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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.

Sec. Teacher Education

Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1548014

MULTISYLLABIC IMPLEMENTATION FIDELITY IN UPPER ELEMENTARY Multisyllabic Implementation Fidelity in Upper Elementary and Professional Development Considerations: A Pilot

Provisionally accepted
Zoi A.  Traga PhilippakosZoi A. Traga Philippakos1*Margaret  QuinnMargaret Quinn2Louis  RocconiLouis Rocconi1Rebekah  PicernoRebekah Picerno1Adalea  DavisAdalea Davis1
  • 1College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
  • 2Texas A and M University, College Station, Texas, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

This study aimed to investigate instructors' implementation fidelity of a program targeting multisyllabic decoding and encoding and its effects on upper elementary students' reading and spelling performance. Additionally, the research explored the influence of professional development (PD) and contextual factors on teachers' instructional practices. The study involved nine female instructors from three adjacent elementary schools, including two classroom teachers who provided whole-group instruction and seven interventionists who worked with small groups.Student participants were 64 third to fifth grade learners. PD occurred prior to the study, accompanied by weekly coaching during the seven-week instructional period. Results indicated that higher fidelity of implementation for a greater number of lessons taught led to statistically significant improvements in student outcomes compared to lower fidelity for fewer lessons, which still yielded advancements in spelling and vocabulary. Furthermore, teachers exhibited significant knowledge gains from pretest to posttest, with feedback addressing factors impacting implementation fidelity. The study discusses implications for PD and effective program implementation.

Keywords: multisyllabic, encoding, fidelity, Decoding, implementation

Received: 19 Dec 2024; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Traga Philippakos, Quinn, Rocconi, Picerno and Davis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Zoi A. Traga Philippakos, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, 37996-3400, Tennessee, United States

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