Embedding a culture of learning into an ECI team 12th Biennial National Conference Choices that matter: ECI in a new era … Embedding a culture of learning into an ECI team Lou Ambrosy: Noahs Ark Inc. Melbourne 7-9 September, 2016 Melbourne, Australia

ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc. Adult Learning Evidence shows that the most effective form for adults to learn and achieve best practice is not to attend one off training sessions, but rather to embed learning into their everyday practice in a consistent and meaningful way (Edelman, L. DEC 2015). Edelman. L. Shifting our thinking from providing training to supporting performance. DEC 31st Annual International Conference 2015. ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc. Whilst training may have a valuable role to play in the introduction of an idea, the embedding of learnings into everyday practices is a team and organisational responsibility. Managers have a critical role to play to ensure that any learning is continual and put into practice. We have moved past an era where we ‘Train and Hope’. Adult Learning ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc. A Shift in Thinking As a professional team in the busy world of ECI and all the changes that we are facing in Australia, we need to support teams to shift from thinking of Professional Development as a one off training session towards embedding a culture of learning into a team. Where the training session is a part of the learning, not the whole experience. ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

How to ensure practice change? How do we ensure that any training actually produces practice change and staff development? Many ECI teams have in the past sent staff to a training session around a various topic, and there has been little or no follow up from the session Professionals arrive back to their team full of ideas, but get caught up in the day to day routine of the team and the current practices. Pause to ask this one How to ensure practice change?

ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc. Let’s be PALS In 2011 Carl Dunst came to Noah’s Ark in Victoria and introduced us to the PALS model of professional development Participatory Adult Learning Strategy (PALS*) (Let’s be PALS. An Evidence-Based Approach to Professional Development. Carl J.Dunst, Carol M. Trivette, PhD) Carl Dunst made a visit to Melbourne and spent some time with the Noah’s Ark management and development team He talked to us about his evidence based methodology around adult learning called PALS ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc. Features/ Characteristics Definition Planning: Introduce Engage the learner in a preview of the material, knowledge or practice that is the focus of instruction and training Illustrate Demonstrate or illustrate the use of applicability of the material, knowledge or practice for the learner Application: Practice Evaluation Engage the learner in the use of material knowledge or practice Engage the learner in a process of evaluation the consequence or outcome of the application of the material, knowledge or practice Deep Understanding: Reflection Engage the learner in self-assessment of his or her acquisition of knowledge and skills as a basis for identifying “next Steps” in the learning process Mastery Engage the learner in a process of assessing his or her experience in the context of some conceptual or practical model of frame work or some external set of standards or criteria Interestingly, extensive research by Trivette, Dunst and colleagues have demonstrated that each of the elements is just as important as the other. I originally thought that one of the elements like illustrate and reflection would be higher than others, but the research tells us that all elements are of almost identically equal importance The planning introduce, could be something as simple as pre reading before a training session, watching a video. It can also include a training day Illustrate is things like, attending training days, engaging in role plays, participating in online training. Passively watching an instructional video proved to be effective, but not nearly as effective as strategies where the learners were more engaged, Eg a workshop format that asks the learners to explore their understanding in small groups. Participate in a role play Application, deep understanding and reflection and mastery need to be done back in the work place with the clients Deep understanding includes methods in the workplace that engage the learner in self reflection, group reflection or also supervision and performance measures ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc. This chart from Trivette and Dunst’s evaluation of the PALS methodology demonstrates the importance of each part of the adult learning journey, and how you cannot skip a step or think that one part of learning is more important than another Effect size is a standard measure that can be calculated from any number of statistical outputs. One type of effect size, the standardized mean effect, expresses the mean difference between two groups in standard deviation units. Typically, you'll see this reported as Cohen's d, or simply referred to as “d.” ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

Change in Professional Development at Noah’s Ark Inc. After the Dunst visit in 2011, Noah’s Ark used the PALS model of adult learning to inform the new training products that were initially designed for our own staff All our courses including the Best Practice in Early Childhood Intervention course and the Key Worker Online Course used this model to ensure that training has all the PALS steps The following charts demonstrate the change in practice and understanding in a team of highly experienced practitioners who attended the BP course and participated as a full team, including the managers ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

Managers and Teams Together Since the commencement of training by Noah’s Ark, we have evaluated the learnings from all our courses and looked at this evidence to inform change. The following slides are part of a pre course and post course competency self reflection test given to a team of highly experienced ECI workers who all did the Best Practice Course together, including their managers in 2015. ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc. Participants were surveyed pre and post workshop on 4 knowledge areas. The post workshop survey also included questions about the actual workshop and questions about the participant’s plans to utilise this knowledge in their work The following chart, figure 1, is a comparison of the pre and post workshop rating of competency in the areas, with number 1 being pre course and number 2 being the post course survey: What is your current understanding of a parents’ perspective? The results show a significant increase in understanding a parent’s perspective with a shift to 100% reporting a clear understanding or better as compared to just over 70% feeling they understood a parent’s perspective prior to the workshop. ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc. 2. The second question that was asked both pre and post workshop was: What is your current understanding of the Transdisciplinary Key worker role? Once again the figure shows both results with a shift to 100% of respondents feeling confident post workshop, as compared to 72% confident before the workshop. ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc. This short study is repeated in others conducted on all our courses 3. The third question that was asked both pre and post workshop was what the workers knowledge was around the research that underpins the role of the TDKW. This is another pleasing shift to 93% confident of higher from 60% prior to the workshop The shift in practice is evident and the highset shifts we see are when the whole of a team and in particular the manager joins in the same learning experience, and there is follow up with supervision from the manager around practice implementation ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

Evidence of embedding the Learning We conducted a pre course quiz, a one week post course quiz and a three month post course quiz around the first Routines Based Interviews training in 2015. We realised that following up to ensure practice is embedded needs to be more extensive, so we then moved on to looking further at how embedded any training became in practice by doing a third follow up at around the 3 month post training mark ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc. Workshops were open to existing ECIS staff, and it was encouraged that the team leader and one other member of staff attend from existing Noah's Ark teams attend. The workshop ran twice for with a total of 37 staff attending (18 on workshop one, 19 on workshop two). Participants were surveyed before the workshop, 1 week post workshop and 3 months post workshop in three competency areas. The numbers who participated in the surveys have varied, so the results are represented in percentages. We had 34 of the 37 participants complete the pre course survey; 27 of the 37 participants completed the 1 week post course survey and 22* of the 37 participants completed the 3 month follow up survey. (*3 participants had resigned by the 3 month follow up) Q1: Knowledge and confidence with the RBI The first question related to the participants current knowledge and confidence in conducting an RBI. The following figure provides comparison of the pre (blue) 1 week post (orange) workshop and 3 months post (grey) rating. ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc. Q2: Knowledge and confidence with Eco-Maps The second question related to knowledge and confidence in using ECO-maps as a tool in ECIS. On completion of the training 100% of staff reported that they are now somewhat confident in doing an ECO map, with 93 % indicating that they are now confident or higher (Figure 2). This contrasts with 44% who reported that they were confident in Eco Mapping prior to the training. There is a slight slide from high level competency at the 3 months level which has given us good information for increasing mentoring and supervision during these 3 months in the topic that was introduced. Again, Blue is pre course, orange is one week post course and grey is 3 months post course ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc. The third question related to the participants understanding and confidence with participation based goal setting. 100% of staff indicated they were somewhat confident or higher on completion of the training. This contrasts with only 62 % prior to the training. Again, Blue is pre course, orange is one week post course and grey is 3 months post course This shift although significant demonstrates a slip in confidence 3 months post training, which has allowed us to redesign the follow up and supervision sessions with managers to target this area more. ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

“Boot camp "for the Managers group Coaching Looking at the slight slippage in our 3 month follow up made us even more purposeful with how we embed any learning With the RBIs we went on to work for a full intensive week with Robin McWilliam himself, this included all the ECI manager and provided each manager with coaching during and post the boot camp in the RBIs Coaching has been introduced on many levels across all aspects of the training and learning to ensure that all new learning is embedded in practice. “Boot camp "for the Managers group Coaching ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc. Summary For training to have the greatest impact the design of any training needs to have considered an adult learning model Opportunities for team discussions and supervision following any learning experience are critical parts of the whole The greatest impact for change was seen when a whole team participated together and the manager took on the role of mentoring and supervision ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.

ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc. Contact: Lou Ambrosy Lou.ambrosy@noahsarkinc.org.au 03 8823 8671: Mob: 0458 396 955 www.noahsarkinc.org.au ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference: ©Noah's Ark Inc.