Douglas Powell and Karen Diamond

The goal of this project is to further develop and pilot test case-based hypermedia combined with individualized coaching with teachers to significantly improve pre-kindergarten teachers' use of effective instruction to promote children's vocabulary and phonological sensitivity skills. This project extends our current work on professional development in early literacy with a more intensive intervention method with teachers and concentrated focus on critical skills that contribute to early reading success. Both projects are supported by grants from the Institute of Education Sciences , U.S. Department of Education. In the current project, we will develop and refine the hypermedia and coaching strategies in Year 1, further refine intervention components in a trial implementation in Year 2, and collect pilot data on intervention effectiveness in Year 3. Teachers in Head Start programs collectively serving 11 Indiana counties that include urban, small city, and rural communities will participate in the implementation and pilot study of the intervention. For the pilot study, 48 teachers (classrooms) will be randomly assigned to semester, with spring semester intervention classroom serving as control classrooms in the fall semester. Data on teaching practices and children's vocabulary and phonological sensitivity skills will be collected at three time points on control (semester prior to intervention, beginning, end of intervention) and intervention (pre- and post- intervention, follow-up) teachers and 4 year old children.

Funding: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education

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