The Social Validity of Bug-in-Ear Coaching: Findings From Two Studies Implemented in Inclusive Early Childhood Environments

Coaching is a promising method for providing professional development, which takes many forms. One such form is real-time coaching through bug-in-ear technology. This study explored the social validity of bug-in-ear coaching when provided as a form of professional development with preservice and in-service early childhood educators. Data from two studies were qualitatively analyzed to describe early childhood educators’ perceptions of the acceptability of bug-in-ear coaching with respect to the learning opportunities provided, feasibility, difficulties, and child-level outcomes. Findings suggest that BIE is deemed to be important and effective at producing educator and child outcomes. Further, educators are satisfied with the intervention and view it to be an acceptable means for receiving professional development.     

Implementation of Bug-in-Ear Coaching by Community-Based Professional Development Providers

Research Findings: Bug-in-ear coaching implemented under highly controlled situations has a promising research base. Yet few researchers have examined its effects when implemented within less controlled environments using authentic professional development conditions. The purpose of this study was to examine the implementation and effects of bug-in-ear coaching when staff from a community organization served as community coaches for early childhood educators. We found that community coaches implemented bug-in-ear methods, but additional supports may be necessary to increase the intensity and quality of feedback provided. Effects of the intervention were observed for 1 of the 6 targeted outcomes for educators. However, effects did not translate to children’s communication outcomes. Practice or Policy: Bug-in-ear coaching is 1 method of providing early childhood educators with performance-based feedback. One benefit is that while community coaches observe educators live, they provide feedback that educators can immediately use to improve practice. However, bug-in-ear coaching poses challenges with respect to reviewing goals and reflecting on one’s performance. Community coaches and educators should systematically plan for reflection so that educators can create new implementation goals to improve their practice. Changing educator practice is a complex endeavor, but bug-in-ear coaching is a promising tool for doing so in a supportive manner.     

Distance Coaching for Pre-service Teachers: Impacts on Children’s Functional Communication in Inclusive Preschool Classrooms

This article reports the results of a post hoc analysis of child data from a single-case multiple-probe study of pre-service teachers’ use of communication strategies before, while, and after receiving distance coaching. Data were analyzed for the number of functional communication utterances used by groups of preschool children with and without disabilities who participated in activities. Results suggest pre-service teachers’ use of evidence-based communication strategies was related to increased functional communication by children in the inclusive preschool classrooms. Implications for future research and classroom practices are discussed.     

Training for Generalization and Maintenance in RtI Implementation: Front‐Loading for Sustainability

Response to Intervention (RtI) is being implemented as a new initiative in PK‐12 schools with increasing frequency. However, the model must be sustained at the school level, which is potentially difficult due to a number of challenges brought about by systems change. This article applied the Stokes and Baer (1977) framework for programming for generalization and maintenance of behavior change to suggest specific activities in which schools could engage to better ensure RtI sustainability. We specifically discussed ways to (1) introduce to natural maintaining contingencies, (2) train with sufficient exemplars, (3) train loosely, (4) program common stimuli, (5) mediate generalization, and (6) train to generalize. Directions for future research are included.     

Fostering online learning at the workplace: A scheme to identify and analyse collaboration processes in asynchronous discussions

Research has shown that providing participants with high-quality learning material is not sufficient to help them profit most from online education. The level of interaction among participants is another key determinant for learning outcomes. However, merely proposing interaction does not automatically lead to fruitful discussion and collaboration. Specifically, social presence and facilitation activities add value to online discussions. In Murphy's collaboration framework, social presence represents the basis of successful online collaboration from which more reflective discussions and co-construction can evolve. In this paper, an adjusted version of this framework was applied in a workplace learning context. The content analysis of 1170 comments in an online course for careers practitioners of a public employment service showed that the extended framework generated deeper insights into the dynamics of online discussions. The results show that involvement in collaborative learning at the workplace was supported by a high social presence and influenced by course topic and tasks. Facilitation played an important role in creating a sympathetic sense of community and stimulating co-creation processes.     

Reinventing the Library's Message Through the Alignment of Research and Instruction

This article is about the Walker Management Library staff and services at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management and its primary audience, the graduate business school community. In the spirit of continuous improvement, new goals were set to increase the library's impact on the school and the end product, the graduate business school students. To do so, the library staff retooled specific practices on how we provided reference and instruction services. Through planning and experimentation, the library staff consciously redefined our message, methods of delivery, and did so in ways that other libraries can duplicate.     

Maternal Responsiveness to Infants in Three Societies: The United States, France, and Japan

This study examines and compares prominent characteristics of maternal responsiveness to infant activity during home-based naturalistic interactions of mother-infant dyads in New York City, Paris, and Tokyo. Both culture-general and culture-specific patterns of responsiveness emerged. For example, in all 3 locales infants behaved similarly, mothers also behaved similarly with respect to a hierarchy of response types, and mothers and infants manifest both specificity and mutual appropriateness in their interactions: Mothers responded to infants' exploration of the environment with encouragement to the environment, to infants' vocalizing nondistress with imitation, and to infants' vocalizing distress with nurturance. Differences in maternal responsiveness among cultures occurred to infant looking rather than to infant vocalizing and in mothers' emphasizing dyadic versus extradyadic loci of interaction. Universals of maternal responsiveness, potential sources of cultural variation, and implications of similarities and differences in responsiveness for child development in different cultural contexts are discussed.     

Associations Among Professional Development,Teachers’ Use of Naturalistic Language Strategies,and Preschoolers’ Functional Communication

Research Findings: Naturalistic instruction is the intentional use of strategies embedded within typical activities of the environment to create learning opportunities for children. We used multilevel modeling to analyze data from this single-case design study that focused on improving teachers’ use of naturalistic language strategies and children’s communication through professional development with bug-in-ear coaching. Our results showed that professional development was positively associated with children’s communication during and after professional development. During generalization sessions in different types of activities, teachers’ use of the naturalistic language strategies was positively associated with children’s functional communication. We also found that children were more likely to communicate during child-led activities. Practice or Policy: Associations among professional development, teachers’ use of evidence-based strategies, and children’s outcomes have yet to be fully understood. Administrators and professional development providers should support teachers’ use of naturalistic language strategies to create equitable exposure to language-learning opportunities for all children. Moreover, professional development efforts should support teachers’ intentional use of child-led activities to embed language-learning opportunities based on children’s interests. Finally, to strengthen children’s generalization of skills across routines, professional development providers should identify methods to support teachers’ generalized use of strategies within the typical activities of the setting.     

Deep Valley revisited: The Betsy-Tacy stories of Maud Hart Lovelace

Suzanne Rahn is an associate professor of English at Pacific Lutheran University, specializing in children's literature. She is the author ofChildren's Literature: An Annotated Bibliography of the History and Criticism (Garland) and is currently at work on a book of Rediscoveries in Children's Literature.