Understanding Early Childhood Teacher Professional Development Around Vocabulary Instruction: The Essential Role of Teacher Fidelity

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Given the importance of early vocabulary and the evidence that explicit vocabulary instruction may be rare in early childhood (toddlers to first grade; Wright & Neuman, 2013), many interventions offer teachers professional development for building vocabulary through book reading. However, many models yield relatively modest results on teacher and child outcomes (Marulis & Neuman, 2010), perhaps because teachers’ uptake of, or fidelity to, the target practices is low.
This symposium interrogates the idea of ECE teachers’ fidelity to vocabulary-focused professional development models. All studies target very similar vocabulary-enhancing practices during book reading (e.g., picture cards, child-friendly definitions, open-ended questions) but employ distinct, project-aligned fidelity tools. The first paper explores toddler teachers’ implementation of vocabulary-building talk and spontaneous use of gestures. Results indicate modest teacher fidelity to intervention practices, particularly around more complex talk, but extensive use of gestures. The second paper looks closely at preschool teachers’ uptake of different target strategies for vocabulary instruction in both book reading and play. Findings highlight modest teacher intervention fidelity during book reading, with relatively stronger use of teacher-focused than child-focused strategies. The third paper explores kindergarten and first-grade teachers’ vocabulary-focused strategies during book reading and links these behaviors to aspects of their cognitive and emotional states. Results revealed, again, moderate fidelity to the intervention, with the added discovery that teachers who asked more questions during reading had stronger metacognitive skills.
The discussant will analyze similarities and differences among fidelity tools, situate this work within the larger literature, and articulate future research aims.

Sub Unit

• School Readiness/Childcare

Chair

• Annemarie H Hindman, Temple University

Discussant

• Barbara A. Wasik, Temple University

Individual Presentations

• Toddler Teacher Fidelity to a Vocabulary PD Intervention - Presenting Author: Annemarie H Hindman, Temple University

• Preschool Teachers’ Fidelity in Implementing a Vocabulary Intervention - Presenting Author: Elizabeth Burke Hadley, University of South Florida; Molly Scott, Teachers College, Columbia University; Matthew E Foster, University of South Florida; David K Dickinson, Vanderbilt University; Kathy A Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University; Roberta M Golinkoff, University of Delaware

• Relations between Frequency of Early Childhood Teachers’ Vocabulary Instruction and their Own Vocabulary, Executive Function, and Stress - Presenting Author: Tricia A Zucker, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston; Michael Mesa; Jessica Logan, Vanderbilt University; Michael Assel; Yoonkyung Oh, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston