Teacher Stability from Morning to Afternoon and from Year to Year

Abstract

This article presents results of classroom observations of kindergarten and first grade teachers. Nine full days of observations were completed with 25 teachers for 2 consecutive school years. Results are presented in terms of kindergarten teachers’ time allocated to reading and to all instruction as well as their frequency of instructional interactions during reading instruction and while reading stories to their classes. AM to PM results are compared for teachers teaching half-day classes. In addition, year to year comparisons are presented for teachers of half-day and full-day kindergarten classes as well as for first grade teachers’ time allocated to reading and all instruction and for instructional interactions. Correlations for kindergarten and first grade teachers for AM/PM and year to year frequencies of decoding interactions were all above. 88 and significant above .001 level. Discussion focuses upon the greater likelihood of stability for half-day kindergarten teachers than for first grade teachers, the difference in these results in comparison to findings by other researchers that suggest that teachers’ behaviors lack stability, and possible explanations for why some teachers may be somewhat less stable than their peers.