Children’s literacy development: exploring early educators’ views about guided practice

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the methods and findings of a study that examined how early childhood educators enrolled in an undergraduate literacy methods course learned to implement guided practice, as a research-based approach to literacy instruction, to support and nurture early literacy. The results of the study suggest that the literacy methods course helped pre-service early educators understand the advantages of developmentally appropriate guided practice strategies designed to promote children’s literacy and development of vocabulary, oral language abilities, and print-related knowledge. The results of the study also strongly suggest that the literacy methods class was very effective at providing rigorous pre-service training and experiential opportunities involving guided practice. Based on the results of the study, college-level literacy methods courses for pre-service early educators should teach those educators to use guided practice strategies that help children solidify thinking a fundamental skill for literacy development and all future learning.