Beginning Elementary Teachers’ Development of Ambitious Teaching Practices

• In Event: Teacher Professional Development, Career Advancement, and Advice Seeking

Abstract

This study used the Protocol for Language Arts Teaching Observation (PLATO), modified for use with mathematics, to examine early career teachers’ (ECTs’) development of ambitious instructional practices between their first and second years of teaching. Analyses of 625 ELA and mathematics lessons taught by 64 elementary ECTs find: 1) ECTs demonstrate statistically significant growth in classroom management and in some instructional practices but not others; and 2) ECTs’ growth in ambitious instruction is similar across mathematics and English language arts. The findings have several implications for how teacher preparation and induction programs target and sequence the learning opportunities and support they provide ECTs, especially elementary ECTs.

Authors

• Dorothea M. Anagnostopoulos, University of Connecticut

• Kylie Anglin, University of Connecticut

• Julie Jackson Cohen, University of Virginia

• Peter A. Youngs, University of Virginia