Coaching Interventions Targeting Teacher Practices to Improve Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Outcomes in Preschool Settings: A Review of Quality and Meta-Analysis of the Single-Case Research Literatures

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation was to: (1) conduct a systematic review of the literature to identify single-case research studies that examines coaching interventions focused on targeted teacher practices that address social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes of children in preschool settings (2) review the quality of studies meeting specific inclusion criteria by applying the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) design standards, and (3) conduct a meta-analysis of the studies which met the WWC design standards. In the first study, 14 studies across 13 articles met the inclusion criteria. Descriptive data was extracted to provide a summary of the coaching characteristics, and each study was appraised by case for quality to determine if they met the WWC basic design standards. The second study provides the results of the meta-analysis of single-case research from 12 studies which met the WWC design standards. The Baseline Corrected Tau was used to calculate effect sizes of coaching interventions, and results show the overall estimate effect size was .76. Preliminary findings of this meta-analysis indicate that coaching interventions are effective to improve teacher practices related to social-emotional or behavioral outcomes, but more research is still needed to identify moderator variables. Limitations, implications for research in coaching are also discussed.