Research Projects

2018 – 2019 Research

Drs. Anderson, Ota, Qiu and Henke have been conducting an action research study since 2015 that explored how the implementation of a Practice-Based Coaching model across an early childhood (EC) education university program influenced preservice EC educator beliefs and practices. The WSU Charter Academy Kindergarten and Children's School prekindergarten mentor teachers coached the participating students. A pre/post design was used to compare changes in preservice EC educator developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) beliefs and implementation skills before and after the implementation of a Practice-Based Coaching model to the university curriculum. Participants were 140 preservice EC educators enrolled in EC education upper-division advanced planning and guidance courses with lab school field experience. The assessment used for EC educator DAP beliefs was the Teacher Beliefs Q-sort. Implementation skills were assessed with the Classroom Assessment Scoring System for preschool.

Robyn Johnson, M.Ed., analyzed the extant data for her Master's Thesis. Results indicated a shift toward more DAP beliefs in the area of teaching practices, an increase in DAP implementation skills in emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support, and a more consistent pattern of correlations between DAP beliefs and implementation skills for the post-test group, as compared to baseline. Results suggest that implementation of the Practice-Based Coaching model may be beneficial in reducing inconsistencies between EC preservice educator beliefs and implementation skills by supporting belief shifts toward more DAP while improving DAP implementation skills.

DNP Presentation 2021