Long-term Impact of the Language Professional Development Program "Mit Kindern im Gesprach (Talking with Children)" in German Preschools

Long-term impacts of in-service trainings are seldom examined; this is also true for early childhood education. In a randomized experimental pre-post-follow-up-study in the field, two approaches for in-service trainings were compared. To measure the effects, the standardized Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS, Pianta, La Paro & Hamre, 2008) was used. One year after the end of the in-service training variance-analytical evaluations showed that preschool teachers, who have been trained with the methodically and content-focused approach "Mit Kindern im Gesprach" (Kammermeyer et al., 2017) indicated significant greater gains in instructional support relative to teachers in the control group with the broadly based approach "Sprache - Schlussel zur Welt" (Katholische Erwachsenenbildung Rheinland-Pfalz, 2009) and a significant difference between the two in-service-trainings in exceeding a threshold considered to be meaningful.