Evaluating Training to Promote Critical Thinking Skills for Determining Children’s Safety

Abstract

This study examined changes in training participants’ satisfaction with the instruction, knowledge gain, transfer of new skills, and beliefs about family involvement and engagement in working with families to help ensure children have safety. One hundred and forty-five practitioners participated in the training. Findings revealed shifts in knowledge and use of certain kinds of safety and risk assessment. Qualitative training feedback revealed that caseworkers and supervisors are now talking more about their practice and how they are trying new strategies to help children and families rather than how they complete a list of procedural tasks. The combination of workshop-based training followed by agency-based coaching appears to be a promising approach to professional learning in this practice area of child welfare.

Notes

¹ Those interested in learning more about Turnell’s work and the Signs of Safety approach should see his website (www.signsofsafety.net) and his most recent briefing paper (2012 and always updated) available at http://www.signsofsafety.net/briefing-paper.

² Employing the LDS change model allows for estimation of true change in participant’s learning of SOP over time while accounting for potential sources of variation (e.g., floor effects, regression to the mean; McArdle, 2009). These change scores are not directly observed but can be inferred. A latent differences score is defined directly in the structural equation model (see McArdle & Nesselroade, 1994). The latent difference equation for variable X between t-1 and time t is Y_t = (1)Y _t-1 + (1)ΔY_t. The Y_t does not include an error term, so the coefficients relating Y_t to Y_t-1 and ΔY_t are constrained to 1, Y_t is directly the sum of Y_t-1 and ΔY_t. ΔY_t can then be used as any other latent variable in structural equation modeling. Specific details concerning the mathematical and statistical properties of LDS models are available in McArdle and Hamagami (2001), as well as detailed discussions of LDS models compared to other models of change (Ferrer & McArdle, 2003).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Holly Hatton-Bowers

Holly Hatton-Bowers is senior researcher, Susan Brooks is director, and Melanie Schindell is research and evaluation analyst at the Northern California Training Academy at the Center for Human Services, University of California Davis.

Susan Brooks

Holly Hatton-Bowers is senior researcher, Susan Brooks is director, and Melanie Schindell is research and evaluation analyst at the Northern California Training Academy at the Center for Human Services, University of California Davis.

Melanie Schindell

Holly Hatton-Bowers is senior researcher, Susan Brooks is director, and Melanie Schindell is research and evaluation analyst at the Northern California Training Academy at the Center for Human Services, University of California Davis.