Fostering Effective Early Learning (FEEL) Study: Final Report

Building on the existing body of international research, the findings of the Fostering Effective Early Learning (FEEL) study, detailed in this report, address the need for quality improvement in ECEC by showing how a particular form of evidence-based in-service PD can produce substantial and practically meaningful improvements in both staff practices and child outcomes. The FEEL study initially evaluated effects of participation in the Leadership for Learning PD by assessing the direct impact on participating early childhood educators (through observation of educators' practices related to indicators of curricular and interactional quality, which are translated into quality ratings on ECERS-E and SSTEW, taken before and after the PD). The study also assessed the indirect impacts on children" potentiated by increased quality of environments, and the experiences children in the ECEC intervention centres received" by measuring child outcomes before and after the PD.