Browsing by Author "Reese, Meredith H. T."

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    Evaluating the Use of Relationship-Based Professional Development to Decrease Suspension and Expulsion in Minnesota Child Care Programs
    (2020) Bailey, Ann E.; Reese, Meredith H. T.
    The Center for Inclusive Child Care and the Center for Early Education and Development at the University of Minnesota evaluated the use of Relationship-Based Professional Development (RBPD) in coaching licensed child care providers throughout Minnesota. The goal of the Inclusion Coaching Project is to support providers in serving young children who have special needs and/or challenging behaviors. The purpose of the evaluation was to determine the process and impact of implementing RBPD and coaching with child care providers, as a means for supporting and sustaining care for children with special needs. The overall results demonstrated increases in providers’ knowledge of recommended practices, their ability to develop and implement inclusion practices, their feelings of efficacy and confidence in their work, and decreases in the rates of suspension/expulsion of young children with special needs. Providers reported that the single most important factor that influenced their perception of the Inclusion Coaching Program was the quality of the relationship they developed with their coach.
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    Evaluation of Preschool Creative Play Program: Assessing Virtual Adaptation
    (2022) Reese, Meredith H. T.; Deng, Rachel; Meuwissen, Alyssa S.
    Creative Play is a trauma-informed preschool theatre arts program in which Teaching Artists (TAs) from the Children’s Theatre Company lead 20 to 30 minute sessions with a preschool class. During each session, children engage in imaginative play, naming of emotions, and mindfulness activities. TAs use movement, sensory integration, and incorporate opportunities for children to make decisions, express and share their ideas, and explore a spectrum of emotions to engage and empower children. Creative Play was delivered in a virtual format for the first time in the Spring of 2021. Some sessions were synchronous virtual workshops, which consisted of a TA interacting with a classroom of children over a Zoom video call, and other workshops were pre-recorded videos of the TA presenting the content with opportunities for classroom staff to stop the video and interact with the children. Data was collected through TA interviews and classroom staff surveys to evaluate the perceived effectiveness of Creative Play’s virtual delivery. Findings showed that children engaged in the virtual adaptation to a fairly high degree. The TAs made specific changes to their delivery in response to the virtual format, and generally felt positively about the program’s ability to be effective virtually.
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    Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce: Identifying and Filling Gaps in Reflective Supervision/Consultation Training
    (2021-03) Reese, Meredith H. T.; Meuwissen, Alyssa; Ottman, Deborah D.; mreese@umn.edu; ; University of Minnesota Center for Early Education and Development
    A nationwide survey of reflective supervision/consultation (RS/C) providers conducted in 2018, found that 25% of respondents perceive a lack of access to training as a primary barrier to improving and maintaining their RS/C skills. Some of the themes that RS/C providers felt were missing from their RS/C training included specifics about providing RS/C, group supervision, self-regulation as a provider, and diversity informed RS/C. The Reflective Practice Center recently released a set of self-study modules to provide training opportunities on specialized RS/C topics, which cover the previously mentioned themes as well as additional topics. The modules cover information pertinent to RS/C providers, recipients, and decision-makers. The new modules have been well received, with 86 individuals enrolling in the first three months of their being available. This poster presents the early evaluation findings based on feedback from the first 24 participants to complete a module. Preliminary results indicate positive reactions to the training material across participants from a variety of different roles in the field of early childhood. The vast majority found the content of the modules to be high-quality, applicable to their work, and reported it either strengthened their current knowledge, or offered new ways to think about a given subject.
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    Validation of the Reflective Interaction Observation Scale (RIOS) in Reflective Consultation for Child Welfare Workers
    (2020) Meuwissen, Alyssa; Reese, Meredith H. T.
    Child welfare workers are at high risk for burnout and turnover due to the emotional stress associated with their work. Reflective Consultation (RC) is a professional development strategy designed to address these issues by increasing professionals’ reflective capacity. However, little research has been done on RC’s effectiveness. This study aimed to examine the effects of RC on child welfare workers. Results showed that child welfare workers built effective group relationships across the 6 months. From pre to post, groups deepened their openness/vulnerability, and had greater reflection on parallel process (the interconnectedness of relationships). Individuals significantly increased their ratings of self-efficacy in RC and their positive perceptions of their consultant. Also, compassion satisfaction in their work was rated higher at the end of the experience. In sum, results are consistent with the hypothesis that reflective consultation increases compassion satisfaction and decreases burnout/secondary traumatic stress, although higher doses of consultation than in this study may be more beneficial.