Changes in Observed and Self-reported Emotion-Focused Teaching in Response to Coaching Early Childhood Educators

• In Event: Coaching programs in ECE to improve effective teaching: Variations in implementation

Abstract

Preschool teachers’ emotion-focused teaching (EFT) practice (modeling of, responding to, and instructing about emotions) are associated with children’s observed and teacher-reported expression and regulation skills as well as their engagement with peers and learning tasks (Curby et al., 2021; Fetahi et al., under review). The present study reports findings from an alternative licensure program in which teachers receive coaching during a residency. We wondered about the extent to which EFT practices changed as a function of the number of coaching sessions each teacher received.

Data come from 70 consenting preschool teachers across two cohorts (Fall 2020 and Fall 2021). Virtually all participants identify as Black or Hispanic/Latina women and work in community-based preschool programs in a large midwestern city. All coaches (n=6) were trained in the observational instrument and passed reliability assessments. Teachers participated in professional learning community meetings in alternating weeks with coaching based on teacher-submitted videos throughout a 12-week semester. The semester focused on teachers’ modeling, responding, and instructing EFT practices. Most sessions occurred over Zoom. Coaches noted the feedback using a touchpoints form. At the beginning and end of the semester, teachers reported on their own EFT and self-recorded an hour-long video. EFT was coded by trained raters using the observational EFT instrument.

Measures
An online form was used to capture the frequency of coaches’ touchpoints sessions. On average, teachers received feedback 5.9 times during the semester (range 3-9).

The EMOtion TEaching Rating Scale (EMOTERS; Zinsser, Curby, & Gordon, 2021; www.emoters.org) was used to capture observable EFT practices (Modeling, Responding & Instructing). A total score is based on a sum of 43 items rating 10-minute video segments. Approximately five 10-minute segments were dual coded per resident per time point and aggregated within time.

Teachers completed self-report surveys developed to align with the EMOTERS. Items capture the frequency, modality, and direction of teachers’ recent classroom EFT practices (e.g., “On a typical day (in the past week), how often did the children in your class see you…Express happiness, joy, excitement, or pride?”)

Structural models regressed the number of feedback touchpoints received on end-of-semester observed and self-reported EFT scores controlling for prior scores. Based on a preliminary model a quadratic term was added. We also included the possibility that the effect of the feedback varied based on their initial EFT scores.

Results & Discussion
Both observed and self-reported EFT was sensitive to the number of feedback sessions, but in different ways (See Table 1 and Figure 1). The observational measure indicated that the ideal number of coaching feedback touchpoints was about 5-6, with teachers who were unable to engage in more coaching or who were in a lot of back and forth with their coaches scoring lower. The self-report indicated that teachers who viewed themselves as having lower skills initially felt that their EFT improved monotonically with each coaching session. In sum, teachers feel their EFT improves with each session, but, observationally, teachers who received the planned number of coaching sessions (~6) got the most out of the coaching.

Authors

• Kate Zinsser, University of Illinois at Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Timothy W Curby, George Mason University

• Catherine Main, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Christen E Park, SRI International

• Joanna Skourletos, University of Illinois at Chicago