Impact of coaching for high quality early literacy instructional practices in prekindergarten classrooms

• In Event: Virtual Coaching in Early Childhood Classrooms during the Pandemic: Adaptations and Lessons Learned

Abstract

Introduction. Virtual coaching is a promising model to meet the need for high quality coaches. In 2019-2021, when educational programming transitioned remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual coaching became critical. During this time, virtual coaching was used to build a supportive system where early childhood professionals throughout a large Midwest intermediate school district constructed and applied knowledge around the Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy, Prekindergarten (2016). This paper describes our effort to leverage technology to conduct a job-embedded professional learning project, which started pre-pandemic.

Participants. Nine coaches and 101 teachers (58 year one, 43 year two).

Methods. 71 of the 101 teachers completed a survey rating the extent to which they made improvements to their practice of the 10 Pre-K Essentials. A quasi-experimental approach estimated the difference in improvements to practice between the 37 teachers who received a sufficient dose of virtual coaching around the Pre-K Essentials (at least 12 doses) and the 34 teachers who did not. Coaches used weekly logs indicating each time they “substantively covered” one of the ten Pre-K Essential practices during a coaching session. Weekly logs also reflected the number of minutes spent using various coaching strategies. Coaches submitted reports detailing the teacher's professional learning goals. Goal achievement was calculated for all 101 teachers based on the number of goals, the depth of each goal, and the level of meeting the goal. The coaching styles and methods between the 54 teachers with higher and 47 teachers with lower goal achievement were analyzed. A hybrid approach of inductive and deductive thematic analysis of teacher focus group transcripts, teacher/coach surveys, and coaching reports was used to: identify effective virtual coaching strategies; discover principles for building and maintaining trusting relationships; and understand how adaptations were made to sustain job-embedded professional learning during a time of disequilibrium.

Results. Teachers who received a lower dose of coaching (control) made comparable improvements to their practice compared to teachers who received a higher dose (treatment). Despite the treatment group (M = 20.1, SD = 6.1) attaining higher scores than the control (M = 18.6, SD = 6.4), there was no significant effect for dosage, t(69) = 1.1, p = .29. The use of coaching strategies was found to be more valuable. All teachers worked toward 1-4 professional learning goals with 86% of teachers meeting their goals. Observation/feedback and resource/idea sharing were common strategies used by all coaches. Compared to teachers with lower goal achievement, teachers with higher goal achievement had coaches who spent more time observing their behaviors (inclusive of uploaded teaching videos), acknowledging the teachers existing knowledge and abilities, providing virtual feedback followed by the teacher’s reflection, as well as sharing and discussing training videos and teaching resources. The power of relationships during this turbulent time cannot be understated. Thematic analysis of various data discovered effective principles in building and maintaining trusting teacher-coach relationships that will be shared in this FlashTalk.

Author

• Krista Shambleau, Oakland Schools
  Presenting Author