The Effect of Coaching vs. Training in the Practice of Early Literacy Instruction in Elementary Classrooms

Abstract

Teachers' instructional practices, preparation, and literacy-based professional development (PD) support are crucial in developing the skills and practices necessary to facilitate children's successful literacy development. Traditionally, English Language Arts (ELA) teachers receive literacy-based PD through training techniques, but research has shown that instructional coaching is more effective as PD for teachers. In developing countries, teacher training often relies on outdated methods and covers topics such as classroom behaviour. Additionally, the literature has suffered from a lack of comparative studies that examine teachers’ training models across both training modes, traditional training and coaching and highlight their strengths and weaknesses in this context. Therefore, this study was designed to train teachers in effective literacy instruction in a developing country using a comparative approach, making it the first of its kind. Participants were randomly assigned to either a traditional training group or a coaching group. In total, 80 ELA teachers were observed using the English Language and Literacy Classroom Observations (ELLCO) tool before and after PD training, which served as an assessment of teachers’ in-class practices and competencies. The type of teacher intervention, coaching vs. training, moderated the relationship between PD workshops and teachers’ practices, with this relationship being significant only in the instructional coaching group, R2 = 0.73, F(2, 76) = 37.49, p < 0.001. This recommends developing an effective, consistent coaching model by linking teachers’ skills to classroom practices, predicting teachers’ performance, and boosting young children's early literacy for future success.