7. Coach semi-structured interview protocol

Attachment 7

Coach semi-structured interview protocol

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SCOPE Case Study

Coach Interview Protocol

Introduction

An important part of the Study of Coaching Practices in Early Care and Education Settings (SCOPE) study is learning about how coaching is working for early childhood programs across the country. For this study, it’s important that we learn about your experience as a coach working with teachers/providers. The purpose of this interview is to help us understand your background and experiences as a <coaching approach name> coach. Your responses will remain private to the extent allowed by law and will be reported in the aggregate only.

Participation is voluntary; refusing to participate or answer a question will not negatively affect you in any way. The interview will take approximately one hour to complete. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number for this information collection is 0970-XXXX and the expiration date is XX/XX/XXXX. Thank you for taking the time to candidly and thoughtfully talk with us today, we appreciate your help! Do you have any questions before we begin?

Great! Let’s start with some general information about you and how you came into coaching.

Note: These questions will be asked of directors who also identify as a coach in their program. These questions can also be found in the director interview protocol.

1. Can you tell us about your background and what brought you into coaching in the early childhood field? [D/BI, RQ2]

1. Probe: Based on your response to the survey questions, you have [summarize the relevant information from the survey about degree, training, major, etc.] Is that right? Are there any updates I should note? [D/BI] [Note: if the person did not complete the survey, ask the appropriate survey questions.]

2. Probe: Have you had any training on relationship building? Adult learning? Reflective communication? Coaching? [RQ2]

Thanks. Now we are going to talk about your current coaching with teachers.

2. When you completed the web survey, you noted that you worked in ______ settings (ex. Head Start; child care; family child care homes) and had a caseload of ___ programs and ___ staff. Is that still accurate? If not, please tell me about your current caseload of programs and staff. [RQ1, RQ3] [Note: if the person did not complete the survey, ask the appropriate survey questions.]

   1. Probe: How many teachers/providers do you currently work with? In child care centers? Head Start grantees? Family child care homes?

   2. How often does your caseload change? What would the ideal caseload be and why? Do you know if any other coaches are working with teachers in this center/FCC? [RQ1, RQ3]

   3. Probe: Who is the target of coaching? A lead teacher only, a classroom teaching team, director and a teacher? How is this determined? [RQ1]

3. I’d like to talk next about what you do as a coach. How frequent are your coaching sessions and what do you do during coaching sessions? [RQ1, RQ4]

   1. Probe: When you completed the web survey, you noted that you typically met with teachers _______[insert frequency from survey], that those meetings/visits were typically ______ [insert length of visit from survey], and you typically work with a teacher for ______ months. Is that still accurate? If not, can you tell me about any changes to the frequency of your coaching visits? [RQ4] [Note: if the person did not complete the survey, ask the appropriate survey questions.]

   2. Probe: How is your coaching delivered? Always in-person, remotely or combination? What factors influence how it is provided? Benefits and drawbacks of technology? [RQ1]

   3. Probe: Is there a routine set of activities that occur at each coaching session? Or does it vary visit to visit? What determines your activities in each coaching session? [RQ1]

   4. Probe: Are there ever instances where you have to change your plan for a visit? What types of scenarios bring about a change in plan? [listen for individualization, responsiveness to teacher needs, relationship building] [RQ1]

   5. Probe: Do you ever document information about your coaching? What information is documented? How often? Is documentation required or optional? Is this documentation something you developed? How is the information used? By whom? How helpful is the documentation to you? [Ask to have copies of blank forms or for a de-identified example. Note if the coach is describing an administrative check, a progress report, case notes, etc.] [RQ1]

   6. Probe: Do teachers volunteer for your coaching? Have you ever coached a teacher who didn’t volunteer for coaching, a teacher who was assigned to do coaching? If so, do you do anything different in your coaching with those teachers? [RQ1]

   7. Probe: Do you have other roles or responsibilities in addition to coaching? Do you supervise any teachers? How do these other roles help/hinder your coaching? [RQ3]

4. Are there ever instances where you share information about an individual teacher to a director, another person who supervises the teacher, or to your supervisor? If so, how do you determine what type of information to share? If so, how do you think sharing information helps or hinders coaching? Do you find it supports or hinders changes to the teacher/classroom practices?

5. Can you tell us about the various topics and strategies you use in your coaching?

   1. Probe: What topics are covered? What’s the process for selecting the topics? Is it connected to larger PD efforts in the program? (ex. the topic selected by teacher; by coach and the teacher in discussion; by leadership; based on assessment; based on curriculum training; based on a program-level goal) [RQ1]

   2. Probe: [Refer to survey responses on use of strategies] You responded in the survey that you utilize [name strategies]. Do you have a plan for how you move through the strategies? How do you decide whether/when to use observation? Modeling? Feedback? Co-teaching? To have a teacher practice new skill? Formal assessment/standard observation? Relationship building? [RQ1] [Note: if the person did not complete the survey, ask the appropriate survey questions.]

   3. Probe: Do you use an assessment tool to collect any information about the teacher’s skills as part of your coaching? If so, how (ex. assessment tool)? [If assessment tool mentioned, ask] Who developed the tool? How often do you collect this information? How do you use the information (ex. determine needs/strengths; have teachers self-assess their needs/strengths; track growth?) [RQ1]

   4. Probe: Can you tell us about how you provide feedback to teachers? Format (ex. written; oral; tech-based)? Do you use technology to provide feedback? If so, how? Are there formal tools to provide feedback? When/how often do you provide feedback? How comfortable are you with giving feedback? How did you learn to give feedback? How receptive are teachers/providers to feedback? Do you tend to offer feedback in the same way or do you do it differently in some situations? [If differently, ask] How does it differ and why? [RQ1]

   5. Probe: We know that coaching can vary. Can you tell us about what aspects of coaching tend to vary and why? How do you approach the topics, strategies, assessments, or feedback differently when you are not face-to-face with the teacher/provider? [RQ1]

6. Are there areas you feel you could use more training and experience that would help you support the teachers you are working with now? [RQ2]

   1. Probe: What type of teachers do you currently work with? How prepared do you feel to work with different types of teachers/providers (ex. new vs. veteran teachers/providers; teachers who don’t speak English as their primary language)? What training/experience would have helped you work with these teacher/providers? In different settings (ex. Head Start; center-based; family child care-based)?

   2. Probe: How prepared do you feel to address cultural and language needs of teachers/providers? To be able to follow a particular coaching approach? What content areas do you feel most prepared to address? Least prepared to address? [RQ2]

   3. Probe: What supports have been most helpful to you (ex. materials from coursework, getting advice from peers, reading articles, discussions with supervisor)? [RQ2]

   4. Probe: What other training or experiences would you like to have? [RQ2]

7. Where do you turn when you are trying to solve a problem or overcome a challenge in your coaching? Can you describe a time when you used this resource? [RQ2]

1. Probe: Can you describe the types of ongoing support you have access to? Meet or reflect with supervisor? Meet or talk with other coaches? How effective do you find these supports? [RQ2]

8. Have there been any materials, training, or people that have been especially helpful in your initial and ongoing development as a coach? [RQ2]

1. Probe: Did you have any orientation to coaching when you first started coaching? [RQ2]

2. Probe: How did you learn about these resources? Do you still have access to them? [RQ2]

9. Are there written materials that guide your coaching? [RQ2]

1. Probe: If so, what are they (ex. manual)? How do you use these materials? [Ask for a copy or a citation/source, if possible.] [RQ2]

10. How do you know when you are being successful as a coach? [RQ2]

1. Probe: Quality of the relationship with the teacher? Seeing change on an assessment? Seeing a change in teacher practices? Feedback from a teacher? Do you have evidence that teachers sustain the change? [RQ2]

2. Probe: Could you give us some examples of how teachers’ behaviors have changed in the last 6 months as a result of your coaching? [RQ2]

11. Tell us about how you first begin working with a teacher or provider. [RQ1, RQ3]

1. Probe: Do you have any information about the program or teacher before the first coaching meeting? If so, what and how? And how do you use that information? [RQ3]

2. Probe: Activities on first visit? If it varies, how so and why? [listen for whether the coach explains the importance of new skills; does relationship building activities] [RQ1]

3. Probe: What’s the process for setting goals for coaching? To what extent does the teacher have influence in goal setting? Who else influences goal setting at this center/provider? [RQ1, RQ3]

12. How do you communicate with teachers? Providers? Directors? [RQ1, RQ3]

    1. Probe: Email? Text? Skype/Facetime? Call? In-person meetings? [RQ1]

    2. Probe: What do you do to help the teacher/provider trust you? (RQ3]

    3. Probe: Examples of how you have adjusted your coaching for a teacher/provider who was from a different cultural group or spoke a different language? [RQ1]

13. What factors do you think most influence the success of coaching in changing teachers’ practice? [RQ1, RQ2, RQ3]

1. Probe: What are program-level features that improve the success of coaching? Program-level factors? If so, what? (ex. director involvement in coaching; sense of continuous learning culture; understanding coaching and change take time; time for coaching) [RQ3]

2. [ask only if the coach works for an outside organization] Probe: What are feature of the organization where you work that improve the success of coaching or make it more difficult to coach? [RQ3]

3. Probe: What about the teachers impacts the success of coaching? Makes it harder or easier for a coach? Teacher characteristics or openness to change? If so, what? (ex. teacher involvement in coaching; internal motivation to change; involvement or support of other staff in coaching; readiness to change; understanding coaching and change take time) [RQ3]

4. Probe: What classroom characteristics make it easier/harder to coach? If so, what? (ex. child demographics; ratio) [RQ3]

5. Probe: What coaching strategies make the biggest difference in coaching (ex. observation; feedback)? [RQ3]

6. Probe: Are there aspects of the coaching approach or activities that make it easier/harder to coach? If so, what? (ex. required features; materials) What would you change that might make coaching easier/more effective? [RQ1]

7. Probe: Do you think that a coach’s background and training make a difference If so, what? (ex. adult learning styles; cultural competency) [RQ2]

8. Probe: Specific coaching activities? If so, what? (ex. feedback; modeling; reflection) [RQ1]

9. Probe: Other barriers or supports? (ex. lack of space in the program) [RQ3]

Thank you. We really appreciate everything you’ve done to help us better understand coaching. Before we end our conversation, I’d like to ask you one final question…

14. Is there anything else about coaching that you think is important for us to know?

Case Study Research Questions: Legend for Reviewers

RQ1 = Research Question 1: Which features are evident in practice?

RQ2 = Research Question 2: What coaching supports are evident in practice?

RQ3 = Research Question 3: What program or system-level contextual factors influence the implementation of coaching?

RQ4 = Research Question 4: What outputs from the coaching are evident in practice?

D/BI = Demographics and Background Information

Note: Questions 2 and 3 have been identified as the most important ones to address.

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