Teacher Professional Development and Student Reading Comprehension Outcomes: The Heterogeneity of Responsiveness to Text Structure Instruction in Grade 2

Abstract

The current research examines Grade 2 student responsiveness to teacher implementation of text structure lessons after an online professional development event. We trained 39 teachers on text structure knowledge and implementation fidelity using massively open online virtual learning platforms. The teachers were later given access to text structure lesson materials to deliver the lessons to their Grade 2 students. A total of 929 Grade 2 students’ reading comprehension knowledge at the pre- and post-teacher-implementation was examined. Latent class analysis (LCA) suggested that nearly 60% percent of students had a high possibility of scoring at a higher level on main idea questions on the post-test test than at the pretest. The classification of these three students was not associated with teacher fidelity after controlling for prior reading comprehension and signaling words knowledge, perhaps because the implementation itself can benefit student reading comprehension irrespective of fidelity. We suggest that the text structure professional development is associated with reading comprehension knowledge improvement for most students and offered suggestions for differentiating text structure instruction for students at different reading levels.