Eleva&ng the Capacity of Classroom Experiences for Promo&ng Students’ Learning and Development: Observa&on and Improvement of Teacher-­‐Child Interac&ons Robert C. Pianta, Ph.D. Dean, Curry School of Educa&on Director, Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning Aims of today’s talk ! What experiences for social and cogni&ve development are offered to young children in preschool classrooms? ! Do interac&ons with teachers and experiences in classrooms maMer for students? ! Can observa&on leverage efforts to improve the richness, quality, and effec&veness of experiences in classrooms? ! Can we use observa&on of teacher-­‐student interac&ons to improve student learning? Discover. Create. Change.
Improve quality, impact for young children ■  Poor children enter kindergarten far behind their peers, despite increased investment in HS and PK ■  Even with universal access, learning gaps s&ll exist. Need access to experiences of sufficient intensity to foster learning. ■  Interac&ons between teachers and children are the ingredient that fosters learning and development; Interac&ons = Quality ■  Issue is access and quality. Move cau&ously with QRIS Child-­‐teacher interac&ons maMer ! Early history of relationships with adults forms
“infrastructure” for school success:
q  Social competence with peers
q  Self-regulation, emotional self-control
q  Task orientation, persistence, following directions
! School readiness is a social process:
q  Relationships with teachers are a “medium” for learning
! Relationships and interactions with teachers and
caregivers define quality and value of early education
and are the path to improving school readiness.
! Standardized, observational assessments
Measuring interac&ons: CLASS Teacher-Child Interactions
(these matter)
Emotional
Support
Classroom
Organization
Instructional
Support
! CLASS is a tool for observing and assessing the quality of interac&ons between teachers and students ! Ra&ngs (1-­‐7) of the emo(onal, organiza(onal, and instruc(onal supports provided by teachers that contribute to children’s social, developmental, and academic achievement. ! CLASS is used to assess interac&ons among teachers and students for a variety of purposes: q Teacher Professional Development q Monitoring and Evalua&on of Teacher Performance/ Effec&veness q Research 1
Dimensions of interac&on: CLASS PK-­‐3 ! Posi&ve climate ! Nega&ve climate ! Teacher sensi&vity ! Regard for student perspec&ves Emotional
Support
! Effec&ve behavior management ! Instruc&onal learning formats ! Produc&vity Organization/
Management
! Concept development ! Quality of feedback ! Language modeling Instructional
Support
Interac&ons and children’s PK development Emotional
Support
Receptive
Language
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"
"
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Expressive
Language
Rhyming
Letter Naming
Math Skills
Social
Competence
Behavior
Problems
Instructional
Support
ECERS-R
Total
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Observations at the population level in US early education
Do effects of interac&ons in PK persist into K? Structural
Changes in
children’s
development
from beginning
to end of
preschool
Mashburn, et al. (in
press)
! Yes, children in pre-­‐k classrooms offering higher levels of Instruc&onal Support displayed beMer language skills at the end of kindergarten. ! Kindergarten Instruc&onal Support scores made an independent contribu&on to gains in children’s language and math abili&es. "
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Connec&ons between QRIS and readiness? ! Many elements of quality – Teacher creden&als, ra&o, physical environment, parent engagement, interac&ons(?), etc. ! Various methods to define “points” for these quality indicators (e.g. cutoffs) and then aggregate them to “stars.” ! Does # of stars predict readiness? Do elements predict readiness? Study of 14 states’ QRIS Interac&ons are really important for… …children from low-­‐income families and those who have difficulty adjus&ng to classroom environments may par&cularly benefit from exposure to high quality early learning environments as defined by the CLASS. ! No associa&on of # stars to readiness; only element that predicts is observed interac&ons 2
Gains in grade 1 achievement in instruc&onally suppor&ve classrooms Standardized
tests of
achievement
adjusted
Gains in grade 1 achievement in emo&onally suppor&ve classrooms 107
107
106
106
105
105
104
104
103
High educ.
102
101
Low educ.
Standardized
tests of
achievement
adjusted
103
No problems
102
101
100
100
99
99
98
Kindergarten
adjustment
problems
Multiple problems
98
Low
Moderate
High
1st Grade Instructional Support
Low
Moderate
High
1st Grade Emotional Support
Teacher and child stress and interac&ons Improving interac&ons and their value !  Emo&onal sensi&vity of teachers leads to decreases in child stress hormones (cor&sol) over the day and year. !  Link supports to teachers with how they affect interac&ons with children – Building quality !  Higher teacher stress reac&vity predicts poor interac&ons and reduces value of interac&ons for children’s learning !  CLASS – specific defini&ons of interac&ons – a target !  “Banking Time” interven&on increases teacher sensi&vity q  Focused training for reading child cues q  Seeing decrease in cor&sol for both teachers and children q  Increases in child engagement, affilia&on, coopera&on !  Video Library – analysis of others’ interac&ons !  Coaching – ongoing analysis/feedback on own interac&ons !  Course – knowledge and analy&c skills !  All tested in experiments CLASS examples: PK-­‐3 3
MTP coaching cycle MTP Prompts: Feedback for teachers 1
Classroom video recording
at an established time
4
2
Teacher and consultant
meet and discuss
teaching practices
Consultant reviews
and edits video clips
3
Teacher reviews clips
and reflects on practice
myteachingpartner.net
myteachingpartner.net
Classrooms with high poverty benefit more from MTP coaching for teachers MTP Coaching improves interac&ons 5.5
q Grew more sensi&ve in interac&ons with students q Increased students’ engagement in instruc&on q Improved language s&mula&on techniques q High-­‐poverty classrooms benefit a great deal q Early career teachers benefit from coaching and video ! Children with MTP teachers q Made greater gains in tests of early literacy q Experienced lower levels of problem behavior q Demonstrated higher levels of expressive language
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! Teachers with MTP coaches Se
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Findings: Effects of MTP support in PK r
4
3.5
3.5
Se
Control--100% Poor
D
4
Coaching--100% Poor
4.5
N
Control
5
er
Coaching
O
ct
ob
4.5
Language modeling
Language modeling
5
NCRECE professional development study NCRECE evaluates two PD supports: Phase I
In-service course
on effective
interactions
Phase II
In-service coaching using
MyTeachingPartner
4
Course focus and aims Research par&cipants and partners Teachers: N = 506 ■  Iden&fy connec&ons between teacher-­‐child interac&ons, child development, and learning ! 45% with Bachelor’s degree, 42% with AA or less ! 13% with Master’s degree ! Mean years teaching preschool: 11.3 (s.d., 7.8) ■  Describe elements of effec&ve teaching as defined by Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) ! Ethnicity: African American 47%; White 33%; La&na 9%; Asian 3%; Other 8% ■  Accurately observe effec&ve and ineffec&ve interac&ons with children using CLASS ! 10 early ed sites, mostly urban, 60% HS ■  Describe implemen&ng language and literacy curricula through effec&ve teacher-­‐child interac&ons ! Higher educa&on partners at each site Course improves teaching prac&ce Course improves beliefs, knowledge, skill ***
What did we learn from course? ■  Teachers demonstrated changes in beliefs,
knowledge, skills and practices
■  Effects on practice were strongest for
instructional interactions – were sustained 1
year later
■  Course was effective for all teachers
■  Course promoted better interactions in the
classroom through increasing teachers’
observation skills – can be trained
*
MTP coaching protocol ! Scale-­‐up to 10 sites, train and support local coaches ! Focus most of coaching cycles on Instruc&onal Support behaviors. ! Standardize sequence of exposure 5
MTP coaching improves instruc&onal support Analysis of coaching effects ! Accumula&ng exposure to: a) video b) prompts in each of 3 CLASS domains. ***
***
! Predic&ng incremental changes in CLASS ! General paMern of increase dose = posi&ve change q Prompts à Instruc&onal Support q Video à Emo&onal Support ! Focused aMen&on in a domain leads to changes in that domain of teacher-­‐student interac&on *p<.05; ** p<.01; ***p<.001
Implementa&on results and implica&ons ■  Effec&ve PD interven&ons can be delivered locally with high fidelity and quality. Coaching/course effects on child readiness ! Child outcomes in coaching year and for children in teachers’ classrooms the following year ! Literacy, language development, self-­‐regula&on ■  Quality of implementa&on maMers for teacher engagement and for benefits of PD. ! Effects on language behaviors in concurrent (coaching) year – greater mul&-­‐word conversa&onal turns ■  Coaches and course instructors need focused support. Conference calls, check-­‐ins, standard protocols all essen&al to keeping focused. ! For children year arer coaching, MTP increased self regula&on and working memory; language behavior; and literacy in classrooms with targeted curriculum. Online course: Foster inten&onal teaching Ac&ve ingredients for changing prac&ce ■  Enhanced ability to “see” effective
practice in self and others
Intentional teaching
requires teachers to
know what to do in
each moment, see
effective teaching in
themselves and others,
enact these strategies
in the classroom, and
reflect on, or analyze
what works and what
does not.
q Video library
q Review of own video
q Course – focus on ineffective
practice as well
Professional
Development
• Knowledge
• Schemas
• Relationships
■  Emotionally supportive context for
change
q Coach & Instructor
q “Nice Work” prompt in MTP
6
Online course components 4. Talk with Instructor 1. Online Content Online content ■  Help teachers “chunk”
complexities into 10 key
elements of practice
q Dimensions
■  Indicators
q  behaviors
3. Analyze own Video 2. Analyze Videos of Others Analysis of others’ teaching ■  Tightly couple
knowledge of
interactions with
visuals of what it looks
like in real classrooms
Early results from online course n  Feasible, with high levels of teacher
engagement. Teachers report relevance.
n  Teachers learning the skills of “seeing”
interactions and child cues, become
better observers
n  Teachers “stick with” the online activities
n  Teachers highly involved in online
communities and group discussions of
practice.
Standardized observa&on of interac&ons n  Feasible, reliable and valid – A common language and lens for classroom interac&ons and prac&ce. Implica&ons for QRIS n  Regular use of observa&on -­‐ a focus for quality n  Seeing and labeling interac&ons and child cues appears a key for transfer to teachers’ prac&ce; can be measured and trained (MTP) ! Focused support to teachers in a certain domain produces improvements in their interac&ons in that domain Improving impacts: Program design and PD n  Direct training in knowledge of child development – math, literacy, social, language n  Skills training in interac&ons has benefits n  Use of evidence-­‐based educa&onally-­‐focused, proven-­‐effec&ve curricula. Least prevalent among preschool programs n  Skills training in curriculum and implementa&on n  Design really maMers – design for impact and implementa&on 7
Moving the needle – Access and Quality Apprecia&on and collaborators !  Connect observa&on with PD and feedback to move quality into “ac&ve range.” QRIS ! Ins&tute of Educa&on Sciences support for the Na&onal Center for Research on Early Childhood Educa&on !  Not all coaching, coursework, or observa&on is effec&ve; must be focused, ongoing ! Eunice Kennedy Shriver Na&onal Ins&tute for Child Health and Human Development !  Focused teacher professional development and prepara&on can increase quality and children’s school readiness – Gap-­‐closing experiences !  Teacher prepara&on and PD – support teachers in their classrooms; focus prepara&on on actual skills !  We can close gaps for kids and support teachers to feel effec&ve and connected ! University of Virginia Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning ! Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center at UNC-­‐ Chapel Hill; UCLA, UNC-­‐Greensboro. ! Colleagues at www.teachstone.com ! Dozens of partner programs and districts and the hundreds of teachers who have worked with us 8