervention in Physical Science on Head Start Teachers and Children

The research team will recruit and randomly assign two cohorts of teachers to intervention and control group conditions. The research team will deliver the three components of the professional development program (instructional sessions, coaching, and implementation of one unit of the Young Scientist Series) to teachers in the intervention group. Teacher-, child-, and classroom-level data will be collected in fall and spring of the preschool year. The research team will analyze the data to address these main research questions: (1) To what extent does FSL impact Head Start teachers' attitudes toward, and knowledge of, physical science content and effective pedagogy for 4-year-olds?; (2) To what extent does FSL impact Head Start teachers' classroom practice in teaching physical science to 4-year-olds?; and (3) To what extent do 4-year-olds in FSL classrooms develop a greater understanding of physical science content, quantitative concepts, and skills related to physical science inquiry, compared to peers in control classrooms? The research team will examine relevant mediating and moderating variables and assess the fidelity of both program delivery and classroom implementation.