What’s the BIG Idea? Training of Trainers

November 1st, 2009 | EVALUATION

In 2005, the Vermont Center for the Book (VCB) received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop and implement a program called What's the BIG Idea? to help librarians change their children's story hours to include more mathematics and science content and vocabulary. The project resulted in the creation of a professional development seminar; a Librarian Manual with guidelines, activities and other information; parent kits for families to take home and use to reinforce and extend learning in math and science; and a website filled with ideas, bibliographies, and other information developed to support librarians and others as they implemented the program. Evaluation of the project showed that librarians changed their practices in statistically significant ways. The original cohort of librarians acquired specific knowledge and skills and confidence in their abilities to provide children with activities and vocabulary related to mathematics and science. They implemented the program with varying degrees of fidelity, and those with the strongest fidelity to the Librarian Manual had the strongest impacts on children. Because of the success, VCB sought additional funds from NSF to bring the project to scale. VCB recognized that its small staff could not possibly deliver the training to all of the librarians who requested it, so they developed a training-of-trainers approach wherein others could offer the training. This study was conducted to determine whether the training was effective when staff other than VCB provided the training.

Document

0514746_BIG_Idea_full_report.pdf

Team Members

Dawn Jaramillo, Evaluator, RMC Research Corporation
Judy Northup, Evaluator, RMC Research Corporation
Shelley H. Billig, Evaluator, RMC Research Corporation
Vermont Center for the Book, Contributor

Funders

Funding Source: NSF
Funding Program: AISL
Award Number: 0514746
Funding Amount: 1606644

Related URLs

What's the BIG Idea?: Science and Mathematics for Children in Your Public Library

Tags

Audience: Evaluators | Families | Museum | ISE Professionals | Parents | Caregivers | Pre-K Children (0-5)
Discipline: Education and learning science | General STEM | Mathematics
Resource Type: Evaluation Reports | Summative
Environment Type: Library Programs | Professional Development | Conferences | Networks | Professional Development and Workshops | Public Programs