BackgroundEarly Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) teachers at urban preschools are potential key figures to promote healthy behaviours in disadvantaged young children and to engage parents in lifestyle-related topics. An ECEC teacher-parent partnership regarding healthy behaviours may support parents and stimulate their children’s development. However, it is not an easy task to establish such a collaboration and ECEC teachers need tools to communicate with parents about lifestyle-related topics. This paper describes the study protocol of a preschool-based intervention (CO-HEALTHY) to promote an ECEC teacher-parent partnership regarding healthy eating, physical (in)activity and sleeping behaviours in young children.MethodsA cluster randomised controlled trial will be performed at preschools in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Preschools will be randomly allocated to an intervention or control group. The intervention consists of a toolkit with 10 parent-child activities and associated training for ECEC teachers. The activities were composed using the Intervention Mapping protocol. At intervention preschools, ECEC teachers will carry out the activities during standard contact moments. Parents will receive associated intervention materials and will be encouraged to perform similar parent-child activities at home. At control preschools, the toolkit and training will not be implemented. The primary outcome will be the teacher- and parent-reported partnership regarding healthy eating, physical (in)activity and sleeping behaviours in young children. The perceived partnership will be assessed by a questionnaire at baseline and at 6 months. In addition, short interviews with ECEC teachers will be held. Secondary outcomes include the knowledge, attitude, food- and activity-related practices of ECEC teachers and parents. Furthermore, children’s eating, physical (in)activity and sleeping behaviours, and weight development will be assessed. A process evaluation of the intervention will be made.DiscussionThe intervention aims to provide a practical tool for ECEC teachers at urban preschools to promote an ECEC teacher-parent partnership regarding a healthy lifestyle in young children.Trial registrationNetherlands Trial Register (NTR): NL8883. Date registered: September 8, 2020.
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Supervision meetings give teachers and students opportunities to interact with each other and to co-regulate students’ learning processes. Co-regulation refers to the transitional process of a student who is becoming a self-regulated learner by interacting with a more capable other such as a teacher. During a task, teachers are expected to pull back their support and give opportunities to students to take responsibility. This study aims to explore the shifting patterns of co-regulation, feedback perception, and motivation during a 5-month research project. Participants were 20 students conducting research in pairs and six teachers who supervised these students. Two videotaped supervision meetings at the beginning and end of the research process and questionnaires on feedback perception and motivation were analysed. Results on co-regulation showed a constant and comparable level of regulation at the start and at the end of students’ research projects. Feedback perception did not change, but motivation decreased significantly.
Co-teachers verzorgen samen onderwijs aan een groep leerlingen die aan hun zorg zijn toevertrouwd. Uit het promotieonderzoek van Dian Fluijt (docent en projectleider bij het Seminarium voor Orthopedagogiek en onderzoeker bij het Lectoraat Normative Professionalisering) blijkt dat co-teaching een effectieve wijze kan zijn om les te geven aan een hyperdiverse groep en tegelijkertijd tegemoet komt aan de behoefte aan meer handen voor de klas. Uit het onderzoek van Dian blijkt dat een klein netwerk van intensief samenwerkende leraren (co-teaching team) in staat is tot duurzame onderwijsinnovatie, waarvan zowel leerlingen als leraren kunnen profiteren. Het welbevinden van zowel leerlingen als leraren in een co-teaching groep groeit, omdat leerlingen meer aandacht krijgen en leraren hun verantwoordelijkheid kunnen delen. Leerlingen in een co-teaching groep presteren over het algemeen beter. Professionalisering op het gebied van co-teaching, gericht op het verkennen van eigen en gezamenlijke normen, waarden en overtuigingen van co-teachers, het leren om samen goed les te geven en het leren om goed samen te werken, is voorwaarde om co-teaching goed uit te kunnen voeren.
