Promoting the quality of teacher-toddler interactions: A randomized controlled trial of “Thrive by Three” in-service professional development in 187 Norwegian toddler classrooms.

The purpose of the study was to see if the Thrive by Three intervention could improve the interaction between kindergarten staff and toddlers over a period of ten months, compared to a control group.

The results showed clear differences between the intervention and control groups. During the Thrive by Three intervention, the quality of interaction between the kindergarten teacher and toddlers in the intervention groups increased, while decreasing in the control group. This particularly applied to the areas of emotional and behavioural support and engaged support for learning. The intervention thus had a positive effect on how the kindergarten teachers interacted with the toddlers.

The study is part of the larger Thrive by Three project, where the data material consists of a cluster-randomised sample of 80 kindergartens in Norway. A total of 187 toddler wards were randomly distributed among either the Thrive by Three intervention group (n = 87) or a control group with usual activities (n = 100). Thrive by Three is a ten-month professional development programme specifically aimed at increasing the quality of interaction in toddler departments in Norwegian kindergartens. Interaction quality was assessed using the toddler version of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS-Toddler) at three measurement times: before, midway through, and after the intervention.

Buøen, E. S., Lekhal, R., Lydersen, S., Berg-Nielsen, T. S. & Drugli, M. B. (2021). "Promoting the quality of teacher-toddler interactions: A randomized controlled trial of “Thrive by Three” in-service professional development in 187 Norwegian toddler classrooms". Frontiers in Psychology, 12:778777.