Teacher-Level Traits as Moderating Factors of Professional Development

Abstract

This professional development (PD) study investigated the role of teachers’ initial receptive language skills on the implementation of language enhancement strategies. Head Start lead (n=12) and assistant (n=9) teachers received PD designed to increase their use of language enhancement strategies. Results indicated that teachers’ receptive vocabulary scores did predict their pretest language strategy usage; F(1, 19) = 6.40, p < .05, accounting for 25.2% of the variation in the frequency of language enhancing strategy. Additionally, there was a significant difference detected by role at pre-intervention indicating that assistants delivered fewer language enhancement strategies compared to lead teachers M = 41.25 (SD = 16.16) vs. M = 25.67 (SD = 11.98). However, post-intervention means demonstrated a closing of the gap between lead and assistant teachers’ implementation of language enhancement strategies. Results interpreted by discussing the importance of examining the moderating impact of teacher-level traits in evaluating the effectiveness of PD.