Using Technology to Deliver Professional Development That Fosters Early Literacy Development
High-quality preschools provide environments that foster long-term literacy success. For children whose parents are unable to provide optimal support for early literacy growth, childcare centers and preschools are critical for ensuring language and literacy development.
Unfortunately, teachers who work with low-income preschoolers often have limited training and limited access to recent research and information on early literacy. These teachers often rely on community colleges for their professional development—but these institutions are frequently understaffed and lack faculty with expertise in literacy teaching and learning.
Dickinson and Clark-Chiarelli describe the Literacy Environment Enrichment Program (LEEP), created in response to the need for high-quality training for preschool teachers. In LEEP, teachers and supervisors in the U.S. federal Head Start program learn about literacy development and effective methods for supporting it, and supervisors learn effective strategies and methods for supporting teachers.
Technology-assisted LEEP (T-LEEP) was designed to address constraints of site-based training, by delivering LEEP content via videoconferences and the Internet. The presenters report the results of research that demonstrates T-LEEP’s effectiveness in promoting literacy growth among preschoolers in Head Start centers.
David Dickinson is a professor at the Lynch School of Education, Boston College, Massachusetts, USA. Nancy Clark-Chiarelli is a managing project director at the Center for Children & Families, Education Development Center, Inc., in Newton, Massachusetts. (more about the presenters)
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Suggested citation: Dickinson, D.K., & Clark-Chiarelli, N. (2005, April 30). Using technology to deliver professional development that fosters early literacy development. Paper presented at the International Reading Association Reading Research 2005 conference, San Antonio, Texas.
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