Gaining Knowledge about Teacher’s Knowledge

Teachers who provide direct instruction in reading are crucial in fostering reading skills. The last newsletter shared our recently published findings from one of these studies. The highest levels of literacy knowledge resided in educators with specialized training. Their training included an extensive practicum. Now we are analyzing data collected through a state Department of Education. K–2 educators completed a course intended to increase literacy knowledge. We are examining where they exhibited the most robust knowledge gains. Further, the educator’s knowledge links to their student’s reading scores. We predicted educator knowledge gains will be related to student’s growth in reading. Yet, we need future studies to capture nuanced factors — for example, differences in classroom support and resources. These factors may impact how effectively a teacher can share their own knowledge. A teacher’s ability to share knowledge may impact their student’s reading skills.

We also tackled teacher training from another direction this summer. We worked with two school districts and the AIM Institute for Learning and Research. We studied how instructional modality impacts gains in teacher knowledge. This study was a randomized controlled trial using three groups. All teachers completed two assessments of their knowledge of literacy. Two groups completed a training course in between the two assessments. One group of teachers attended a five-day workshop on the MTSU campus. A second group of teachers received the same course through an online platform. A third group of teachers were in a waitlist condition. These teachers completed both assessments one month apart from each other; then they started the online course. Our preliminary analyses suggest the participating teacher’s knowledge improved. Teachers who completed training performed better after training. Differences occurred in the amount of growth observed within aspects of literacy. Differences also occurred across the groups of teachers. Stay tuned to learn more about these forthcoming findings.

 

           

 

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