Professional development and signed literacy instruction: evidence from a multiple-baseline design.

Area of Science:

• Education
• Linguistics
• Special Education

Background:

• Effective professional development is crucial for translating educational frameworks into classroom practice.
• Signed literacy instruction is vital for promoting language and literacy skills in deaf children within ASL/English bilingual programs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate if professional development can enable teachers to implement a signed literacy instruction framework with high fidelity.
• To assess the impact of targeted training and coaching on teachers' use of signed literacy indicators.

Main Methods:

• A non-concurrent multiple-baseline single-case design was employed with four K-3 teachers.
• Teachers received a 2-day training followed by bi-weekly virtual coaching sessions.
• Classroom observations were conducted to score teachers' fidelity of implementation using specific indicators.

Main Results:

• Teachers demonstrated near-zero fidelity during baseline, with an immediate increase to 45%-60% post-training.
• Three teachers reached 80%-90% fidelity, while one maintained 60% fidelity.
• Large, consistent gains were confirmed by effect sizes (2.04–3.72), and social validity interviews indicated positive teacher perceptions and planned future use.

Conclusions:

• A functional relationship exists between the Signed Signed Instruction (SISI) professional development and teachers' implementation of signed literacy instruction.
• Professional development is valuable for embedding signed literacy instruction into early elementary curricula.
• This approach can effectively promote deaf children's signing and literacy skills.