Using Assessment as Tool to Drive Learning during Early Childhood Preservice Teachers' Early Field Experiences in Rural Southwest United States

Quality early childhood programs have come into focus as public policy and research have suggested that school readiness is directly associated with quality early education. With this focus, the early care and education workforce is gradually transforming from a field with low education requirement for teachers to one that requires them to hold an associate's degree. An associate degree program typically consists of a combination of classroom-based instruction on research-based theories and developmentally appropriate teaching strategies and several early field experiences. Although considered to be an essential component in early childhood educational programs, the value of assessment practices during the field experiences is not fully understood. Using semi-structured interviews, this case study explored the perspectives of early childhood preservice teachers, supervisory teachers, and clinical faculty of the use of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) during the early field experiences. The participants in the study were a convenience sample of early childhood students pursuing an associate's degree at a 4-year state university. The participants from all three groups described how the CLASS impacted their implementation of teaching strategies and behaviors that target interactions that are associated with the development of social and emotional skills in young children. The data were collected and coded using NVivo software to reveal themes. The themes supported the proposition that the use of the CLASS could reinforce the implementation of the identified strategies through the use of feedback from the supervisory teacher and clinical faculty. The study added an understanding of Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory in the application of the CLASS in the early field experiences. Recommendation for the use of the findings were made to support teacher preparation programs using field experiences to increase learning and drive instruction. Proposals for further research included studies that track preservice teachers as they move through the associate degree program in other field experiences to see if the major themes would remain the same or were unique to this specific group of participants. A future study could also look at next steps to strengthen the assessment component as students become more experienced in the implementation of strategies.