Multi-component professional development for educators in an Early Head Start: Explicit vocabulary instruction during interactive shared book reading☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.12.003Get rights and content

Highlights

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    Intervention: fidelity increased following the professional development program.

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    Student receptive vocabulary gains were noted for words targeted.

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    Educators found the program feasible for use in Early Head Start.

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    Self-guided professional development with coaching may support vocabulary instruction during storybook reading.

Abstract

This multiple-baseline, single case design study investigated the effects of a multi-component professional development program to increase educators’ use of explicit vocabulary instruction during small group interactive shared book reading sessions in Early Head Start classrooms. The effects of the program were examined across four educators and 2–3 of their students (n = 9 students). Educators were provided with a professional development program, which included an introduction to content through direct teaching, opportunities for practice during classroom routines, and individualized coaching with feedback. Baseline book reading sessions resulted in consistently low levels of educator intervention fidelity based on fidelity checklists, followed by immediate increases in fidelity upon introduction to the program. Students showed receptive vocabulary gains for words targeted during intervention and maintenance sessions. Educators found the program to be feasible for classroom use, and they planned to continue using the targeted strategies in the future. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Section snippets

Explicit vocabulary instruction

Young children can learn new vocabulary implicitly, through natural interactions with adults, siblings, and peers, or explicitly with vocabulary being directly taught. Greater vocabulary gains are typically observed when explicit vocabulary instruction is provided (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002; Hindman & Wasik, 2013). Explicit vocabulary instruction includes adult use of instructional strategies, such as asking questions about words and their meanings; providing definitions of words; modeling

Vocabulary instruction during shared book reading

One way to target vocabulary development is through shared book reading, a common routine in most early childhood classrooms, including Early Head Start. Through shared book reading, students can engage in conversations with adults and peers while being exposed to novel vocabulary words they may not hear in typical conversations, making it an ideal activity for explicit vocabulary instruction (Hayes & Ahrens, 1988). Different styles of shared book reading exist, one being dialogic reading.

Professional development for early childhood educators

The need for early childhood educator PD on how to embed explicit vocabulary instruction into typical classroom routines, such as shared book reading, is well-established (Dwyer and Harbaugh, 2018, Hindman and Wasik, 2013). Research has demonstrated that approximately one-fourth of educators do not use instructional techniques to support vocabulary development, and the quality of vocabulary instruction can be low across educators (Cabell, DeCoster, LoCasale-Crouch, Hamre, & Pianta, 2013). This

Intervention fidelity

Evidence-based practices are most effective when implemented with high fidelity; however, research has shown that fidelity can decrease when an intervention is provided by an educator in a natural classroom setting versus a highly controlled study (Dickinson, 2011). To maintain high fidelity levels after the PD program, it may be beneficial to teach educators how to monitor their own fidelity. This can be done by developing and using fidelity checklists or self-monitoring tools (Dunst, 2017;

Current study

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a multi-component PD program intended to increase early childhood educators’ use of explicit vocabulary instruction while reading to small groups of students between the ages of 2–3 years in an Early Head Start. The PD program was designed to incorporate all six key features of effective PD for early childhood educators (Dunst, 2015). Regular opportunities to self-monitor educator intervention fidelity through a checklist were also

Participants

Participants were recruited from an Early Head Start program located in an urban city of the southeastern United States. All recruitment efforts and data collection procedures were approved by the university’s institutional review board. Educators were recruited first followed by students. All educators teaching students between the ages of 2–3 years were recruited for participation. Students were recruited based on educator recommendations; the students’ parents were contacted for informed

Educator intervention fidelity

The primary outcome of this study was the educators’ intervention fidelity, which was based on educators’ use of interactive shared book reading strategies and explicit vocabulary instruction during shared book reading, measured through a fidelity checklist. The mean length of book reading sessions in the baseline, intervention, and maintenance phases was 5.88 min, 13.41 min, and 15.49 min, respectively. The educators required an average of four coaching sessions (range = 2-7) to meet the

Discussion

While shared book reading is a common practice in early childhood classrooms and has demonstrated benefits to language development and vocabulary knowledge, there is still much to learn to increase quality of practice. The current study used a single case design to examine the effects of a predominately self-guided, multi-component PD program provided to educators of students in an Early Head Start. The results of this study were promising. Similar to research that has shown that early

Conclusion

The need for PD to improve and sustain quality vocabulary instructional practices remains, especially for early childhood classrooms including students at-risk for vocabulary delays and later academic difficulties. Continued exploration of time-effective PD programs that target focused content area and are implemented on-the-job, allowing opportunities for practice with students and individualized coaching from experts, is warranted based on the preliminary results of this study. The use of

Funding

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs — TRAIL: Training in Research Autism and Interdisciplinary Leadership (H325D120062).

Conflict of interests

None.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Madalyn Hart, Madison Gliem, Caitlin Downie, Abby Lewis, and Jessica Perrin for their assistance and insights as well as the Early Head Start educators who participated in the study.

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    ☆

    This manuscript was presented at the 2016 annual conference for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) in Philadelphia, PA.

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