What professional development model best supports R&R implementation?
Franziska Egert is a Language and Literacy Coach working in the governmental professional development initiative for pre-k teachers in Bavaria, Germany. The professional development initiative provides support for all center-based pre-k teachers to improve their knowledge and skills in the educational domain of language and literacy. She received her M.A. in Social Pedagogy and Social Management at the University of Applied Science in Landshut, Germany. Franziska was a visiting scholar with the Recognition and Response Project from August – October 2009.
As a language and literacy coach, I provide professional development sessions, workshops, and individual coaching for pre-k teachers working in different child care /early education settings. From my point of view, pre-k teachers are experts on their situation and therefore, professional development should adapt to their individual needs. Currently, there isn’t much knowledge about the customization of professional development for pre-k teachers. Therefore, I’m interested in effective professional development provision strategies that support pre-k teachers in improving teaching and intervening practices which lead to enhanced child outcomes.
Recent research shows that professional development can lead to improvements in practice that positively impact child development when it is strongly linked to a curriculum or educational model. The findings from the R&R Implementation study maintain this assumption. However, we are a long way from understanding how professional development can positively influence child development through improvement of practice. From my perspective as a professional development provider, the following questions arise:
1) What’s the best path to bring the knowledge from research into practice?
2) What kind of support do teachers need?
The first question emphasizes the effectiveness of professional development and the answer to that question would help professional development providers design effective professional development strategies. Nevertheless, this doesn’t address the second question: what kind of support do teachers need? In the case of the R&R model, the findings from the Implementation study showed that 92 percent of the teachers would recommend R&R to other teachers. The findings suggest that teachers received support which they determined to be useful and helpful. However, we don’t know if this positive perception comes from the provision of a) a professional development, b) the R&R model, c) the materials and tools, or d) the combination of professional development, model, material, and tools.
In my point of view, the perception of the model varies from classroom to classroom. Therefore, in order to enhance our understanding of what type and content of professional development is more likely to support the effective implementation of the R&R model, the following question might need to be posed directly to teachers:
What kind of support do you need to implement the R&R model in your classroom?