Because meeting the diverse needs of today s young
children and their families can be best accomplished
through a team approach to service delivery, early
childhood educators have a specific need for
professional development in teamwork. In an effort
to understand how a collaborative, adult
learner-focused model of professional development
could be used to effectively provide team training,
the Building Effective and Successful Teams (BEST)
model of team training was developed, which allows
educators to form communities of learners in order to
collaboratively train together over time, within the
context of their classrooms, and at a pace consistent
with their teaching schedules. This book presents a
longitudinal study focused on the influence of the
BEST model of team training in the development of
team behaviors over time. Implications from this
study bring together the concepts of adult learning
and collaborative professional development in an
effort to aid anyone needing or providing team
development training in educational settings.