Early Childhood Teachers Improving Together: The Impact on Teacher Noticing of Participation in Video-Mediated Professional Learning Communities within a Teacher Preparation Course

Abstract

As early childhood teachers are increasingly required to enact higher quality teacher-child interactions and pursue higher levels of education, teacher educators need to be able to facilitate effective pedagogies that encourage teachers’ learning. Supporting teachers to learn to notice through video analysis has potential to help them more effectively implement interactions as they learn to attend to, analyze, and decide how to respond to the words and actions of children in order to make intentional pedagogical choices. A randomized control experiment was embedded within a mixed methods research design to understand how to effectively implement video-based professional learning communities within an early childhood teacher preservice education course focused on teacher-child interactions. This study aimed to measure the impact on teachers’ noticing skills. Pretest and posttest video analysis responses were collected from 55 early childhood teachers who were randomly assigned into intervention or control quarter-long online course sections. Concurrently, teacher survey data were gathered to understand participant perceptions of the impact on learning and engagement. Video analysis pretest and posttest data were scored using a Teacher Noticing Coding Measure including three components: ‘attending,’ ‘analyzing,’ and ‘proposing alternative practices.’ Scores were analyzed through two-factor split-plot ANOVA and results of survey ratings and open-ended responses were also calculated and coded. Teachers enrolled in the intervention course section received more intensive facilitation of their video-mediated peer groups and demonstrated improvement on all three Teacher Noticing components from pretest to posttest while reporting high levels of satisfaction and impact on learning. Teachers in the control course section did not receive this facilitation and improved only in the first two Teacher Noticing components and declined from pretest to posttest on ‘proposing alternative practices’ scores, resulting in a statistically significant within-between subjects interaction effect between time and course section. They also reported much lower levels of satisfaction and impact on learning. Findings have implications for several aspects of early childhood teacher preparation, including video-mediated coursework design and facilitation, experimental and mixed methods design, and Teacher Noticing measurement. Keywords: early childhood teacher education, teacher noticing, video pedagogies, professional learning communities, teacher-child interactions, online teaching and learning