Quality of language and literacy instruction in preschool classrooms serving at-risk pupils☆
Section snippets
Participants
Participants were 135 teachers involved in a professional development study of state-funded preschools in one mid-Atlantic state. Forty school districts within the state were randomly selected to participate, and within each district, teacher participation in the professional development study was voluntary. All of the teachers held a Bachelor's degree, and 36% (n = 49) had an advanced degree. The major of the highest degree for 89 teachers was Early Childhood Education (n = 52) or Elementary
Results
A total of 135 preschool teachers were observed via videotape administering a literacy lesson (n = 83) or a language lesson (n = 52) within the classrooms. Literacy lessons addressed one or more objectives related to phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, or print awareness; language lessons addressed one or more objectives related to vocabulary and linguistic concepts, narrative, or pragmatics and social language. Across the 135 lessons observed, instruction was characteristically of low
Discussion
The primary aim of this research was to characterize the quality of language and literacy instruction occurring in preschool classrooms serving at-risk pupils upon adoption of a new curriculum. This research contributes to an applied body of work developed in response to accumulating evidence showing that children who enter kindergarten with well-developed language and literacy skills perform better in beginning reading instruction relative to those with less-developed skills, the latter facing
Acknowledgements
We express gratitude to all of the MTP research personnel and the teachers and children who participated in the larger study.
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This study was conducted by the MyTeachingPartner Research Group supported by grant R01 HD046061 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Interagency Consortium on School Readiness.