Early childhood teachers’ noticing skills in the context of an intervention: supporting teachers to effectively reflect on practice

Abstract

ABSTRACT Positive early classroom interactions are crucial for children’s development. Increasingly, more professional development programs focus on improving interactions and their underlying skills. Research on interventions has focused on their effectiveness in changing teachers’ classroom interactions; however, less is known about how this occurs. This study investigated how teachers who changed their classroom practice in an intervention developed their reflective skills through conferences with a coach. Results indicate that the coaching support is associated with teachers’ reflective skills. Coaches and teachers, over time, engaged in more cumulative exchanges, enabling spaces for teachers to reflect more about their practice, and specific types of exchanges promoted more reflection and willingness to change. This is relevant as increasingly more children are in classroom settings at an early age, and little research is available to guide improvement efforts. This article can serve for designing interventions to improve early childhood teachers’ skills and their children’s development.