Coaching in Early Learning

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Jessica Hardy from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign about coaching for early childhood educators: what it is, what makes a good coach, and how to make the most of the coaching experience.

More About Our Guest

Jessica K. Hardy is an associate professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include: (1) investigating how to provide and measure high-quality coaching of early childhood practitioners in evidence-based and recommended practices to support young children with and without disabilities; and (2) developing and testing interventions in early mathematics learning for preschoolers with disabilities. Jessica was formerly a preschool special education teacher and draws on those experiences in her research and teacher preparation practices.

Podcast

Transcript

Natalie Danner: Hello, and welcome to the Illinois Early Learning Podcast. Today, we are talking about coaching in early childhood. And we are joined by Jessica Hardy. Welcome, Jessica!

Jessica Hardy: Hi, thanks so much for having me.

Natalie Danner: Jessica Hardy is an associate professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include investigating how to provide and measure high-quality coaching of early childhood practitioners in evidence-based and recommended practices to support young children with and without disabilities. And, developing and testing interventions in early mathematics learning for preschoolers with disabilities. Jessica was formerly a preschool special education teacher, and draws on those experiences in her research and teacher preparation practices. So, welcome! I’m excited to talk with you today.

Jessica Hardy: I’m excited as well, thank you.

Natalie Danner: And for our first question, what is coaching for early childhood educators, and how is it different from supervision?

Jessica Hardy: Coaching is an approach to professional development that involves providing ongoing job-embedded support to teachers. Coaching is typically a voluntary thing that teachers are participating in, and that’s one way it’s different than supervision. It also is usually around a targeted set of practices. And so…in supervision, you might have a supervisor who’s giving you feedback or asking you questions about a variety of different practices. In coaching, it’s usually a bit more focused. So, for example, you might be focused on early literacy, or social-emotional development. And so your coaching will really be designed to focus around that set of practices. Coaching is meant to be really practical, in that it helps teachers increase their skill set, and increase their capacity to engage in practices that will benefit their classroom, their children, and so, it’s really designed to be something that the teacher is in large part guiding, based on what they’re interested in.

Natalie Danner: That makes a lot of sense. I know a lot of people get confused between coaching and supervision, and I think you put it perfectly, and explained it really well, so thank you for that. So, when we’re thinking about goals in coaching, who creates those?

Jessica Hardy: This is a really important question to think about, because in coaching, the goals are really co-constructed between the coach and the teacher. So, there might be a set of practices, like social-emotional practices, that the program is focusing on. But there are lots of practices within that social-emotional practices that you could work on. You could work on problem solving, or emotional literacy. And within that practice, emotional literacy, for example, there are also lots of different things you can focus on. So, the teacher and the coach really work together to decide what goal to focus on, and further, to develop an action plan that is designed to meet the teacher’s unique circumstances and work in the teacher’s class. So, it’s not something that the teacher decides completely on their own, it’s not something that the coach decides completely on their own, it’s something that they decide on together. Partnership.

Natalie Danner: So it sounds like coaching is highly individualized, but also collaborative. Is that right?

Jessica Hardy: Absolutely.

Natalie Danner: So when we’re thinking about a coaching session between a coach and a teacher, what does that coaching session actually look like?

Jessica Hardy: Yeah, that is another great question to think about, because I think sometimes coaching can seem a little mysterious if you haven’t participated in it. And also, even if you have participated in coaching, it can look different from coach to coach, program to program, or coaching model to coaching model. But I would say there’s some typical behaviors that happen in most coaching sessions. So, it’s really important that a coaching session starts by reviewing what the teacher has been working on. So, if you have an action plan step that you’re really focusing on in your coaching, then the coach should kind of remind both of you about what you’ve been working on, doing that planned action. The coach should engage in discussion about the observation that they’ve done, and that observation typically happens within a day or so of the coaching meeting. Sometimes the observations can be video recorded, sometimes they can be live. It really can vary, but there should be some type of observation that is anchoring the coaching conversation. Discussing that observation is really important. And then the coach and the teacher have an in-depth discussion where the coach facilitates the teacher’s reflection about what happened in the observation, what’s going on in the classroom, what questions they have. The coach will provide feedback to the teacher, and that feedback will include supportive feedback about things that are going well. And also, constructive feedback, things that could be changed or could be done differently. And of course, the teacher always has the ability to provide additional context in these conversations and ask questions, and provide their own perspective. Oftentimes, the coach and the teacher talk about problems that might be happening in the classroom, so they might have a problem-solving discussion. And then, really importantly, the coaching session typically ends with planning. So, this might be planning for continued work on the current action plan, or it might be creating a new action plan, and talking about how the teacher is going to focus on that goal, and what types of supports the teacher needs from the coach.

Natalie Danner: Great, it sounds like there’s really this comprehensive…package that happens with coaching, where it’s almost like a sandwich. You know, there’s that pre-meeting, there’s the observation, and then the post-meeting, or, you know, planning for the future. So, it sounds like it’s very detail-oriented, but also very supportive for the teacher.

Jessica Hardy: That is absolutely the intent, and it’s really also pretty flexible, so it can look differently, so sometimes a coach might not have time to meet with a teacher, or a teacher might not have time to meet with a coach, and so the coach can provide feedback and reflection opportunities via email instead of meeting in person. Sometimes the coach and the teacher might be colleagues, rather than, you know, where they both are teachers, and so they could provide feedback and reflection to each other. So there’s lots of different ways coaching can look, and that, I think, is one of the beauties of it, but there also are some standard components that should be present, no matter how the coaching session has unfolded.

Natalie Danner: So, speaking of the different, variety of coaches, what would you say are the characteristics of a good coach?

Jessica Hardy: A good coach is really knowledgeable about the practices that they’re coaching the teacher on. Also, really knowledgeable about the coaching model that they’re using. They don’t have to be, you know, perfect, but they should be pretty conversant in both of those things. That’s foundational. The coach also has to be really facilitative, and help the teacher work towards goals that are meaningful to the teacher. The coach has to be really encouraged. And we really want coaches who are able to meet teachers where they’re at. So, if you want to work on skill A with the teacher. The teacher’s really excited about skill B, and that’s the practice that you should be focusing on, because that’s what’s going to be meaningful to the teacher, and that’s what they’re going to be more motivated to engage in. And so that’s really important, is that a coach can be flexible, and encouraging, and adapt their practices and their coaching to meet the needs of the teacher. We know that we’re all different in how we like to receive feedback, or how we like to share personal information, so the coach has to be able to adapt to different teachers’ preferences, all those types of things as well.

Natalie Danner: It sounds like we talked a little bit about the role of the coach. Now, on the other end, the role of the teacher, who is that person who receives coaching? And what are some tips that you would give to an educator who is receiving coaching?

Jessica Hardy: Depending on the program that the teacher works in, the coaching might unfold in different ways. So it might be something that every teacher in the program receives coaching. It might be something that specific teachers can request. It might be something that unfolds in a number of different ways. Something that’s important to understand is that coaching should not be a punishment, or perceived as a punishment. It should be something that teachers are voluntarily participating in, because if you’re engaged in the process or interested in the process, it’s not going to be effective. It’s going to kind of be a waste of time. And coaching is not meant to be something that is provided to teachers that are perceived to be not performing as well as they should be. Because the reality is, coaching is designed to meet us all where we’re at, and we all have room for growth. We all have things that we’re doing well, and coaching should be able to help anyone improve their practices. So that’s the first thing, is we want to make sure that teachers who are coached are really volunteering for that process. If there’s a teacher who maybe is feeling a little hesitant about participating in coaching, I would encourage them to try to be open to the experience. I have seen coaching really help teachers identify practices that they’re already doing that are working really well. And sometimes you need someone who is a quote-unquote outsider to look at your practices and kind of affirm that you’re doing great things for children, or for children and families. But there also might be some things that a coach can see that maybe you can’t see about new ideas or new ways of doing things, or about how to problem-solve around an issue maybe that’s been plaguing you for a while that you can’t quite figure out. So some tips I would give to a teacher who is receiving coaching, or thinking about receiving coaching is to try to be open, to try to be willing to be somewhat vulnerable, because you’re putting yourself in a position where someone’s going to be observing you, and that automatically makes us feel vulnerable. Also, be willing to participate. You know, there’s something that I’ve said a lot related to coaching is you get out of it what you put into it, right? So, if you are really putting your all into the process. You’re really listening to what your coach says, your, and I don’t mean listening as in complying, I mean listening and taking in what your coach says, you’re sharing your own thoughts and opinions, you’re really reflecting, you’re digging deep. It’s going to have amazing benefits for you and for your classroom.

Natalie Danner: Coaching seems like something that I really wish I had, as a teacher, as an early childhood teacher, because I think the last time I had something like this was more of a supervision experience in my teacher education program. And then, after I became a full-fledged teacher, I was sent out into the wild, and then I never really had the opportunity to receive coaching again, so I think it can be such a benefit for teachers, and I know I would have appreciated it personally and professionally, too. So, I hope that people who have the opportunity to receive coaching, treat it as an opportunity, because it really is that, and the way that you’re describing it. Being so individualized. It’s really that opportunity for you, professionally, to work on skills that you want to work on. So, it allows you to be both in control and also kind of drive that conversation and that coaching experience, so I think it can be a really great thing for teachers, so I’m excited about how that works in Illinois, and how people can access coaching, which leads us to the next question. If there’s information out there about coaching, where can people go to learn more about coaching?

Jessica Hardy: So, there is a website called the National Center on Pyramid Model Innovations that has a whole section about coaching. It’s designed specifically about coaching around the pyramid model, but many of the resources are applicable to coaching around other types of practices. There also is a pretty concerted effort in Head Start to use coaching, and so the Head Start website also includes many resources related to coaching, specifically practice-based coaching.

Natalie Danner: So we will share those links within the podcast as well in our section at the end, so you can just scroll to the end and find those resources as well, and they’re open access and free for the public. I want to thank you, Jessica, for being our guest on the Illinois Early Learning Podcast. So much information has been shared about coaching, different coaching models, what it’s like to be a coach, what it’s like to be the educator receiving coaching. And until next time, thank you, and keep early learning at the forefront.

You have just heard a podcast by the Illinois Early Learning Project. For more information, please visit us at illinoisearlylearning.org where you can find evidence-based, reliable information on early care and education for parents, caregivers, and teachers of young children. Thanks for listening and for helping the children in your home, classroom, and community have a strong start in their early learning.   

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