A Preliminary Investigation of Communication Skills Workshop Impact on Pre-Service Early Childhood Educators: Evidence from a Single-Group Study
Keywords:
Communication skills; Early childhood education; Pre-service teachers; Professional developmentAbstract
This preliminary investigation examined the impact of a seminar-workshop in enhancing the self-reported communication skills of future early childhood educators across three domains: interactions with children, parents, and colleagues. Using a single-group pre-test/post-test design, 40 undergraduate Early Childhood Education students participated in a structured professional development intervention incorporating experiential learning activities, role-playing exercises, and collaborative discussions. While acknowledging significant methodological limitations, including the absence of a control group and exclusive reliance on self-report measures, results demonstrated statistically significant improvements across all domains with large effect sizes: child interactions (d = 1.89, p < 0.001), parent interactions (d = 1.96, p < 0.001), and colleague interactions (d = 2.14, p < 0.001). Post-workshop evaluations indicated high participant satisfaction and perceived professional benefit. These findings provide preliminary evidence suggesting the potential value of structured communication skills training in early childhood education programs, while highlighting the critical need for more rigorous experimental designs to establish definitive effectiveness. The research serves as an important foundation for future controlled studies examining communication skills development in pre-service educator preparation.
Keywords: Communication skills; Early childhood education; Professional development; Pre-service teacher training; Workshop evaluation
References
Alhassan, A. I., & Alghofaily, N. A. (2024). The impact of facilitators’ competencies and
characteristics on faculty enhancement activities in Saudi Arabia: A mixed-
methods research. Cureus, 16(2), e54650. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.54650
Aziz, H., Sudrajat, A., Suparno, Purnama, S., & Putri, I. K. (2024). Embedding effective
communication in early childhood learning in schools: Experience from early
childhood teachers. Child Care in Practice. Advance online publication.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13575279.2024.2333721
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory.
Prentice-Hall.
Biswas, S. (2022). The role of workshop and seminar for professional development of
teachers at B.Ed. colleges in Murshidabad District. SSRN Electronic Journal.
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4057598
Brau, B. (2020). Constructivism. In United Nations peace operations and international
relations theory. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483375519.n148
Cash, A. H., & Pianta, R. C. (2023). Associations between teachers’ skill in identifying
effective interactions and children's gains in language, literacy, and early learning
behaviors. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 62, 324–334.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2022.09.008
Chand, P. S. (2023). Constructivism in education: Exploring the contributions of Piaget,
Vygotsky, and Bruner. International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), 12(7),
–278. https://doi.org/10.21275/sr23630021800
El-Nabawi, I., & Shaalana, A. W. (2020). Enlivening pedagogical practices in EFL grammar
classrooms based on Kolb’s four-facet model. International Journal of
Innovation, Creativity and Change, 13(3), 698–717.
https://ijicc.net/images/vol_13/Iss_3/13395_Wahed_2020_E_R1.pdf
Eun, B. (2021). Teachers learning to teach: Professional development based on
sociocultural theory for a linguistically and culturally diverse classroom.
Professional Development in Education, 49, 914–924.
https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2021.1879224
Gillis, C., & Trachte, S. (2020). Apprendre par l’expérience. Lieuxdits.
https://doi.org/10.14428/ld.vi18.55833
Hamm, J. E., & Mousseau, A. D. (2023). Predicting parent trust based on professionals’
communication skills. Education Sciences, 13(4), 350.
https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13040350
Hildreth, L. A., Miley, M., Strickland, E., & Swisher, J. (2022). Writing workshops to foster
written communication skills in statistics graduate students. Journal of Statistics
and Data Science Education, 31, 201–210.
https://doi.org/10.1080/26939169.2022.2138800
Howell, S., & Hickman, C. (2022). Self-efficacy. In EdTechnica: The open encyclopedia of
educational technology. https://doi.org/10.59668/371.6509
Hummel, T. G., Cohen, F., & Anders, Y. (2022). Parents’ trust in their child’s preschool:
Associations with child and family characteristics and aspects of parent–preschool
communication. Early Education and Development, 34, 1057–1074.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2022.2101344
Juhi, B., & Kandra, T. P. (2019). Experiential learning enhances retention of knowledge for
long term and helps in easy recalling for futuristic aspects. SSRN Electronic
Journal, 322–326. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3307730
Kaiser, H. F. (1974). An index of factorial simplicity. Psychometrika, 39(1), 31–36.
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and
development. Prentice-Hall.
Kumari, G. (2022). Constructivism in learning. Educational Quest: An International Journal
of Education and Applied Social Sciences, 13(3), 207–213.
https://doi.org/10.30954/2230-7311.3.2022.5
Lawecka, E. (2024). Problems in communication between teachers. POW, 630(5), 16–23.
https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0054.5654
Mallillin, L. L., & Laurel, R. D. (2022). Professional development system theory for quality
education. European Journal of Education Studies, 9(8).
https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v9i8.4407
Miller, C. L., Manderfeld, M., & Harsma, E. A. (2020). Learning theories: Experiential
learning.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1139&context=all
Minke, K. M., & Woodford, J. S. (2020). Parent–teacher relationships. In F. C. Worrell, T. L.
Hughes, & D. D. Dixson (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of applied school
psychology (pp. 519–537). Cambridge University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108235532.030
Nurani, Y., Hartati, S., Utami, A. D., Hapidin, H., & Pratiwi, N. P. (2019). Effective
communication-based teaching skill for early childhood education students.
International Journal of Higher Education, 9, 153–158.
https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v9n1p153
Rani, R. R., Yuliasri, I., Mujiayanto, J., & Astuti, P. (2023). Enhancing teacher professional
development: Insight from teacher professional learning activities. International
Journal of Social Science and Education Research Studies, 3(10), 2770–2790.
https://doi.org/10.55677/ijssers/v03i10y2023-15
Robingatin, R., Malik, L., & Komariah, A. (2022). The ability of early childhood education
teachers in counseling communication in East Kalimantan. Southeast Asian
Journal of Islamic Education, 4(2), 221–234.
https://doi.org/10.21093/sajie.v4i2.4499
Schunk, D. H., & DiBenedetto, M. K. (2020). Self-efficacy and human motivation. Advances
in Motivation Science, 8, 153–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.adms.2020.10.001
Sims, S., Fletcher-Wood, H., O’Mara-Eves, A., Cottingham, S., Stansfield, C., Goodrich, J.,
Herwegen, J. V., & Anders, J. (2023). Effective teacher professional development:
New theory and a meta-analytic test. Review of Educational Research. Advance
online publication. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543231217480
Vaughan-Johnston, T. I., & Jacobson, J. A. (2020). Self-efficacy theory. In The Wiley
encyclopedia of personality and individual differences. Wiley.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 คณะวิทยาการจัดการ มหาวิทยาลัยราชภัฏบ้านสมเด็จเจ้าพระยา
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
บทความที่ได้รับการตีพิมพ์เป็นลิขสิทธิ์ของคณะวิทยาการจัดการ มหาวิทยาลัยราชภัฏบ้านสมเด็จเจ้าพระยา
