标题：Online child care training in the United States: a preliminary investigation of who participates, what is offered, and on which topics the workforce is focusing
期刊名称：International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy
电子版ISSN：2288-6729
出版年度：2017
卷号：11
期号：1
页码：1-22
DOI：10.1186/s40723-017-0037-7
出版社：Springer Singapore
摘要：Current US policies call for a child care teacher workforce that can support program quality and enhance infants’, toddlers’, and preschoolers’ learning and development. Given minimal state pre-hire requirements, this context has implications for the workforce’s in-service training.Yet, there is limited research on who participates in training, the focus of what is ofered, and variations in participation rates across topics.Also needed is a better understanding of the role online training might play in meeting the workforce’s in-service needs.To address these interrelated issues, I present descriptive analyses of a convenience sample of aggregate data from a US-wide online child care training provider.Enrollees’ ages and education levels refect the larger child care workforce. The majority of the ofered training is at the beginner level and 1 h in duration. Since 2010, enrollees completed an average of 10–12 online training hours annually. Roughly one-third of the completed training was related to planning a safe, healthy learning environment.These fndings suggest the need for more rigorous research on child care workforce participation in training, particularly related to the extent to which online training can respond to policies aimed at enhancing workforce capacity to support program quality and young children’s learning and development.
关键词：Child care; Child care teachers; Child care workforce; Child care training
