Development Dynamics of Teacher–child Conversations: Findings from Multi-year Teacher Coaching in Dialogic Reading

• In Event: The Powerful Role of Adaptive Expertise in Scaffolding Story Comprehension Skills in Young Children

Abstract

Theoretical Perspectives
Shared reading has been found to support children’s story comprehension for many reasons. Important ingredients in reading are frequent, extended, and analytical talk with children (Dickinson & Porche, 2011; Lepola et al., 2023). Regarding children’s story comprehension, both longer-term (Bianco et al., 2010) and shorter-term (Collins, 2016) interventions have proven effective in supporting children’s story comprehension skills. There are, however, fewer studies that have employed a micro-analytic approach to explore the sequential links between teacher behaviors and children’s verbal responses as they grasp the literal and inferential meanings of the story and beyond (Mascareño et al., 2017).

Objectives
The first purpose of the three-year-long PD study was to examine the changes in teachers’ conversational behaviors. The second was to analyze changes in the quality of children’s verbal responses about story meanings. Third, we examined the extent to which these teacher behaviors and child comprehension responses were sequentially related to each other. According to the transactional model of development (Sameroff, 2009), we theorize that teachers’ and children’s behaviors are transactionally connected. Mutual exchanges (Fogel, 2009) with participating children may not only lead to a change in children’s responses but also trigger changes in teachers’ initiations as well as contingent follow-ups.

Data and Method
Thirty reading aloud sessions, 10 from each cohort, were video-recorded in the fall and spring. Each reading group consisted of three to six five-year-old children. The teachers implemented the Seven-Minutes-to-Stories model (Orvasto & Levola, 2010) each year, including 29 stories that they read aloud. This model was developed collaboratively with the teachers across the three years to increase teacher–child conversation. Videos were used in coaching to give examples on how to elaborate upon the children’s answers. The scripted stories aimed to promote use of open-ended questions. Our coding scheme of teacher-child conversation was based on an approach by Mascareño et al. (2017) and Cabell et al. (2015). To code teacher initiations, we used codes for closed and open questions. Three categories were used for teacher follow-ups: evaluative, elaborative and explorative function, that is probing children to say more about the story. The kappa coefficient for the two initiations was .81, and the three follow-up functions .83. Children’s responses were coded using six categories: 1) no verbal response to teacher initiation/follow-up, 2) response irrelevant to the story, 3) unclear or incorrect answer, 4) literal response, 5) inferential response, and 6) creative perspective.

Results and Significance
The volume of teachers’ initiations and follow-ups surged during the first coaching year, and was followed in years 2 and 3, by a steady increase in, for instance, the proportion of explorative follow-ups (see Table 2). Figure 3 displays within-cohort growth in the amount of children’s verbal responses and positive changes in the quality of responses reflecting story comprehension. A novel finding in early reading research, was observation of a small but meaningful dose of creative talk. Sequential analysis and teacher-child ingredients in the length of conversations will be discussed along with the theoretical/practical underpinnings of the change in teacher-child conversation.

Authors

• Janne Lepola, U.S. Department of Education

• Anu Kajamies, University of Turku

• Tiia Lindfors, University of Turku

• Mikko Tiilikainen, University of Turku