Exploring the nature of associations between educators’ knowledge and their emergent literacy classroom practices

Educators’ content knowledge is considered a key determinant of classroom practices and thus children’s learning. In this study, we examine the nature of associations between early childhood educators’ literacy content knowledge and their classroom emergent literacy practices. Specifically, we apply generalized additive modeling to consider three hypotheses regarding the functional form of these associations: (1) educators’ content knowledge must reach a threshold before demonstrating associations with practice, (2) educators’ knowledge is associated with practice until reaching a plateau, or (3) educators’ knowledge is linearly associated with practice. We measured educators’ (n = 437) content knowledge using an adaptation of the Moats (1994) knowledge survey, observed their classroom practices in the fall and spring of one academic year, and applied standardized coding schemes to code the latter with respect to the quality and quantity of emergent literacy practices. In general, results indicated positive, linear associations between educators’ knowledge and classroom practices. We discuss findings relative to prior work and conjectures concerning these associations as characterized by thresholds or plateaus. We also discuss implications for future research, preservice educator preparation, and inservice professional development.