Effect of Professional Development in Science

This trial is a randomized controlled trial aimed at assessing the effectiveness of a nine-month-long professional development program to improve early childhood educators' and carers' self-efficacy for science approaches, engagement with science, and attitudes toward science in early childhood education and care (ECEC).

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) staff often struggle in working with science with small children, as the National Strengthened Pedagogical Curriculum (Ministry of Children and Education, 2020) is difficult to put into practice. Thus, they are challenged with regard to meeting the national objectives for this in this regard. A large-scale professional development program is developed and implemented to overcome this gap and to enhance ECEC staff's self-efficacy, engagement with, and attitudes toward science.

The intervention is developed by UCL teaching staff in collaboration with the municipality of Odense with the aim of offering all children in Odense municipality's ECEC program a playful and investigative approach to science as defined in the national curriculum theme 'Nature, outdoor life and natural phenomena' by offering ECEC staff extensive professional development in this field. The professional development course will be delivered by UCL teaching staff from the area of early childhood education and care in two consecutive runs, each of nine months duration.

The professional development consists of a combination of three workshops and three e-learning modules. In between workshops and e-learning modules, the ECEC staff implement the content practically by working with science with the children, while receiving supervision from a teacher from the professional development. The set-up is based on the model of teacher professional growth (Clark \& Hollingsworth, 2002). The aim of the professional development program is that ECEC staff becomes able to construct and enhance science-oriented learning environments, thus providing the children with educative experiences with science (Dewey, 1913). The aim of the trial is to assess the effectiveness of the intervention to improve early childhood educators' and carers' self-efficacy for science approaches, engagement with science, and attitudes toward science in early childhood education.

The study is a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT). A total of approximately 1400 ECEC staff will be randomized to the professional development in the first run or Education and Care as Usual (ECAU). The ECAU group in the first run will receive the intervention in a second run once the first run is completed.

Participants are ECEC staff in pedagogical positions (i.e. pedagogues, assistants, assistant teachers, and daily leaders) employed in a combined nursery and kindergarten in Odense municipality. Participants must be able to fill out questionnaires in Danish.

Data will be collected at baseline (pre-intervention), after 4.5 months (midway), and 9 months after baseline, when the intervention is completed.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Adults employed in a day nursery and/or kindergarten center in the municipality of Odense at the start of the intervention
* Employed in one of four pedagogical positions: pedagogues \[pædagoger\], assistants \[pædagogiske assistenter\], assistant teachers \[pædagogmedhjælpere\], and daily leaders \[dalig leder\]

Exclusion Criteria:

* Employed in other positions than the four above in a day nursery and/or kindergarten center
* "at home child carers" \[dagpleje\]
* Not able to fill out questionnaires in Danish