Millions of young children attend childcare settings in the United States and the quality of these early childhood settings, such as the activities children engage in and how teachers interact with children, matter for children’s development. This study was designed to test the impacts of a tech-enabled observation and feedback system focused on quality practices in early childcare. A randomized trial of 46 childcare professionals using items from a new observational quality tool outlining specific EBP, Brief Early Childhood Quality Inventory (BEQI), in Nebraska, was conducted. Treatment and control groups were observed virtually for 90 min by trained observers and received results from their observations on a set of evidence-based practices (EBP), such as engaging children in conversations about feelings and reading books. Treatment group participants then engaged in goal setting for EBP and received text-based messages for 12 weeks, while control group members only received observation results. Results indicated that treatment group members were significantly more likely to increase EBP that were targeted for change over the course of 12 weeks, with 62% showing improvement on two or more target EBP, whereas only 21% of the control group showed improvement on two or more target EBP. 70% of treatment group members agreed that the program was beneficial for the children in their care, and 73% would recommend the program to another childcare professional. Providing feedback to educators based on a simple observational tool can help promote adoption of EBP in childcare settings, with positive effects of an intervention focused on goal setting and support for specific practices through text messaging.

在美国，数以百万计的幼儿在托儿机构就读，这些幼儿机构的质量（例如儿童参与的活动以及教师如何与儿童互动）对于儿童的发展至关重要。这项研究旨在测试技术支持的观察和反馈系统的影响，该系统专注于早期儿童保育的质量实践。在内布拉斯加州，对 46 名儿童保育专业人员进行了一项随机试验，使用了新的观察质量工具中的项目，概述了特定的 EBP，即简短的幼儿质量量表 (BEQI)。由训练有素的观察员对治疗组和对照组进行 90 分钟的虚拟观察，并从他们对一系列循证实践 (EBP) 的观察中获得结果，例如让儿童参与有关感受的对话和读书。然后，治疗组参与者参与 EBP 目标设定并接收基于文本的消息，持续 12 周，而对照组成员仅接收观察结果。结果表明，治疗组成员更有可能在 12 周内提高目标 EBP，其中 62% 的成员在两个或多个目标 EBP 上表现出改善，而对照组中只有 21% 在两个或多个目标 EBP 上表现出改善。更多目标 EBP。 70% 的治疗组成员同意该计划对他们照顾的儿童有益，73% 的人会向另一位儿童保育专业人员推荐该计划。基于简单的观察工具向教育工作者提供反馈可以帮助促进 EBP 在儿童保育环境中的采用，重点关注目标设定和通过短信支持具体实践的干预措施具有积极效果。