Workshops and Forums
LL&EL shares our research and knowledge of best practices at national, state, regional, and local events. Our conference presentations, workshops, and keynote addresses explore key issues in early education. Check this page often for announcements of upcoming presentations.
- Moving from Development to Efficacy
- Teacher Quality and Preschool Children’s Outcomes in Language and Literacy
- Changing Classroom Practice to Promote Young Children’s Scientific Thinking
- Learning from Science Exploration: The Reacher’s Role
- Maintaining the Momentum: Extending the Gains of Professional Development
- Creating a Successful Professional Development Program in Science on Head Start Teaches’ Content Knowledge, Pedagogical Content Knowledge, and Inquiry-Based Science Instruction
- A Paradigm Shift for Evaluation Research: Incorporation of Cultural Dynamics in the Evaluation Process
- System Building Strategy to Promote Children’s Healthy Development in Early Care and Education
Moving from Development to Efficacy
Presenters
Nancy Clark-Chiarelli, Jess Gropen, Ingrid Chalufour, Cindy Hoisington, & Costanza Eggers-Pierola
Date
June 2009
Event
Fourth Annual IES Research Conference
Location
Washington, DC
Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) will present findings on its Teacher Quality Goal 2 project, Assessing the Potential Impact of a Professional Development Program in Science on Head Start Teachers and Children and the implications for its newly-funded Goal 3 project. The professional development program, Foundations of Science Literacy (FSL), has two main components: 1) instructional sessions delivered face-to-face, building teachers’ pedagogical and content knowledge in physical science; and 2) a mentoring component that supports teachers as they master science content and inquiry-based methods. FSL addresses the critical need for empirical evidence on effective strategies to improve preschool science instruction, especially for the growing population of English language learners and low-income children who demonstrate lower levels of science proficiency than their peers. The poster reports the findings from a small-scale Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) conducted as part of the Goal 2 study (development of intervention). Findings related to impact on classroom quality, as measured by a classroom observation tool (Science Teaching and Environment Rating Scale) and on teacher quality, assessed through a set of teacher performance tasks focusing on content and pedagogical knowledge in physical science, will be presented. Child outcomes as assessed by the Preschool Assessment of Science will also be described. Considering these findings, what was learned in the Goal 2 research is linked to the expansion of FSL in the newly funded Goal 3, an efficacy study.
Teacher Quality and Preschool Children’s Outcomes in Language and Literacy
Presenters
Nancy Clark-Chiarelli, Julie Hirschler, Barbara Helms & Joanne Brady
Date
June 2009
Event
Fourth Annual IES Research Conference
Location
Washington, DC
Education Development Center, Inc will present findings from its Teacher Quality Goal 3 project, Examining the Efficacy of Two Models of Preschool Professional Development in Language and Literacy which is in its fourth year of funding. This Randomized Controlled Trial study examines the efficacy of an empirically-based professional development program (LEEP) in the state of West Virginia. Despite its economic challenges, West Virginia is committed to increasing accessibility to high-quality preschool for all 4-year-olds through its universal Pre-K system, the system through which this research has worked over the past four years. LEEP is a two-year intervention in which 2 cohorts of teachers participate in a credit-bearing course in the first year (Project Years 1 and 3), and engage in intensive coaching in the second year (Project Years 2 and 4).
This poster reports the relationship between teacher quality and children’s outcomes for two cohorts during the years in which the teachers participated in the LEEP course (Years 1 and 3). The sample consists of 120 classrooms (Cohort 1=62; Cohort 2=58) and 990 children (Cohort 1=510; Cohort 2=480). The impact of the LEEP course on classroom environment (e.g., support for oral language, approaches to book reading, approaches to children’s writing) and on children’s language and literacy development (e.g., phonological awareness, vocabulary, writing) will be presented. Skills related to print and phonological awareness are contrasted with more conceptual areas of language development such as vocabulary. Most importantly, the poster will summarize the relationship between changes in classroom quality and child outcomes.
Changing Classroom Practice To Promote Young Children’s Scientific Thinking
Presenters
Nancy Clark-Chiarelli, Jess Gropen, Ingrid Chalufour, Cindy Hoisington
Date
June 2009
Event
SRCD Biennial Meeting
Location
Denver, CO
This presentation will highlight findings from a three-year study of the impact of a professional development program in preschool science on teachers’ pedagogical science knowledge. Over the past three years, Education Development Center, Inc. developed and studied Foundations of Science Literacy (FSL), a credit-bearing professional development program designed to enhance teachers’ understanding of key principles of physical science and enable them to apply their new knowledge to science teaching and learning in their classrooms.
The session will begin with a brief overview of what staff mean by pedagogical science knowledge, with examples of how FSL supports its development. Then we will introduce our approach to its assessment, focusing on two tools developed as part of this project: the Science Teaching & Environment Rating Scale (STERS) and Science Teacher Performance Tasks (STPT). Results of our research (49 preschool classrooms in a pre/post Randomized Controlled Trial designed to test the efficacy of FSL) will be described. Findings include that controlling for pre-intervention scores, FSL strongly predicted higher spring STERS outcomes, and in fact, most of the variations in post-intervention outcomes were correlated with whether a classroom participated in FSL. Results from the STPT also show that FSL significantly predicts post-test scores, with significant impact of FSL on a range of science teaching performance tasks.
Learning from Science Exploration: The Teacher’s Role
Presenters
Ingrid Chalufour, Nancy Clark-Chiarelli, Jeff Winokur
Date
June 2009
Event
NAEYC Professional Development Institute
Location
Charlotte, NC
The role of play is widely misunderstood in early childhood. This practical session will introduce key teaching strategies for building the bridge from children’s science exploration to new understandings about how the world works. The role of conversations about experiences will be highlighted.
Maintaining The Momentum: Extending The Gains Of Professional Development
Presenters
Julie Hirschler, Nancy Clark-Chiarelli, & Barbara Helms
Date
April 2009
Event
2009 Annual AERA Meeting
Location
San Diego, CA
This paper examines the effects of an empirically-based professional development program, the Literacy Environment Enrichment Program (LEEP), on preschool teachers’ literacy instruction and children’s language and literacy development. Results from two cohorts of teachers and children are examined.
Creating A Successful Professional Development Program In Science On Head Start Teaches’ Content Knowledge, Pedagogical Content Knowledge, And Inquiry-Based Science Instruction
Presenters
Jess Gropen, Nancy Clark-Chiarelli, Ingrid Chalufour, & Cindy Hoisington
Date
March 2009
Event
2nd Annual Conference of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness
Location
Washington, DC
Our research is designed to answer two important questions germane to this paper: 1) Does Foundation of Science Literacy impact Head Start teachers’ practices in inquiry-based science instruction for four-year-old children? 2) Does FSL impact Head Start children’s early science knowledge and skills? The objective of the presentation will be to report the principal teacher-, classroom-, and child-level findings from our Year 2 implementation, and to discuss these findings in the context of what makes for a successful professional development program in early science.
A Paradigm Shift for Evaluation Research: Incorporation of Cultural Dynamics in the Evaluation Process
Presenters
Farah Ibrahim & Barbara Helms
Date
November 2008
Event
2008 Conference of the American Evaluation Association
Location
Denver, CO
This paper proposes the establishment of a protocol for research and evaluation, useful in the U.S and internationally, that will guide evaluation research. Using APA’s (2002) “Multicultural Guidelines for Research,” as a guide focusing on all aspects of research, from planning to design, assessment to analysis of findings, the authors propose a process where evaluators conduct an a priori analysis of their own current beliefs and values and those of the community under study. Focusing on socially just evaluations, the authors think that it is critical that researchers define and understand the cultural characteristics of members of the community and understand the interrelationships of the non-dominant and dominant cultural groups, and their value systems or worldviews. The diversity that the research community faces within the U.S. and globally requires a paradigm shift that must focus on collaboration and careful preparation for that collaboration, prior to developing the design and the assessment or evaluation methodology.
System Building Strategy To Promote Children’s Healthy Development In Early Care And Education
Presenter
Ellen Kiron
Date
July 2008
Event
State and Territory Child Care Administrators’ Meeting
Location
Washington, DC
Staff represented Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) on a Health and Safety Systems-Building Panel, sponsored by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCH). Among MCH’s contributions to integrating health and safety into early childhood is the EDC’s current project which is dedicated to supporting states’ efforts to build health and safety sub-systems in child care. EDC’s presentation explained the federal vision for child care health consultation, made a case for why states and territories would want to invest in this strategy, and offered an evidence-base approach to further support state’s interest in pursuing this important system-building work.
