Using the Teaching Pyramid Observation Tool to Support Professional Development Experiences in Public 4 K Settings

This study examines how well school groups in the Coastal Plains region of a southeastern state align with the socio-emotional strategies for four-year-olds outlined by the Key Practices in the Pyramid Model Framework (Teaching Pyramid Observation Tool—Research Edition [Manual], Baltimore, MD: Brookes, 2014). Many schools in these groups serve children in poverty, so it is imperative that teachers engage in developmentally appropriate socioemotional practices. The authors used the TPOT observation tool to take baseline data and examine longitudinally after giving ongoing professional development experience sessions. The topic for each respective group’s professional development experience was not uniform but based on need. Therefore, the authors hypothesized that ongoing individualized professional development experiences would significantly increase the groups’ TPOT scores. The results show that the professional development experience treatment did, indeed, raise scores in most cases. Limitations and recommendations for continued research are discussed.