The impact of teachers' wellbeing and teaching performance on early Chinese learning : a coaching approach

Abstract

In recent years, a gradual growing trend has been observed in the dropout rate among Hong Kong kindergarten teachers. This profession has been considered challenging, but little has been done to explore how to promote the retention of kindergarten teachers. To ensure that high-quality pre-primary education is delivered, it is essential to provide sufficient support to frontline teachers. The introduction of coaching, which has been found to be an effective means of facilitating early literacy teaching strategies in the West, was proposed for local kindergarten classrooms to enhance teachers’ job-related wellbeing (i.e., teachers’ self-efficacy, burnout, and teachers’ job satisfaction) and promote children’s early literacy in Chinese. Two studies have been conducted to explore 1) the effects of teachers’ job-related wellbeing constructs on the relationship between teachers’ literacy teaching performances and children’s early literacy outcomes in Chinese; 2) the effect of classroom coaching on teachers’ literacy teaching performance; 3) the potential moderating effect of classroom coaching on teachers’ literacy teaching performance and children’s early literacy outcomes; and 4) the relationship between classroom coaching and teachers’ wellbeing constructs. Eleven K3 teacher completed an online survey and 112 K3 students performed six literacy outcome measures in Study One. It seems that the influence of teachers’ job-related wellbeing constructs on students’ literacy outcomes is indirect and mostly through the contribution to teachers’ use of teaching strategies. A general model was developed, in which the effects of teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction on teachers’ reported use of teaching strategies were mediated by teachers’ burnout level, while children’s literacy outcomes were predicted by their non-verbal intelligence and teachers’ reported use of teaching strategies. Even though the teachers’ job-related wellbeing constructs contributed to teachers’ self-reported use of teaching strategies, different subtypes of teacher self-efficacy and various burnout dimensions should not be investigated as generic constructs. Four K3 teachers and 40 K3 students participated in Study Two with half being in the coaching group. Only teachers in the coaching group received the classroom coaching program targeting Chinese teaching strategies. Teachers in both the coaching group and the control group filled out an online questionnaire before and after coaching, while their students’ literacy outcomes were assessed. Classroom coaching was found to have positive influences on the diversity of how the teaching strategies were delivered and teachers’ job-related wellbeing constructs. Yet, classroom coaching’s effect on young children’s early literacy outcomes in Chinese has not been identified in the current research. The current research provides insights on how teacher self-efficacy, burnout, and job satisfaction play roles in teachers’ use of early language teaching strategies in Hong Kong kindergartens. Also, classroom coaching was found to be an effective standalone professional development program to facilitate teachers’ job-related wellbeing constructs. However, since teachers who participated were very competent, and the link between teachers’ job-related wellbeing constructs and children’s literacy outcomes is less straightforward, further research is required to explore how coaching would benefit these areas in the longer run.