The Use of Teaching Modules Combined with PBC for Increasing Two Preschool Teachers' Use of Selected Play Support Practices

Teachers can play important roles in supporting children's development through play, but require training to better understand this role. Practice-based coaching shows promise in its ability to train teachers in use of evidence-based practice, but has not been used for play support practices. The present study sought to explore using practice-based coaching combined with instructional modules on play support practices to examine whether teachers' use of play support practices increased. A coach conducted frequency counts during 3 initial thirty-minute observation sessions to measure the teachers' incidence of play support practices during baseline. Then, the teachers were given access to an introductory webinar. Teachers were presented a menu of play support practices with definitions to choose a practice to target during coaching. After baseline, the coach shared instructional modules during the first coaching session. Intervention consisted of three observation and coaching sessions in which the coach (1) collected observation data and frequency counts of the teacher's use of the targeted practice, (2) shared from the observation session with the teacher, (3) gave supportive feedback and allowed for questions, and (4) reviewed the Action Plan Form with the teacher. One additional observation followed to collect 10 maintenance data. Data analysis revealed an increased incidence of the teachers' targeted play support practice after practice-based coaching combined with learning modules, with an increase for both teachers during maintenance. These findings suggest that teachers can show increases in their use of a play support practice after using learning modules and practice-based coaching.