Ongoing professional learning is an important part of early childhood education and care (ECEC), and quality outcomes for children depend on a highly skilled workforce. By staying informed about evidence-based approaches, ECEC educators and teachers can provide the highest quality care during children's formative years, significantly impacting their growth and potential. However, workforce shortages and limited resources often make it challenging for services to have large numbers of staff away from the workplace for professional learning.
Recognising these challenges, the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) and the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation (ALNF) have conducted an experimental study in the ECEC sector, comparing the effectiveness of a peer mentoring approach to a direct participation approach for professional learning.
About the study
High-quality professional learning is important for improving evidence-based practices in education at all levels. However, it often requires a significant investment of time and resources, making it challenging for educational settings to provide off-site training to large numbers of staff.
One way to address this issue is to use peer mentoring. This involves sending a small number of staff members to external training and then asking them to share what they've learned with their colleagues. While this approach is common, little research has been done into its effectiveness – until now.
This study compared 2 approaches to delivering professional learning:
- Peer mentoring: An educational leader and one educator working with preschool-aged children at a service attended external training and then shared their knowledge with colleagues, focusing on 2 nominated mentees who also work with preschool-aged children.
- Direct participation: An educational leader and most or all educators working with preschool-aged children attended the training.
The study involved 37 educators and teachers from 10 ECEC services in Western Sydney, Australia, along with 153 preschool children who attended these services throughout 2023.
Key findings
Both approaches improved knowledge and use of evidence-based practices
Both peer mentoring and direct participation improved educators’ and teachers’ knowledge and overall use of evidence-based oral language and early literacy teaching practices.
Both approaches had a similar impact on children’s language and literacy development
Overall, the data showed no difference in children’s oral language and early literacy development between the 2 professional learning approaches in this area.
Peer mentoring requires adequate planning and support to be successful
Overall, the peer mentoring group encountered more barriers than the direct participation group, but also reported a slightly higher number of enablers. This indicates that a peer mentoring approach can be successful but can present more challenges than a direct participation approach, and as a result, careful planning and support are needed to counterbalance barriers and ensure success.
Both approaches required similar time investments, just distributed differently
While a peer mentoring approach initially requires fewer staff members to attend external training compared to direct participation, the overall time commitment for both approaches was similar over approximately 6 months. Therefore, the suitability of a peer mentoring approach can depend on a service’s capacity for making a large upfront time commitment or a commitment that is initially smaller but covers a more extended period.
Barriers to success in peer mentoring
The study identified several factors that service leaders can consider to influence the success of implementing a peer mentoring approach, including:
- managing staffing constraints
- allocating time for peer mentoring
- encouraging collegially supportive environments
- managing the cognitive load placed on peer mentors
- selecting appropriate staff for skill and knowledge sharing.
When these factors weren't present, they were seen as barriers to successful implementation.
Implications for ECEC services
This study shows that with adequate planning and support, a peer mentoring approach can be a feasible and promising way to deliver professional learning at scale in ECEC services. This allows more educators and teachers – and ultimately children – to benefit.
However, using a peer mentoring approach to professional learning requires careful consideration:
- Planning is imperative: Service leaders must ensure that resources, time and activities prioritise and facilitate peer mentoring.
- Ongoing support: Those who attend external training need opportunities to pass on what they've learned, while those receiving peer mentoring need time to put it into practice.
- Skill development: Peer mentors may need additional training or support to upskill their colleagues effectively.
- Role considerations: The workload and roles of those sent to external training should be considered, to maximise the effectiveness of knowledge sharing.
Choosing the right approach
ECEC services should select the professional learning approach that best aligns with their context. Factors to consider include:
- the service's needs and circumstances
- available resources
- the ability to facilitate and support ongoing peer mentoring
- staff skillsets and capacity.
Next steps
While this study provides promising evidence for the effectiveness of peer mentoring in professional learning, more research is needed. What this study does highlight is the potential of peer mentoring as a scalable approach to professional learning in ECEC. By leveraging existing structures and relationships within ECEC services, peer mentoring could help more educators access high-quality professional development, benefiting the children in their care.