Dr. Michal Perlman


Professor, University of Toronto and Director, Dr. R.G.N. Laidlaw Research Centre, University of Toronto



416-978-0596


Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)


University of Toronto


252 Bloor Street West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5S 1V6


Assessing Quality Quickly: Validation of the Responsive Interactions for Learning - Educator (RIFL-Ed.) Measure


Journal article


Nina Sokolovic, Ashley Brunsek, Michelle Rodrigues, Sahar Borairi, Jennifer M. Jenkins, Michal Perlman
Early Education and Development, vol. 33, Informa {UK} Limited, 2021 May, pp. 1061--1076


Cite

Cite

APA
Sokolovic, N., Brunsek, A., Rodrigues, M., Borairi, S., Jenkins, J. M., & Perlman, M. (2021). Assessing Quality Quickly: Validation of the Responsive Interactions for Learning - Educator (RIFL-Ed.) Measure. Early Education and Development, 33, 1061–1076.

Chicago/Turabian
Sokolovic, Nina, Ashley Brunsek, Michelle Rodrigues, Sahar Borairi, Jennifer M. Jenkins, and Michal Perlman. “Assessing Quality Quickly: Validation of the Responsive Interactions for Learning - Educator (RIFL-Ed.) Measure.” Early Education and Development 33 (May 2021): 1061–1076.

MLA
Sokolovic, Nina, et al. “Assessing Quality Quickly: Validation of the Responsive Interactions for Learning - Educator (RIFL-Ed.) Measure.” Early Education and Development, vol. 33, Informa {UK} Limited, May 2021, pp. 1061–76.


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.


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