Promoting Intentional Teaching: The Learn Professional Development Model for Early Childhood Educators

A highly effective recommended practice in early childhood education, intentional teaching enhances all young children's learning through planned instructional strategies, conversations, and activities that build on each child's needs and interests. Now there's an evidence-based professional development framework—the LEARN IT approach—that helps educators put intentional teaching into action in their classrooms.

Developed by the authors, LEARN IT strengthens teaching in five steps: Learning new knowledge and skills, Enacting knowledge and skills in the classroom, Assessing the effectiveness of instructional interactions, Reflecting on and revising practices based on the assessment, and Networking with colleagues and mentors. Through unique professional development activities that build skills through group meetings and individual mentoring sessions, teachers will master essential elements of intentional teaching and consistently apply their new knowledge in the classroom. Practical, flexible, and supportive, this proven plan for professional development will help schools make lasting gains in teacher effectiveness and boost learning outcomes for all young children.

Benefits of LEARN IT:

• Demystifies key elements of intentional teaching. Educators will discover how to facilitate play, include each child, engage in culturally responsive practice, assess diverse young children, and link assessment with curriculum and instruction.
• Engages teachers with effective activities. Facilitated professional development activities build teachers' skills through group meetings, one-to-one sessions between educators and mentors, and follow-up small-group meetings to discuss progress.
• Ensures lasting improvements. Going far beyond one-time teacher trainings, the authors' in-depth, ongoing LEARN IT approach ensures that educators retain new skills and strategies and apply them with fidelity in their everyday work.
• Evidence-based and field-tested. LEARN IT was developed and tested for effectiveness during a multiyear research project with Head Start teachers.
• Fits a variety of professional development needs. LEARN IT can be used with larger or smaller groups of teachers, and activities are flexible and adaptable to different learning needs.

PRACTICAL MATERIALS: The professional development activities come with clear and detailed instructions; reproducible self-assessments, discussion questions, and exercises; and check sheets to ensure that new skills are implemented with fidelity.

Julie K. Kidd, Ed.D., is Professor of Education in the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University (Mason). She is currently the Director of the Division of Child, Family, and Community Engagement and is affiliated with the Early Childhood Education Program. Dr. Kidd earned her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Virginia Tech. Prior to joining the Mason faculty, she was an elementary teacher and reading specialist. Dr. Kidd's research is focused on developing the cognitive, literacy, and mathematical abilities of children from diverse cultural, linguistic, and socio-economic backgrounds as well as on the professional development of preservice and inservice teachers. She has served as principal investigator on one federally funded research grant and co-principal investigator on seven federally funded grants. She has numerous publications, including book chapters and journal articles. She served as 2015–2016 President of the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers.

M. Susan Burns, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita at George Mason University. She is educated in the disciplines of Education and Psychology and received her Ph.D. from George Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. Her entire career has focused on literacy/cognition and early childhood education (birth through grade 3) of children and families, especially those from culturally diverse backgrounds and low-income backgrounds, and professional development for teachers and others serving these children and families. Her expertise in promoting mental health for young children and their families and the role of play-based education as a foundation for intellectual and literacy development is integrated throughout her professional activities. Major publications include Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children and Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers, reports of the National Academy of Sciences, and Knowledge to Support the Teaching of Reading, report of the National Academy of Education. Dr. Burns’ publication listings (over 75), includes books, chapters, and journal articles.

Ilham Nasser, Ph.D., is an educator who spent over 25 years in the research of child development and teacher education in different formal and non-formal education settings in the U.S., Central Africa, and the Middle East. She completed a Ph.D. in Human Development and Child Study at the University of Maryland-College Park and worked for several years as a classroom teacher and a school counselor. In addition, she was a faculty of early childhood education for 12 years at George Mason University. Her research agenda includes studies and publications on the topic of global teachers’ professional development and more specifically, teacher preparation and professional development in social and political contexts and ways these influence children’s outcomes. Recently, she led the modernization of the curriculum for kindergarten in Iraq and the design and development of the first national curriculum for kindergarten in Palestine.

Leslie La Croix is an Assistant Professor in the Early Childhood Education Program at George Mason University. Prior to joining the faculty, Dr. La Croix was a primary grade teacher with a passion for enhancing young children’s literacy development through cross-curricular reading and writing experiences. Dr. La Croix's research explores instructional practices for promoting preservice and inservice teachers’ understandings of diverse young learners. She is particularly interested in expanding educators’ understandings of assessment practices that enhance learning opportunities for all children.

Leah Schoenberg Muccio, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. A former classroom teacher, she teaches early childhood teacher education courses and supervises teacher candidates in the field. Her research focuses on equity pedagogy, early childhood curriculum, and teacher education and professional development. The aim of Dr. Muccio's scholarship is to positively influence the early school experiences of culturally, linguistically, and ability diverse young children, their families, and their teachers.

Sehyun Yun, M.A., is a doctoral candidate in the Ph.D. in Education and Human Development program at George Mason University. Her specialization is Early Childhood Education with a secondary emphasis in Multilingual/Multicultural Education. She earned a M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from the University at Buffalo and taught English to young children in Korea. Her research interests are mostly focused on the bilingual and biliteracy development of children as well as the professional development of early childhood preservice teachers. Particularly, she is interested in how teacher education programs prepare preservice teachers to assess children from diverse cultural, linguistic, and socio-economic backgrounds.