These teachers focus on problem-solving, prediction and experimentation, classification and comparison, and evaluation. For example, teachers rated high in CLASS Instructional Support domain (Concept Development dimension) often engage children in discussions and activities that encourage analysis and reasoning. The participating coaches noted that the emphasis on higher-order thinking skills and intellectual dispositions in the Project Approach aligned well with the CLASS Instructional Support domain (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008). Helm and Katz (2011) propose that the Project Approach provides experiences that involve students intellectually and develop their dispositions to make sense of experience to theorize, analyze, hypothesize, and synthesize to predict and check predictions to find things out to strive for accuracy to be empirical to grasp the consequences of actions to persist in seeking solutions to problems to speculate about cause-effect relationships and to predict other’s wishes and feelings (p. The Project Approach was selected as a curriculum element because of its sustained opportunities for investigation of worthy topics and the multiple contexts in which teachers and children can think together. Although results were promising and included significant shifts in CLASS Instructional Support domain scores, the coaches posited that the approach to coaching might be enhanced if teacher-child interactions were more closely connected to classroom curriculum. At the end of the pilot year, the group of coaches reflected on research findings to plan for the second year. Coaches worked with teachers to set goals for improvement of specific teacher behaviors and provided support for achieving those goals. After being trained in the use of the CLASS as a professional development tool, the group decided to investigate how to support teacher-child interactions in the Instructional Support domain of CLASS, where scores had been lowest for the classrooms of the teachers being coached, as well as for classrooms observed in large national studies (Curby et al, 2009 Hamre & Pianta, 2005).ĭuring the pilot year, coaches engaged teachers in side-by-side analysis of videotaped teaching practice using the CLASS Instructional Support domain as a framework. An interest in understanding and refining coaching strategies originated with a group of Head Start coaches who formed a community of practice with colleagues from two local universities. In this article, we describe an ongoing study that combines coaching with implementation of the Project Approach and use of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), a standardized classroom observation instrument focused on teacher-child interactions (Pianta, LaParo, & Hamre, 2008). Research also suggests that continued professional development and support for early childhood classroom teachers is needed generally to improve classroom quality and enhance children’s learning (Bogard et al., 2008 Lieber et al., 2009 Pianta, 2005, 2006 Pianta, Howes et al., 2005 Pianta, Mashburn, Downer, Hamre, & Justice, 2008). Recent research indicates that both instruction and teacher-child interactions may be predictors of child outcomes (Bogard, Traylor, & Takanishi, 2008 Chien et al., 2010) and that there is considerable variation in the quality of instruction and teacher-child interactions in classrooms (Curby et al., 2009 Howes et al., 2008 LoCasale-Crouch et al., 2007 Pianta, 2005, 2006 ). Consistent with their findings, the authors recommend that use of the Project Approach be combined with attention to behaviors emphasized in the CLASS to help teachers intentionally improve instructional quality in prekindergarten classrooms.Ī goal for prekindergarten education today is to maintain high expectations for all children, while closing what is often called “the school readiness gap” associated with socio-economic status. Higher Project Approach Fidelity scores predicted higher scores for the CLASS Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support domains. The Project Approach Fidelity scores have positive predictive relationships to the CLASS domains. Linear regressions were used to investigate predictors of CLASS domain scores. This study examines the relationship between two measures: Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) and a Project Approach Fidelity form developed by the authors. The focus of this ongoing research is the effectiveness of coaching in improving the quality of teacher-child instructional interactions in Head Start classrooms. University of Missouri–Kansas City Abstract Sue Vartuli, Carol Bolz, and Catherine Wilson A Learning Combination: Coaching with CLASS and the Project Approach
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