550
Views
10
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Article

Supporting Literacy in Preschool: Using a Teacher-Observation Tool to Guide Professional Development

, &
Pages 19-34 | Received 08 Nov 2005, Accepted 02 Dec 2005, Published online: 23 Feb 2007
 

Abstract

Teachers involved with professional-development opportunities inevitably differ in their content knowledge, access to resources, and instructional practices. The purpose of this study was to investigate how a standardized assessment observation tool, selected to gather summative information for grant-evaluation purposes about preschool teachers' early literacy instruction environment and practices, could be used to guide the implementation of an early literacy peer-coaching professional-development program involving 23 teachers in 5 preschools. Data were obtained from three sources: baseline and end-of-project data for each teacher on the standardized observation tool, interviews with codirectors and coaches, and documents provided by codirectors and coaches. Results indicate that a standardized observation tool can be used formatively in three ways: (1) to guide decisions about materials purchases; (2) to adjust professional-development workshop sequence and delivery; and (3) to guide coaches as they work one-on-one with teachers.

This study was funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program (S349A020017-02).

Notes

This study was funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program (S349A020017-02).

McGill-Franzen, A., & Allington, R. L. (1993, Oct. 13) What are they to read? Not all kids, Mr. Riley, have easy access to books. Education Week, p. 26

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.