The Influence of Teacher Collaborations on Instructional Practices and Student Learning in Kindergarten

• In Event: 35.020 - Excellence in Education Research: Early-Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

Using multilevel modeling of nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), this study investigates how kindergarten teaching and learning are influenced by teacher collaborations and professional community. Specifically, the study explores the influence of school organizational culture on teachers’ use of phonics and whole language approaches to teaching reading, on teachers’ use of drill-based and conceptual approaches to teaching math, and on student learning gains in both subjects. Given the evidence that teachers may matter more for students growing up in poverty, the study examines how the relationship between school organizational culture and student learning varies by student socioeconomic status (SES).

Data are drawn from ECLS-K data collection waves conducted in the fall and spring of the kindergarten year. Multiple imputation procedures are used to estimate values of missing data for variables at all three levels of the analytical models (i.e., child, classroom, and school). Exploratory factor analysis is used to identify factors underlying teacher survey items, resulting in predictor variables representing professional community and teacher collaborations. Factor analysis of a priori conceptual groupings of items is used to develop variables representing procedural and conceptual approaches to literacy and math instruction. Three-level analytical models are employed to investigate the relationship between school organizational culture and student literacy and math learning. Three-level slopes-as-outcomes models are used to model associations between student SES and literacy and math learning, as a function of teacher perceptions of school culture. Two-level models are used to explore the influence of school culture on instruction and the influence of procedural and conceptual instructional approaches on student learning outcomes.

The study finds greater variation in teacher perceptions of school culture within than between schools, calling into question the practice of aggregating teacher perceptions up to the school-level and leading to the modeling of teacher measures at the classroom-level of analytical models. Confirming the findings of recent studies, the study finds that teacher collaborations are more common in schools in which teachers perceive a stronger sense of professional community. Other findings include that teacher collaborations lead teachers to more frequently use conceptual approaches to teaching reading and math, while also supporting some use of procedural approaches. Collaborations, particularly peer observations and feedback sessions, may provide teachers with opportunities to learn about and try out conceptual instructional approaches, which are more often child-led and tend to be called for to address Common Core Learning Standards. Given that the study finds that both procedural and conceptual approaches to reading and math instruction can be effective, ideally collaborations would enable teachers to choose the most appropriate approaches to meet their students’ needs. The study findings highlight a need for policies and practices that enable collaborations among teachers and help them to share practices and learn from one another; such collaborations may be increasingly common as schools work to implement the Common Core.

Author

• Marisol Kevelson, Educational Testing Service