Tanya Christ

Facilitation and Teacher Behaviors An Analysis of Literacy Teachers’ Video-Case Discussions

This study explored how peer and professor facilitations are related to teachers’ behaviors during video-case discussions. Fourteen inservice teachers produced 1,787 turns of conversation during 12 video-case discussions that were video-recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed with statistical discourse analysis. Professor facilitations (sharing experiences; affirming ideas; and asking for critical thinking, information, observations, and connections) and peer facilitations (recall, critical thinking, connections, and affirmations) in recent conversation turns were linked to teachers’ current turn behaviors, including recalling information, critical thinking, and making connections to content in video cases. These results suggest that modeling, scaffolding, and co-construction among professors and peers support specific teacher behaviors during video-case discussions.

Closing the Vocabulary Gap?: A Review of Research on Early Childhood Vocabulary Practices

Our qualitative literature review of 31 published studies found that (a) three major approaches are used in early childhood classrooms to support childrens vocabulary learning—exposing children to advanced words, providing direct word-meaning instruction, and employing mixed-method interventions; (b) these practices support childrens learning of targeted vocabulary words and/or general vocabulary knowledge gains, but various methods have differential impacts on childrens depth of word knowledge; and (c) theme-based multimethod interventions are the most likely approach to close the gap. Based on these findings, we suggest future research directions and discuss implications for classroom practice.

Collaborative Peer Video Analysis: Insights about Literacy Assessment and Instruction.

This mixed-methods study explored (a) the purposes for which teachers selected video clips of their own literacy teaching and assessment practices to share and discuss with peers, (b) how these purposes were related to the content of the discussions, and (c) what variables were related to teachers’ generation of new ideas and future actions that they considered. Data included 39 transcribed video events, in which 14 in-service teachers engaged in discussions of their video clips. Emergent coding and constant comparative method were used for analyses. The authors found three purposes for sharing clips—explicit problems, implicit problems, and successes. Three issues were addressed—methods/materials, reader engagement, and reader processes. Six themes described how teachers’ purposes were related to their discussion content. First, sharing one problem led to one conversational focus. Second, sharing multiple problems led to multiple conversational foci. Third, sharing a problem and then a success resulted in peers focusing on the success. Fourth, sharing a success and then a problem resulted in peers focusing on the problem. Fifth, sharing a success related to methods/materials or reader engagement bred peers’ interest in how to apply these ideas to their own practice. Sixth, sharing a success related to reader processing led to peers focusing on other issues in the video. Based on the statistical model, teachers’ generation of new ideas was related to purposes and issues for clip sharing, and future actions considered were related to the clip type (instructional clips yielded more future actions).

Moving Past “Right” or “Wrong” Toward a Continuum of Young Children’s Semantic Knowledge

Vocabulary development is a critical goal for early childhood education. However, it is difficult for researchers and teachers to determine whether this goal is being met, given the limitations of current assessment tools. These tools tend to view word knowledge dichotomously—as right or wrong. A clear sense of children’s depth of semantic knowledge is necessary in order to plan and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. This article proposes a continuum of young children’s semantic knowledge that stems from a conceptual analysis of literature across the fields of education, linguistics, and educational psychology. Nineteen categories of children’s word knowledge were identified and grouped into five hierarchically related levels: no understanding, schematically related understanding, contextual understanding, decontextual understanding, and paired understanding. This semantic continuum can be used to develop an assessment instrument to measure the incremental changes in young children’s semantic knowledge. Also, it can be used to guide assessment-based vocabulary instruction in early childhood.

Teachers’ reports of learning and application to pedagogy based on engagement in collaborative peer video analysis

Given international use of video-based reflective discussions in teacher education, and the limited knowledge about whether teachers apply learning from these discussions, we explored teachers’ learning of new ideas about pedagogy and their self-reported application of this learning. Nine inservice and 48 preservice teachers participated in video-based reflective discussions and documented their learning, sources of knowledge that contributed to their learning, and application of this learning to their teaching in their practica courses. A total of 227 response sheets with this information were collected. Multilevel logit regression was used to examine how sources of learning and content learned were related to teachers’ application of learning to their teaching practices. We found that teachers reported applying 40% of their learning; particularly, what they learned about methods and materials for instruction, and that they learned from both video and discussion almost equally.

Emergent Readers' Social Interaction Styles and Their Comprehension Processes during Buddy Reading.

To examine the relations between emergent readers’ social interaction styles and their comprehension processes, we adapted sociocultural and transactional views of learning and reading, and conducted statistical discourse analysis of 1,359 conversation turns transcribed from 14 preschoolers’ 40 buddy reading events. Results show that interaction styles were differentially related to comprehension processes: the collaborative style was related to the use of the most comprehension processes, some comprehension processes were related to tutor and tutee interaction styles, and the parallel interaction style was not related to any comprehension processes. The findings inform early childhood teachers how to foster productive social interactions during buddy reading in order to facilitate emergent readers’ comprehension processes.

Exploring a comprehensive model for early childhood vocabulary instruction: a design experiment

Addressing a critical need for effective vocabulary practices in early childhood classrooms, we conducted a design experiment to achieve three goals: (1) developing a comprehensive model for early childhood vocabulary instruction, (2) examining the effectiveness of this model, and (3) discerning the contextual conditions that hinder or facilitate its implementation. Guided by sociocultural theory and the design experiment framework, our study was conducted in one Head Start classroom and included a control class for comparison. The resulting model extends the existing instruction in several ways and effectively increases childrens target vocabulary knowledge. Contextual constraints were identified (high teacher turnover, low teacher buy-in, and rigid teacher roles) and addressed by working with the teachers towards developing a community of practice.

Video Use in Teacher Education: A Survey of Teacher-Educators' Practices across Disciplines.

Video methods utilize tenets of high quality teacher education and support education students’ learning and application of learning to teaching practices. However, how frequently video is used in teacher education, and in what ways is unknown. Therefore, this study used survey data to identify the extent to which 94 teacher-educators used video in their teacher education courses along with the specific uses of video. Further, multilevel multivariate analyses identified what factors impacted these uses. Findings included that many teacher-educators underused video in their teacher education courses, and typically used only one type of video in each course. Any type of video use was significantly related to teacher-educator, course, and discipline-area factors, and interactions amongst these. Specific types of video use were significantly related to institutional-demographic, teacher-educator, support, course, discipline-area factors, and interactions amongst these. Implications for increasing video use and breadth of types of video uses in teacher education are discussed.

A Three-Pronged Approach to Video Reflection: Preparing Literacy Teachers of the Future

Abstract Purpose This chapter explores whether, and how, video reflections used across three contexts in teacher education (video case-study reflections, self-reflections, and Collaborative Peer Video Analysis reflections) result in teachers’ greater depth and breadth of reflective ideas about literacy assessment practices as compared to their reflections in just one context. Methodology/approach This qualitative case study of 18 teachers tracks their reflective content over time, and uses emergent coding and constant comparative methods to identify patterns in the breadth and depth of teachers’ reflections across three contexts: video case studies, self-reflections, and Collaborative Peer Video Analysis. Findings Teachers demonstrate greater depth and breadth of reflection across the three contexts, as compared to any one context. Three patterns were identified that describe how teachers develop depth of reflection across these contexts: identifying problems, shifting learning, and transferring learning to novel contexts. Two patterns were identified that describe how breadth of reflection occurred across these contexts: broad array of ideas for a specific topic and a broad range of topics. Practical implications Teacher educators can use a three-pronged approach to video reflection to promote depth and breadth of teachers’ reflections. Opportunities should also be provided across time, and prompts should be provided for guiding reflection to support breadth and depth of teachers’ analyses.

Cultural Relevance and Informal Reading Inventory Performance: African-American Primary and Middle School Students.

ABSTRACT We explore whether (a) teacher ratings of texts’ cultural relevance along various dimensions differ from those of students, (b) these ratings reflect a single construct, and (c) ratings of specific dimensions are related to specific reading outcomes. Fifty African-American students were each administered two text protocols for a total of 100 protocols. Teachers and students rated each text along multiple dimensions of cultural relevance. Factor analyses showed that teachers’ cultural relevance ratings formed a coherent construct, but students’ ratings did not. Multivariate, multilevel, mixed response analyses showed that students who rated places and experiences as culturally relevant had higher critical evaluation and connection scores. When researcher ratings were higher, students’ word recognition meaning-maintenance, rereading at miscues, and literal comprehension scores were higher.