Coaching Teachers for Emergent Literacy Instruction Using Performance-Based Feedback

Coaching has garnered support as a professional development approach that helps teachers use research-based instruction to teach emergent literacy skills to young children. However, approaches to coaching vary widely, as do the backgrounds and training of the teachers included in different studies. This study investigated the influence of skill-focused coaching on certified teachers' use of three clusters of instructional skills. Discussion of visually represented observation data provided the primary framework for coaching. After coaching, teachers in the intervention group used significantly more of the skills in two of three clusters of instructional skills than did those in the control group. Group differences also were found on the language and literacy sections of a general measure of the classroom literacy environment, indicating that targeted skill coaching may have more general effects on classroom quality. Results are discussed from the perspectives of professional development and research on coaching.