Coaching and Training for Pre-Kindergarten Teachers: Impacts on Classroom Environments and Teaching Practices

• In Event: Roundtable Session 96
  In Roundtable Session: Professional Development and Leadership Learning Opportunities and Strategies

Abstract

A randomized trial investigated the effect of coaching and training professional development. 118 teachers were assigned to three groups: coaching plus training, training only, and control. Results indicate that the intervention had the most significant effects on environmental supports for children’s language and literacy development, and moderate effects on teachers’ early language and literacy practices. Factors such as the teacher’s absences from work and the support from the teacher’s supervisor were associated with differences in the effects of the intervention. Results suggest that professional development should focus on changing teachers’ practices (separate from the classroom environment) and should take contextual factors such as the amount of support teachers receive from their administrator into account in order to change teachers’ practices.

Authors

• Catherine Scott-Little, University of North Carolina - Greensboro

• Glyn Brown, University of North Carolina - Greensboro