The effect of a professional development model on early childhood educators’ direct teaching of beginning reading

Research over the last 15 years has reported that for professional development to be effective, in terms of changing teachers’ knowledge and/or instructional strategies, it needs to be conducted taking into consideration the following factors: teachers’ existing knowledge, experience and attitudes towards the professional development, school administrative factors, opportunities for classroom-based follow-up and gathering data concerning student achievement to measure the impact or effectiveness of the professional development. These factors were all carefully considered when creating, planning and implementing the professional development model for this study. The results indicate that an evidence-based professional development model which included a workshop, classroom observations and coaching significantly improved participants’ instructional practice over the course of one year while implementing Let’s Decode, a semi-scripted, explicit and direct approach to teaching phonological awareness and systematic decoding instruction when teaching beginning reading.