Co-Principal Investigators: Piasta, Shayne; O'Connell, Ann

The Children's Learning Research Collaborative (CLRC) trained four postdoctoral fellows in research related to the designing and testing of interventions intended to strengthen the language and literacy skills of children. Each fellow received 2 years of training.

As members of CLRC, the fellows —

• focused on critical education issues that responded to pressing concerns
• participated in collaborative and authentic relationships with key education stakeholders
• developed skills in rigorous research design and the use of causally interpretable methodologies
• learned from researchers with a range of interdisciplinary expertise 
• Fellows worked on grant projects; attended research groups; learned advanced methods for identifying malleable factors; developed instructional practices that are theoretically driven, empirically based, and feasibly implemented; and rigorously evaluated the causal impacts of such practices when implemented under controlled conditions and under normal conditions. 

Postdoctoral Fellows

Bengochea, Alain (ORCID)
Johanson, M.
Ottley, Jennifer (ORCID)
Schachter, Rachel (ORCID)

As of 2020, Dr. Bengochea was an assistant professor of educational and clinical studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Dr. Johanson was a data analytics and insights manager at the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio; Dr. Ottley was an associate professor in of early childhood special education in the Department of Teacher Education and program coordinator for special education at Ohio University; and Dr. Schachter was an assistant professor in the Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Products and Publications

Book chapter

Avalos, M.A., Bengochea, A., and Secada, W.G. (2015). Reading Mathematics: More Than Words and Clauses; More Than Numbers and Symbols on a Page. In K. Santi, and D. Reed (Eds.), Improving Reading Comprehension of Middle and High School Students (pp. 49–74). Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-14735-2_3

Damonte, J.C., Johanson, M., Golinkoff, R.M., and Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2014). The Changing Nature of Word Learning in the First Two Years of Life: The Emergentist Coalition Model. In P. Brooks, V. Kempe, & G. J. Golson (Eds.)  Encyclopedia of Language Development (pp. 194–197). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Schachter, R. E., and Freeman, D. (2015). Using Stimulated Recall to Study Teachers and Teaching: A Brief Introduction to the Research Methodology. In P. Oliveira Lucas and R. Lourenco Rodrigues (Eds.) Temas e Rumos nas Pesquisas em Linguistica: Questos Empiricas, Eticas e Praticas (Vol. 1 pp. 223–243): Brazil: Pontas.

Journal article, monograph, or newsletter

Bengochea, A., Justice, L. M., and Hijlkema, M. J. (2015). Print Knowledge in Yucatec Maya-Spanish Bilingual Children: An Initial Inquiry. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism: 1–16. doi:10.1080/13670050.2015.1103699 Full text

Coogle, C. G., Rahn, N. L., and Ottley, J. R. (2015). Pre-Service Teacher Use of Communication Strategies upon Receiving Immediate Feedback. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 32: 105–115. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.03.003 Full text

Coogle, C. G., Rahn, N. L., Ottley, J. R., and Storie, S. (2016). eCoaching across Routines to Enhance Teachers' Use of Modeling. Teacher Education and Special Education, 39(4): 227–245. doi:10.1177/0888406415621959 Full text

Coogle, C.G., Rahn, N., and Ottley, J.R. (2015). Pre-Service Teacher Use of Evidence-Based Communication Strategies in Inclusive Preschool Classrooms Upon Receiving Bug in Ear Feedback. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 32: 105–115. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.03 Full text

Dynia, J. M., Schachter, R. E., Piasta, S. B., Justice, L. M., O'Connell, A. A., and Yeager Pelatti, C. (2016). An Empirical Investigation of the Dimensionality of the Physical Literacy Environment in Early Childhood Classrooms. Journal of Early Childhood Research. doi:10.1177/1468798416652448 Full text

Flynn, E. E., and Schachter, R. E. (2017). Teaching for Tomorrow: An Exploratory Study of Prekindergarten Teachers' Underlying Assumptions about How Children Learn. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 38(2): 182–208. doi:10.1080/10901027.2017.1280862

Bengochea, A., Sembiante, S. F., and Gort, M. (2018). An Emergent Bilingual Child's Multimodal Choices in Sociodramatic Play. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 18(1), 38–70.

Johanson, M., and Papafragou, A. (2016). The Influence of Labels and Facts on Children's and Adults' Categorization. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 144: 130–151. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2015.11.010

Johanson, M., and Papafragou, A. (2014). What Does Children's Spatial Language Reveal About Spatial Concepts? Evidence From the Use of Containment Expressions. Cognitive Science, 38(5): 881–910. doi:10.1111/cogs.12106

Johanson, M., and Papafragou, A. (2016). The Influence of Labels and Facts on Children's and Adults' Categorization. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 144: 130–151. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2015.11.010

Johanson, M., Justice, L. M., and Logan, J. (2016). Kindergarten Impacts of Preschool Language-Focused Intervention. Applied Developmental Science, 20(2): 94–107. doi:10.1080/10888691.2015.1074050 Full text

LARRC, Johanson, M., and Arthur, A. (2015). Improving the Language Skills of Pre-kindergarten Students: Preliminary Impacts of the Let's Know! Experimental Curriculum. Child and Youth Care Forum: 1–26. doi:10.1007/s10566-015-9332-z Full text

Ottley, J. R. (2016). Real-Time Coaching with Bug-in-Ear Technology: A Practical Approach to Support Families in Their Child's Development. Young Exceptional Children, 19(3): 32–46. doi:10.1177/1096250615576806 Full text

Ottley, J. R., Coogle, C. G., and Rahn, N. L. (2015). The Social Validity of Bug-in-Ear Coaching: Findings from Two Studies Implemented in Inclusive Early Childhood Environments. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 36(4): 342–361. doi:10.1080/10901027.2015.1100146 Full text

Ottley, J. R., Grygas Coogle, C., Rahn, N. L., and Spear, C. F. (2016). Impact of Bug-in-Ear Professional Development on Early Childhood Co-Teachers' Use of Communication Strategies. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 36(4): 218–229. doi:10.1177/0271121416631123 Full text

Ottley, J. R., Piasta, S. B., Mauck, S. A., O'Connell, A., Weber-Mayrer, M., and Justice, L. M. (2015). The Nature and Extent of Change in Early Childhood Educators' Language and Literacy Knowledge and Beliefs. Teaching and Teacher Education, 52: 47–55. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2015.08.005 Full text

Ottley, J.R., and Hanline, M.F. (2014). Bug-in-Ear Coaching: Impacts on Early Childhood Educators' Practices and Associations With Toddlers' Expressive Communication. Journal of Early Intervention, 36(2): 90–110. doi:10.1177/1053815114563614

Ottley, J.R., Ferron, J.M., and Hanline, M.F. (2016). Explaining Variance and Identifying Predictors of Children's Communication via a Multilevel Model of Single-Case Design Research: Brief Report. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 19(3): 197–202. doi:10.3109/17518423.2015.1008149 Full text

Piasta, S. B., Justice, L. M., O'Connell, A. A., Mauck, S. A., Weber-Mayrer, M., Schachter, R. E., Farley, K.S., and Spear, C. F. (2017). Effectiveness of Large-Scale, State-Sponsored Language and Literacy Professional Development on Early Childhood Educator Outcomes. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 10(2), 354–378.

Schachter, R. E. (2017). Early Childhood Teachers' Pedagogical Reasoning about How Children Learn during Language and Literacy Instruction. International Journal of Early Childhood, 49(1): 95–111. doi:10.1007/s13158-017-0179-3

Schachter, R. E. (2015). An Analytic Study of the Professional Development Research in Early Childhood Education. Early Education and Development, 26(8): 1057–1085. doi:10.1080/10409289.2015.1009335

Schachter, R. E., Spear, C. F., Piasta, S. B., Justice, L. M., and Logan, J. A. R. (2016). Early Childhood Educators' Knowledge, Beliefs, Education, Experiences and Children's Language- and Literacy-Learning Opportunities: What Is the Connection?. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 36: 281–294. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2016.01.008 Full text

Schachter, R. E., Strang, T. M., and Piasta, S. B. (2017). Teachers' Experiences with a State-Mandated Kindergarten Readiness Assessment. Early Years: An International Research Journal, 1–17. doi:10.1080/09575146.2017.1297777

Schachter, R. E., Weber-Mayrer, M. M., Piasta, S. B., and O'Connell, A. (2018). What Happens During Language and Literacy Coaching? Coaches' Reports of Their Interactions With Educators. Early Education and Development, 29(6), 852–872.

Tompkins, V. L., Bengochea, A., Nicol, S., and Justice, L. M. (2017). Maternal Inferential Input and Children's Language Skills. Reading Research Quarterly. doi:10.1002/rrq.176