Making and Maintaining Gains of Teacher Knowledge of Early Literacy by Preschool Paraprofessionals Through Professional Development

• In Event: Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Issues and Trends in Early Childhood Professional Development

Abstract

The objective of this study was to systematically provide differentiated professional development (PD) designed around the four big ideas of emergent literacy (oral language, phonological awareness, concepts about print, and alphabet knowledge) to paraprofessionals assigned to preschool classrooms in an urban New England district. This investigation examined the effectiveness of providing differentiated research-based PD to preschool paraprofessionals by measuring paraprofessionals’ pre, post, and delayed declarative and procedural knowledge of the four big ideas of emergent literacy.

Authors

• Maureen Ruby, Eastern Connecticut State University

• Ann Anderberg, Eastern Connecticut State University