Coaching and Demonstration of Evidence-Based Book-Reading Practices: Effects on Head Start Teachers’ Literacy-Related Behaviors and Classroom Environment

Source: Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, Volume 37, Issue 2, 2016, p. 117-141

The current study examined the effects of coaching with versus without demonstrations of evidence-based book-reading practices on teachers’ use of strategies during independent book-reading periods.

The participants were 22 Head Start teachers, who were randomly assigned to one of two cohorts. One cohort included 12 teachers, who participated in biweekly coaching sessions that included having coaches demonstrate how to incorporate a focus on key literacy skills while reading books aloud to students; the other cohort included 10 teachers, who participated in coaching sessions that did not include explicit demonstration and modeling of evidence-based book-reading practices.

The findings revealed that teachers, who participated in the demonstration and modeling of practices, engaged in behaviors and interactions during their book reading that focused on phonological awareness, alphabet and word knowledge, and print and book awareness to a greater extent than did teachers, who did not participated in the demonstration and the modelling. Cohort differences were also found during an observed small-group activity and on the language and literacy items of a general measure of the classroom literacy environment.