Background: The literature on the effects of teacher coaching in early childhood (EC) education programs is underdeveloped but emerging. Using the theory of action in professional development as our theoretical framework, we hypothesize that active coaching improves teaching methods and creates a more effective classroom environment for enhancing children’s learning and skills. Objectives: This study evaluates the effects of the Mississippi Building Blocks (MBB) program, an EC intervention with a strong emphasis on supervisor and coaching training. Research design: We conduct a randomized controlled experiment in which data were collected at baseline, midpoint (Month 3), and postintervention (Month 6) in 24 preschool classrooms in Mississippi. Subjects: The experiment included 195 preschoolers, of which 95 were in classrooms led by teachers who received coaching (treatment) and 100 were in classrooms without coaching (control). Measures: We measured child’s emergent language and literacy, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, print language skills, problem-solving, math skills, and socioemotional development. Results: We find that MBB coaching led to substantial improvements in child outcomes relative to the control group, particularly in gross motor skills, print language skills, and socioemotional development. We also find some evidence that MBB coaching improved math skills, though these estimates are on the margin of statistical significance. Finally, a mediator analysis indicates that improvements in the classroom learning environment brought about by MBB coaching improved child outcomes. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that an intensive form of classroom coaching for teachers leads to significant gains in child outcomes.

中文翻译：

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改善五岁以下儿童的教师行为：密西西比州积木的实验证据。

背景：有关幼儿教练在幼儿教育计划中的作用的文献尚不完善，但仍在不断涌现。我们以专业发展中的行动理论为理论框架，假设积极的教练可以改善教学方法，并为提高孩子的学习和技能创造更有效的课堂环境。目标：本研究评估了密西西比州积木（MBB）计划的效果，该计划是一项EC干预措施，重点是督导员和教练培训。研究设计：我们进行了一项随机对照实验，在密西西比州的24个学前班教室中，在基线，中点（第3个月）和干预后（第6个月）收集数据。受试者：该实验包括195名学龄前儿童，其中有95人在接受辅导（治疗）的老师带领的教室里，有100人在没有辅导（对照）的教室里。测度：我们测量了孩子的新兴语言和读写能力，精细运动技能，总体运动技能，印刷语言技能，解决问题的能力，数学技能和社会情感发展。结果：我们发现，MBB教练相对于对照组，儿童的结局得到了显着改善，特别是在运动技能，印刷语言技能和社会情感发展方面。我们还发现了一些证据，表明MBB教练提高了数学技能，尽管这些估计值在统计学意义上尚在边缘。最后，调解人的分析表明，MBB教练所带来的课堂学习环境的改善改善了儿童的结局。结论：