Poster #31 - Examining Personal and Contextual Factors that Support Quality Coaching in Early Care and Education Programs

• In Event: Poster Session 08

Abstract

Background

Children’s positive development is dependent on the adults around them, including early childhood educators (ECEs) (Institute of Medicine & NRC, 2015). One increasingly popular form of professional development (PD) for ECEs – coaching – can improve teaching practices and child outcomes (Kraft et al., 2018). Existing literature examines characteristics of effective coaches (Carlisle & Berebitsky, 2010) and coaching strategies (Elek & Page, 2019), but little is known about why someone chooses to be a coach or how to enhance their skills. Understanding the personal and contextual factors that contribute to coach motivation and quality coaching can enhance future ECE PD interventions in recruitment and training of coaches, enriching the quality of the ECE workforce.

Data

The Virtual Lab School (VLS) MomentumEX project uses a research-informed PD system to build coaching capacity within ECE programs. One staff member at each of three participating centers was recruited to participate as a coach. Following their initial training, these coaches will guide teachers from their centers through the VLS curriculum (see Figure 1). Each of the coaches complete an onboarding interview and assessment, pre- and post-test knowledge tests, required activities within their coaching coursework, and participate in conversations with a lead coach (see Table 1).

A previous related project, VLS Momentum, provided PD to ECEs in public child care programs. Participating teachers were assigned a coach from outside their center for support. Several of these coaches participated in retrospective interviews, and their responses provide additional qualitative data.

Methods

This project uses multiple types of data from two projects: VLS MomentumEX and VLS Momentum (see Table 1) to gain insight into coaches’ motivations, skills, and personal characteristics. Our primary data comes from VLS MomentumEX, where center-embedded coaches (n = 3) provide support to ECEs completing online foundational training (see Figure 1). Additional validating data are drawn from VLS Momentum, which involved external coaches (n = 7) providing this same type of support to ECEs. We use a convergent mixed methods design (Cresswell & Plano Clarke, 2018) and comparative case study approach to analyze the personal and contextual similarities and differences between coaches, both internal and external to ECE programs. Preliminary results suggest coaches have strong pre-existing knowledge of ECE curriculum topics, interest in the well-being of both teachers and students, and a positive attitude toward evidence-based practices.

Discussion

As the literature around ECE coaching expands, there remains a lack of understanding about what might motivate someone to become a coach or the best ways to help train successful coaches. The data gathered in these two projects begins to illustrate a profile of ECE coaches to help identify who might be responsive to recruitment into a coaching role, as well as ways to enhance coaches’ skills, thus supporting implementation of future ECE PD. Furthermore, by comparing coach responses from VLS Momentum and VLS MomentumEX, we can begin to understand the similarities and differences for coaches working within different coaching models (i.e., within and outside the ECE program and with different levels of virtual versus in-person support).

Authors

• Erin Grace Fox, Ohio State University
  Presenting Author

• Sarah Naomi Lang, Ohio State University

• Erin Tebben, Ohio State University

• Amy M Hudson, Ohio State University