http://ctell.uconn.edu

BEST PRACTICES IN TEACHER PREPARATION

AND TECHNOLOGY:

CONNECTIONS THAT ENHANCE CHILDREN’S LITERACY ACQUISITION AND READING ACHIEVEMENT

An Interagency Educational Research Initiative National Science Foundation Grant No. REC-0089221

AERA 2004

Kinzer, C. K. (Teachers College, Columbia University), Labbo, L. D. (University of Georgia), Teale, W. (University of Illinois, Chicago), Leu, D. J. (University of Connecticut), & Cammack, D. W. (Teachers

College, Columbia University)

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0089221. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation

Overview: What Is CTELL?

Case Technologies to Enhance Literacy Learning is a collaborative, federally funded, 5-year project that uses interactive multimedia cases of effective literacy instruction (including the use of computer-related technologies) in K-3 classrooms to:

• raise pre-service teachers’ understanding of effective early literacy education principles and practices

• increase teachers’ use of effective practices in the classroom when they first begin teaching

• significantly raise young children’s reading achievement

A Brief Rationale For Our Approach• 2 million teachers are needed in the next 10 years in the USA (Teale, Leu, Labbo, &

Kinzer, 2002; USDOE)

• Teacher quality, or the ability of a teacher to act as an expert decision-maker, is the most important factor in student achievement. However, pre-service teacher education programs have difficulty teaching complex problem solving to meet student needs (Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998)

• Less than 1/2 of new teachers feel well prepared to meet the challenges of school

classrooms (Teacher Survey on Professional Development, Lewis et al, 1999)

• Pre-service teachers do not have enough occasions to understand how to “contextualize” textbook literacy instruction procedures in urban, suburban, rural, and diverse classrooms

• Traditional field placements do not provide enough exposure to effective computer-related literacy instruction

Theoretical Frameworks That Inform This Research

• Case-based instruction:– e.g., Kinzer & Risko, 1997; Lundeberg, 1999; Merseth, 1991; Shulman,

1995; Silverman & Welty, 1995

• Anchored instruction:– e.g., Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 1999; Cognition and Technology Group,

1990; Hughes, Packard, & Pearson, 1999

• Technology in preservice education:– e.g., Kinzer & Leander, in press; Lemke, 1998; Leu, 2000; Leu & Kinzer,

2000

• Social constructivist notions of teaching and learning:– e.g., Alvermann,1990; Reinking, Mealey, and Ridgeway.1993; Rowe, 1994;

Vygotsky, 1978

Case-Based Instruction:

A Promising Approach

• Student literacy learning cases and case-inquiry protocols based on print/video combination in professional staff development for in-service teachers (Greenleaf & Schoenbach, 2001)

• Multimedia, case-based instruction for pre-service teachers (Kinzer & Risko, 1998)

• Videos of specific instructional routines serve as a springboard for Internet-based education (California Learning Exchange, University of California-Irvine; the Reading Classroom Explorer project, Michigan State)

• CTELL Principled Literacy Instruction Cases are based on anchored instruction (Cognition & Technology Group at Vanderbilt)

• Random access capabilities of Internet and/or CD technologies allow for levels of interactivity denied in conventional videotape scenarios

Identifying Principles of Beginning Literacy Instruction That Improve

Learning

The notion of principles… • Moves beyond just describing procedures because things don’t always work like

“textbook” procedures

• Contextualizes teachers’ orchestration of instruction to address needs of the diverse students

• Serves as the content of the cases and the focus of pre-service literacy education courses

• Emerged from a comprehensive review of research, national reports, and is supported/enhanced by findings from project-related interviews and a national survey (Teale, Kinzer, Labbo, & Leu, 2002)

12 Principles of Beginning Literacy Instruction That Improve Learning

1. Teacher knowledge and orchestration

2. Language, culture, home background, and reading instruction

3. Literacy dispositions

4. Phonemic awareness instruction

5. Decoding instruction

6. Comprehension instruction

7. Independent reading

8. Fluency instruction

9. Integrating writing and reading

10.Technology and early literacy development

11.Early assessment and instructional intervention

12.Enthusiasm for reading and writing

5 Year Project Outline(Currently in Year 4)

Years 1 and 2 - Developmental & Formative Phase• First - Identify principles of effective literacy practice (including use of

computer-related technologies) • Second - Develop 12 interactive, multimedia K-3 classroom video

anchor cases of principled, effective literacy practices• Third - Conduct formative experiments of effective use of the “anchor

cases” in pre-service classrooms

Years 3 - 5 - Experimental Phase• Experimental studies in pre-service methods courses• Experimental studies of former pre-service teachers in their first year

of K-3 teaching and their students’ reading achievement

Research Design and Analyses• IHE instructors’ knowledge and use

of multimedia, case-based instruction following a summer training session

vs.IHE instructors’ knowledge and use of multimedia, case-based instruction following Internet-based training

• Case-trained pre-service teachers’ content knowledge of and implementation of effective literacy instructional practices

vs.

Non-case-trained pre-service teachers’ knowledge and implementation

Pre-post gain scores; observation of hands-on instruction

Pre and post-test comparisons; classroom observations and interviews (randomly-selected sample)

Research Design and Analyses, Cont’d• IHE instructors’ fidelity of

implementation of multimedia, case based methods in their pre-service, “methods” classes

• Multimedia case-trained first- and second-year teachers’ implementation of effective reading instructional practices in their classrooms

vs. Non- multimedia case-trained trained first- and second-year teachers

• Reading achievement of K-3 children in multimedia case-trained first- and second-year teachers’ classes

vs. Reading achievement of K-3 children in non-trained first- and second-year teachers’ classes

Coding and analysis of observations, videotapes, syllabi

In-person teaching observations (randomly-selected sample); videotaped observations of teaching (randomly-selected sample); analysis of lesson plans (randomly-selected sample)

Comparison of current standardized reading achievement test scores with scores from the prior 5-year period

The Web Interface: Front Page

The Web Interface: Menu

• 5,000 hours of video in 12 K-3 classrooms (4 demonstrating effective computer-related instruction)

• Pre-service teachers (virtually) step into the complex world of K-3 classrooms… through Principled Literacy Instruction Cases

• Case components and functional tools prepare pre-service teachers to think like expert teachers and apply principles of effective decision making

Preparing the Cases

Content of Cases

Teacher interviews and reflections explain unique classroom contexts and

implementation of effective instructional principles.

ANCHOR CASE: 15 minute video captures spirit, philosophy and activities

representative of literacy instruction contextualize principles of effective

practices that occur in various classroom settings.

Principled Literacy Instruction Case Components

Anchor video

Teacher voiceover

Instructional segments related to principles

School demographics

Student profiles of3 target children

Class work samples& assessment

Interviews• Teacher• Principal• Parents • Expert commentary