Re: Child Protection Training

["Robin Leake" <Robin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The American Humane Association evaluates child welfare training  for the state of Colorado as well as nationally.  While "transfer of learning" is a hot topic in the field right now, there is little being done to promote transfer of knowledge and skills learned in training to the job, let alone evaluate it.  Efforts to evaluate transfer of learning have pimarily focused on self-reports of workers asking them questions about how they have used their core training on the job.   I know of no studies that actually measure the extent to which training impacts skill and knowledge level of workers.  You mentioned using technological tools for training and evaluation.  I believe that comuter simulations could effectively be utilized to test skill acquisition in a standardized way, but as far as I know, nobody is doing this yet.  

Anecdotal evidence suggests that workers do have difficulty transfering learning for a variety of reasons, including climate of their agency, motivation, basic knowledge,skill level, and experience at the time of core training, and most importantly, supervisor support.  Supervisors report having little time to mentor their workers, and they often are unaware of what new workers are learning in training.  

We are currently conducting a randomized intervention study to increase transfer of learning for for caseworkers in core training.  Supervisors are given on-the-job training about how to mentor new workers in the context of their very demanding jobs and on-going support for 6 months as they mentor new workers using specific activities and skill assessments.   We are conducting self-report evaluations of both supervisors and workers at three different time points and doing a skill assessment of workers at the end of the study.  The purpose of the study is to find out whether learning is being transferred, how to best promote transfer, and finally, how transfer of learning impacts job perfomance.   

Robin Leake, Ph.D
Research Associate
American Humane Association
Children's Services
63 Inverness Drive East
Englewood, CO 80112-5117
(303) 792-9900
(800) 227-4645
(303) 792-5333 (fax)
robin@americanhumane.org
http://www.americanhumane.org 


>>> smfoley@bigpond.net.au 03/31/00 03:50PM >>>
I am interested in any evaluations or research known to list members about the "effectiveness" of Child Protection Training, particularly the training for staff already employed in  Child Protective Services, and training that uses educatinal technology processes whether by distance education or by face to face mode, perhaps using simulation or other technology.

Sue Foley
M.S.W, M.A., B.Social Studies.
Social worker/Training Officer
Sydney Australia