Promoting Language and Literacy Development for Early Childhood Educators: A Mixed-Methods Study of Coursework and Coaching

Reliability and validity of the Writing Resources and Interactions in Teaching Environments (WRITE) for preschool classrooms

“…The lack of observed incremental, varied scaffolding of children's writing may reflect a lack of knowledge of children's writing development or pedagogical knowledge for supporting such development. Previous work has identified limited literacy knowledge for Head Start teachers , which comprise a large group of teachers in this study, as well as child care providers (Neuman & Wright, 2010). Interestingly, research documents that even when teachers have engaged in PD to develop knowledge about literacy they struggle to engage in instructional practice to support such skills (Morrison & Connor, 2002;Wasik & Hindman, 2011;Wasik et al, 2006).…”

How Much for Whom? Lessons From an Efficacy Study of Modest Professional Development for Child Care Providers

“…In addition, measuring the efforts on the trainers' part to contribute to providers' practice is crucial. For example, recent work by Neuman and Wright (2010) has helped to explain provider-level effects by examining specifically which coaching components influenced provider-level change. Without information about how the PD is implemented from trainer to provider, generalizability of the research is limited, and challenges exist in comparing the PD across contexts and including such data in secondary research (e.g., Carroll et al, 2007;Lane, Bocian, MacMillan, & Gresham, 2004).…”

“…The evaluation of PD with provider-level effects identifies how much and what type of effort must be exerted in training to generate real change in provider practice, answering important questions of dosage. Other PD programs have found that extended coursework and ongoing intensive individualized coaching (e.g., Neuman & Cunningham, 2009;Neuman & Wright, 2010) effectively initiate provider change. However, the extensiveness of those PD programs may not be realistic for many child care providers and is well beyond typical state requirements.…”

Factors Associated with Head Start Staff Participation in Classroom-Based Professional Development

“…Bozack (2008), in a review of factors associated with early childhood practitioners' participation in professional development activities, concluded that there are many "reasons The professional development measures constituting the focus of investigation included number of attended training sessions, hours of staff participation in the training, staff engagement in the training, and staff judgments of their experiences with the evidence-based professional development practice used to provide the training Trivette, Raab, & Dunst, 2012b). The latter measure was of special interest because two or more staff could receive the same amount or dose of training but the benefits from their training-related experiences might be quite different (Neuman & Wright, 2010;Ramey et al, 2011). Bozack (2008), for example, found that elementary teachers' beliefs about the importance of ongoing professional development were related to how often they sought out and met with mentors.…”