Assessing Quality Quickly: Validation of the Responsive Interactions for Learning - Educator (RIFL-Ed.) Measure. Issue 6 (18th August 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sokolovic, Nina; Brunsek, Ashley; Rodrigues, Michelle; Borairi, Sahar; Jenkins, Jennifer M.; Perlman, Michal
• Is Part Of: Early education and development. Volume 33:Issue 6(2022)
• Page Start: 1061
• Page End: 1076
• Publication Date: 2022-08-18
• Subjects: Child development -- United States -- Periodicals; Child psychology -- United States -- Periodicals; Education, Preschool -- United States -- Periodicals; Early childhood education -- United States -- Periodicals; 372.21097305
• DOI: 10.1080/10409289.2021.1922851
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1040-9289

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Research Findings: In this study, we tested whether it is possible to reliably evaluate the quality of interactions between early childhood educators and children using a thin-slice coding approach. Ninety-seven early childhood educators were videotaped for two five-minute intervals: one mealtime observation and one standardized activity. Videos were scored using the shortened and revised 15-item Responsive Interactions for Learning – Educator (RIFL-Ed.) measure, an open-access measure that takes less than ten minutes to administer and score. The RIFL-Ed. demonstrated good psychometric properties when used for mealtime observations and scores were associated with the Emotional and Behavioural Support (b = 0.19, p = .02) – and to some extent the Engaged Support for Learning (b = 0.15, p = 0.07) – domains of the widely used Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS): Toddler Version. Less than half of the variance in scores was shared across educators in the same classrooms. Practice or Policy: If these preliminary results can be confirmed in larger studies, the RIFL-Ed.—an open-access measure for which fast and free online training is available– can be used to affordably scale-up targeted quality assessment and improvement efforts in early childhood education and care settings, efforts which have been shown to positively impact children's developmental outcomes.