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IES Research Synthesis Briefing

Synthesis of IES Research on Early Intervention and Early Childhood Education

Laura Justice, The Ohio State UniversityPatricia Snyder, University of FloridaJoan McLaughlin, Institute of Education Sciences

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Link for Synthesis

Synthesis available here: http://ies.ed.gov/ncser/pubs/20133001

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• Purpose of this synthesis is to describe what we have learned from research grants on early intervention and childhood education funded by IES (NCER, NCSER) and published in peer-reviewed outlets through June 2010.

• The synthesis is not intended to be the typical research review, which provides a broad overview of research in a field. Rather, it looks across the projects that IES funded to determine what has been learned and to suggest to the field avenues for further research to support improvements in early childhood education in our country.

Background

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• Examined peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters that were products of early childhood research projects funded by IES from 2002 through 2008.

• Included both empirical studies as well as theoretical pieces

• Looked across the range of projects that IES has funded to determine what has been learned and where progress has been made as a result of IES funding

• Provided suggestions for further research in early childhood education.

Scope of the Research Synthesis

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Note: Because most IES funded research projects are 3 to 4 years in length, projects funded in 2006-2008 may be only beginning to disseminate results through peer-reviewed articles and chapters

This is especially noteworthy given IES only began funding research projects addressing interventions for children with or at-risk for disabilities in 2006.

Scope of the Research Synthesis

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Methods

• IES identified research grants relevant to the report’s focus

• IES gathered peer-reviewed articles and chapters produced under these grants (in press to 6/10)

• IES identified four nationally recognized experts (authors) to review this corpus

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Methods• Authors identified focus and organizing themes of report

• For each theme, authors identified specific contributions of IES research

• Authors also identified remaining important questions

• Authors prepared report independent of IES (~6 months)

• IES Standards and Review Office conducted extensive peer review, report revised over several iterations

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Caveats from the Authors• We recognize that there is much non-IES supported work on this

topic; however, reviewing that work was outside of our scope– Our task was to identify contributions of IES-sponsored work

• We recognize the limits of a qualitative literature review and the methods used – Our task was to synthesize a body of work and identify key

themes and contributions• We recognize the conflicts that can arise when one’s work is

being included in review– The peer review process was helpful in identifying any

potential bias

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Organizing Themes1. Research related to early childhood classroom

environments and general instructional practices

2. Research related to educational practices designed to impact children’s academic and social outcomes

3. Research related to measuring children’s skills and learning

4. Research related to professional development for early educators

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Organizing Theme 1

1. Research related to early childhood classroom environments and general instructional practices

Features of early childhood classrooms: 4 contributions

Classroom instructional practices and children’s learning: 3 contributions

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Organizing Theme 2

2. Research related to educational practices designed to impact children’s academic and social outcomes

Cognitive development: 1 contribution

Language and literacy development: 5 contributions

Math and Science Development: 5 contributions

Social-Emotional Competence: 1 contribution

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Organizing Theme 3

3. Research related to measuring children’s skills and learning

Measuring children’s skills and learning: 3 contributions

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Organizing Theme 4

4. Research related to professional development for early educators

PD for early educators: 3 contributions

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Organizing Theme 1: Research related to early childhood classroom environments and general

instructional practices

• One step toward improving ECE is to understand how

teaching and learning occur in early childhood programs in order to identify those features that are reliably associated with developmental outcomes (ECE classroom environments)

• There is scientific evidence that links the quality of teachers’ instruction with children’s learning; however, there is substantial variability in the quality of early childhood programs with respect to the quality of teachers’ instruction (ECE general instructional practices)

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• Contribution 1: There are critical associations between features of pre-kindergarten classrooms and positive children’s outcomes.

– For instance, data collected in state-funded Pre-K classrooms in 11 states provide evidence that the quality of children’s interactions with teachers, the nature of their experiences with peers, and the instructional focus of the classrooms are among the most critical features of classrooms for improving children’s outcomes (Mashburn et al., 2008)

Classroom Environment

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• Contribution 2: Parents’ and teachers’ support for children’s learning is associated with positive outcomes for young children.

– For instance, Powell and his colleagues (2003) examined two dimensions of parent-school relationships, parental involvement at school and parents’ perceptions of teachers’ responsiveness to them and to their children in a study conducted in 13 pre-kindergarten classrooms in one urban school district. They found that parents’ school involvement and parents’ perceptions of the responsiveness of their child’s teacher were related to children’s academic and social competence

Parent-School Relationships

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• Contribution 3: Higher-quality classroom environments are associated with improved learning outcomes for children.

– For instance, Burchinal et al (2010) found that there was a substantially stronger association between instructional support and children’s language, reading, and math outcomes in classrooms in which teachers provided a higher quality of instructional support.

Classroom Environment

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• Contribution 4: The children enrolled in early education settings show great variability in their skills and risk factors.

– For instance, Cabell and her colleagues (2011) identified five different profiles to characterize children’s early literacy and language competence in programs serving children ‘at-risk’. Two profiles, which characterized nearly 50 percent of the children, were associated with relatively low levels of language and literacy skill, whereas children in the other three profiles had average or above-average skills.

Individual Differences

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• Contribution 5: There is a need to improve characteristics of the classroom language environment.

– For instance, several studies show that teachers’ language is generally constrained in its focus, providing few explicit exemplars of advanced linguistic content, literacy principles, and cognitive concepts, even in the context of emotionally supportive interactions (Mashburn et al., 2008; Massey et al., 2008; Pence et al., 2008).

Language Environment

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• Contribution 6: The content of early childhood education may be relatively constrained with respect to provision of math- and science-oriented instruction.

– For instance, research shows that preschool teachers limit mathematics instruction to naming common shapes and counting up to relatively small numbers (e.g., 10 or 20) (Ginsberg et al., 2008)

Limited Math and Science

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• Contribution 7: Classroom composition likely influences children’s learning in early education settings.

– For instance, research found that children who exhibit less-developed skills in language, as an example, may benefit very little from enrollment in classrooms in which their classmates also exhibit less-developed skills (Justice et al., 2011)

Classroom Composition

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Organizing Theme 2: Research related to educational practices designed to impact children’s academic and

social outcomes

• IES has focused explicitly on identifying early childhood education practices associated with improvements in children’s learning and development, including research on cognition and learning.

• The contributions of IES-supported research on cognition and learning, specific instructional strategies, curricula, and assessments are of the greatest volume.

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Cognitive Development

• Contribution 8: Children’s abstract reasoning skills can be improved through specialized activities.

– For instance, studies conducted by Pasnak and his colleagues suggest that at the start of kindergarten, children who do not understand abstract reasoning skills and are directly taught them are better able to benefit from concurrent instruction in literacy and mathematics (Pasnak et al, 2007, 2009)

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Reading Curricula

• Contribution 9: There is a need to differentiate more- and less-effective curricula that support children’s early reading.

– For instance, evaluations of curricula in use by programs and teachers have often failed to show positive main (un-moderated) effects on children’s language, literacy, and cognitive development (Gunn et al., 2011; Justice et al., 2008)

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Early Reading Support

• Contribution 10: Teachers can support children’s early reading skills through read-alouds.

– For instance, researchers examined the effects of a program designed to teach science and social studies vocabulary through shared book reading with low-income preschool children; the book-based vocabulary program significantly improved children’s learning of targeted vocabulary words and also had significant effects on a standardized measure of receptive vocabulary (Gonzalez et al., 2011).

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Supplemental Instruction

• Contribution 11: Supplemental literacy instruction can be beneficial for children who are at risk for reading difficulty.

– For instance, Coyne and colleagues (2007) examined the effects of targeted vocabulary interventions on early reading outcomes of kindergarten and first-grade children most at risk for language and literacy difficulties; this vocabulary provided targeted and explicit instruction in small groups of students (six or fewer) in addition to the core vocabulary instruction in the kindergarten classroom.

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Specialized Supports

• Contribution 12: Young children who are deaf or hard of hearing require specialized supports to develop language and literacy skills.

– For instance, Easterbrooks et al (2006) characterized the nature, variability, and rate of growth in emergent literacy skills for young children with hearing loss; performance on a measure of phonological (letter-sound) awareness was substantially below the average score of the normative (hearing) group.

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Literacy-Behavior Link• Contribution 13: Children with problem behaviors may

benefit from particular types of reading instruction.

– For instance, Hagan-Burke et al (2011) examined associations between different types of problem behaviors and kindergarten reading outcomes of children identified as being at risk for reading difficulty; interaction analyses showed explicit, code-based reading program to moderate the negative association between externalizing problem behavior and children’s alphabet knowledge, phonemic blending skills, and word reading.

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Math Skill Development

• Contribution 14: Teachers’ use of structured curricula can improve young children’s math achievement.

– For instance, in work by Clements and colleagues (2011) involving 106 classrooms and more than 1300 students, large and significant changes in mathematical competence were obtained for children receiving the Building Blocks curriculum relative to comparison conditions.

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Targeted Math Interventions

• Contribution 15: Targeted interventions can significantly improve young children’s number sense.

– For instance, studies by Siegler and colleagues showed

that The Great Race produced substantial, significant gains in children’s numerical knowledge; the children became significantly more accurate in number line estimation, in choosing which of two numbers was bigger, in reading numbers, and in counting, as compared to those playing a control (color) game (Ramani & Siegler, 2008; Siegler & Ramani, 2008, 2009).

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RtI in Math• Contribution 16: Response to intervention may be applicable

to supporting early math development in children at risk.

– For instance, test of Early Learning in Mathematics (ELM) for children performing poorly in mathematics showed that it improved kindergartners’ numerical knowledge more than a business-as-usual control group; moreover, students identified as at risk based on their mathematics knowledge showed greater gains than other students considered not to be at risk (Chard et al., 2008; Clarke et al., 2011).

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Support for at-risk students• Contribution 17: Young children may require a lengthy period

of instruction to learn some key math concepts.

– For instance, an evaluation conducted by Baroody et al (2009) that compared four 10-week interventions aimed at improving mental arithmetic showed that all were sometimes effective in helping children learn the N+0 rule, but none were very effective in teaching children the N+1 rule. Investigators concluded that improving the arithmetic understanding of children at risk requires a lengthier period of instruction than the year of instruction provided.

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Math Difficulties

• Contribution 18: There are significant relations between mathematics difficulties in kindergarten and the primary grades.

– For instance, Morgan et al (2009) examined 5-year growth trajectories from kindergarten through fifth grade, and found that children who displayed persistent mathematics difficulties in kindergarten (delays evident on a mathematics skills assessment administered in both fall and spring of the kindergarten year) had the lowest subsequent mathematic skills growth rates when compared to the mathematics growth trajectories of children who did not have delays in kindergarten.

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Integrating Literacy and Science• Contribution 19: Science and literacy instruction can be integrated

in ways that improves children’s motivation towards science.

– For instance, Samarapungavan et al (2008) studied a program combining literacy and science teaching to enhance kindergarten children’s understanding of science and their motivation for engaging in science activities. Children made statistically significant gains in understanding scientific processes and life science concepts, relative to students in comparison classrooms, and the children also came to believe that they were competent in learning science.

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Social-Emotional Competence

• Contribution 20: There is a need for validated practices and policies that help teachers to effectively improve children’s social-emotional competence.

– For instance, Conroy et al. (2009) examined Best in Class, designed to help teachers to improve children’s social-emotional competence and prevent challenging behavior, particularly for children with the most persistent challenging behavior. However, results are limited to a small number of programs.

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Organizing Theme 3: Research related to measuring children’s skills and learning

• Much of IES-supported research necessarily involves

measurement of children’s skills and learning

• Significant need for research to identify valid and reliable ways to measure children’s skills and capture learning over time

• Need for measurement approaches and instruments that operationalize important and often multidimensional constructs (e.g., preschool children’s social competence) and that have been validated for intended purpose and with intended users

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• Contribution 21: Some commonly used instruments to evaluate intervention effects may not yield reliable or valid scores for certain samples of children and should be used cautiously

– For instance, Fantuzzo et al (2010) suggest that some commonly used assessment tools might not yield the same pattern of results for different groups of young children, as shown by their examination of the Child Behavior Checklist; analyses provided no confirmation for the Externalizing and Internalizing behavior dimensions reported by the scale developers.

Measurement

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• Contribution 22: New tools are available that provide valid and reliable ways to assess children’s language and literacy skills

– For example, a study of the Dynamic Screening of Phonological Awareness showed it to contribute minimally but uniquely to the prediction of end-of-year reading achievement outcomes focused on word identification and word attack beyond static and progress monitoring measures (Bridges & Catts, 2011).

Measurement

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• Contribution 23: Progress monitoring and data-based decision making tools might improve instructional practices

– For instance, IES-supported investigators have developed and are validating a web-based clinical decision support system known as MOD (Making Online Decisions). The MOD is a support tool for early interventionists, similar to the progress monitoring and decision making tools developed and validated for use in preschool and primary grades (Buzhardt et al., 2010).

Measurement

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Organizing Theme 4: Research related to professional development for early educators

• Need for “second-generation” PD research

• PD interventions directed to supporting implementation of curricula, instructional practice(s), or improve instruction in specific domain

• Hypothesized pathway – increasing teachers’ (caregivers’) use and fidelity of implementation of research-based interactional or instructional practices associated with more effective learning by children

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Background:

• Need to advance the scientific basis for EC PD (e.g., form, intensity, duration most effective for supporting teachers to acquire background knowledge and implement instructional strategies that lead to improved child outcomes)

• Promising practices need further specification and empirical validation (e.g., coaching, PLCs, mentoring, consultation)

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• Contribution 24: Classroom instruction can be improved by providing professional development to teachers

– For instance, Powell et al’s (2010) RCT, in which teachers received face-to-face coaching in their own classrooms or coaching through the use of video-based distance technologies, found that teachers who received either coaching intervention made significant improvements in their teaching relative to teachers who did not receive coaching, but there were no meaningful differences between the two coaching groups.

Professional Development

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• Contribution 25: Improving teachers’ instruction through professional development can improve children’s learning and development

– For instance, Landry et al (2009) implemented an RCT to compare the effects of different levels of progress monitoring and mentor coaching with a control condition, on children’s learning. Results were mixed and varied as a function of program site (state); however, across all sites, children whose teachers were in the no-mentoring, PDA group made greater gains in phonological awareness than did children in the control group.

Professional Development

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• Contribution 26: Technology can play an important role in designing effective professional development.

– For instance, Powell et al (2010) found that teachers who had access to videotape exemplars of best practices varied widely in the extent to which they viewed videotapes on their own, and having more exemplars was not viewed favorably. Such work contributes to expanding the field’s understanding of how and to what extent technology might be used to support teachers’ development, particularly their adoption of new practices.

Professional Development

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Important Future Questions Should Focus On…

(1) The quality of early childhood education and intervention for all children.

– We need to know if there are minimum thresholds of quality (teachers’ instruction and support for children) below which little learning occurs

– We need to know how the quality of instruction relates to quality of teacher-child relationships (e.g., is there a synergistic association such that good quality in one domain leverages quality in another)

– We need to know if quality thresholds are applicable across varied types of program (e.g., publicly supported programs such as state-funded pre-K, community based early care and learning center) and locales

– We need to know what interventions are effective for improving early childhood classroom quality

– We need to know where investment in quality improvements will have the biggest impact on children’s learning and development

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Important Future Questions Should Focus On…

(2) Key characteristics of effective instruction. – We need to know the most effective and efficient approaches for engaging

children in learning to support their development of attention and self-regulation

– We need to know how best to promote children’s development of language, literacy, mathematics and science knowledge, all of which are foundations for continued success in the elementary grades

– We need to know how best to support those children who are falling behind relative to their more advantaged peers

Focusing on efficient as well as effective educational practices will be critical in closing achievement gaps.

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Recent contributions: Quality investigations

– Quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs) do not differentiate among programs with high and low impacts on children (Sabol et al., 2013)

– Quality ratings based on direct observations (Arnett, ECERS, CLASS, ELLCO) only modestly (if at all) relate to child outcomes in pre-K settings (Colwell et al., 2013; Keys et al., 2013; Weiland et al., 2013) and there are no clear thresholds of quality differentiating high and low child outcomes (Weiland et al., 2013)• Regardless of tool or construct (e.g., instructional routines,

emotional support), it is difficult to link quality to child outcomes (effects are very small in size)

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Recent contributions: Impact investigations

– Comprehensive investigation of public pre-K show significant benefits to children, with the greatest yield for children who are poor and/or are linguistically or culturally diverse • Boston Public Schools’ Pre-K program (Weiland &

Yoshikawa, 2013)• Tennessee Voluntary Prekindergarten program (Lipsey et

al., 2013)– Research-based curricula used in pre-K has long-term

benefits through first grade (especially with ongoing supports; Clements et al., 2013)

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Important Future Questions Should Focus On…

(3) Intensive instruction for children with significant learning needs.

– We need to understand how RTI approaches will be used in early childhood settings

– We need to develop assessment tools that can be used quickly and reliably to monitor preschool children’s progress in academic and social learning domains

– We need to develop effective, individualized interventions that can be implemented in group settings by teachers and at home by family members

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Recent contributions: Intensive instruction for children with significant learning needs

– Evidence regarding individualized interventions implemented in group settings by teachers or at home by family members• For preschool children with developmental delays (IEPs) and behavioral difficulties, school

readiness “transition” intervention [intensive child instruction and parent group education] associated with better child self-regulation skills at end of K, improved behavior management practices by parents by start of K, and higher levels of parent involvement at end of K relative to comparison group (Pears, 2014)

• For preschool children with autism, teachers’ fidelity of implementation of the LEAP intervention (Learning Experiences and Alternative Program for Preschoolers and Their Parents; comprehensive treatment approach for ASD) in inclusive preschool classrooms associated with improvements in children’s cognitive, language, social/behavioral, and autism symptoms (Strain & Bovey, 2011)

• For toddlers and preschoolers with language impairments, caregiver-training approach implemented by interventionists (Teach-Model-Coach-Review) resulted in increased use of enhanced milieu language (EMT) instructional procedures by caregivers; caregivers’ use of strategies associated with positive changes in child language skills (Roberts, Kaiser, et al., 2014; Roberts & Kaiser, 2013)

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Recent contributions: Assessment tools that can be used quickly and reliably to monitor preschool

children’s progress in academic and social learning domains

– Promising validity evidence for short-form (15-20 min, 19 items) of prekindergarten and kindergarten mathematics measure (REMA) to assess numeracy and geometry skills; demonstrated sensitivity to differences in early mathematics development; screening or formative assessment (Weiland, Wolfe, Hurwitz, Clements, Samara, & Yoshikawa, 2012)

– Identification of set of 6 direct assessment, self-regulation measures for pre-K children that have been demonstrated to be predictive of academic achievement gains and can be reliably administered by pre-k teachers (Meador, Turner, Lipsey, & Farran, 2013)

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Important Future Questions Should Focus On…

(4) Improving teaching practices. • We need to know more about effective strategies for helping teachers to improve

the quality of their classrooms and of the instruction that they provide.

• We need to know more about the elements of effective coaching:– Is coaching more effective when it is provided by a colleague from one’s own

school (mentor-teacher) than when it is provided by a coach from the outside?

– How frequently should the coach consult with the teacher, and how much coaching is needed to effect reliable, lasting changes in teachers’ instructional practices?

– How effective are communities of practice (i.e., groups of teachers) in promoting changes in teaching, relative to individualized coaching?

• We need to know more about technologies that are effective in supporting teachers’ learning and use of new, more effective instruction

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Recent contributions: Effective strategies for helping teachers to improve the quality of their classrooms and of the instruction

that they provide – Web-based supports that included video-based consultation and video teaching

exemplars were more effective for improving teachers’ instructional practices and preschool children’s language and literacy skills than providing teachers with a set of web-based instructional materials and detailed lesson guides alone (Downer, Pianta, Fan, et al., 2011)

– Workshop training, intervention manuals, and sustained coaching more effective than manuals alone for supporting teachers in inclusive preschool classrooms to implement LEAP intervention practices with fidelity (Strain & Bovey, 2011)

– Course on effective teacher-child interactions that included explicit set of interactional and instructional practices, multiple video exemplars and video analyses to make explicit linkages between teachers’ actions and intended consequences for children had measureable effects on teachers’ beliefs, knowledge, and observed practices relative to control teachers (Hamre, Pianta, Burchinal, Field, LoCasale-Crouch, et al., 2012)

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Thank you

Synthesis available here: http://ies.ed.gov/ncser/pubs/20133001