Put Me in Coach! Using Coaching to Support K-3 Educators Implementing Social Emotional Learning Strategies
First Presenter's Institution
The University of Alabama
First Presenter's Brief Biography
Melissa Walton is an Associate Research Professional and instructor of early childhood methods courses at The University of Alabama. Her background includes B.S., and MAEd degrees as well as several early childhood, elementary and mathematics certifications. She is currently working towards the completion of her doctoral degree. Mrs. Walton has over two decades of teaching experience, serving in preschool, kindergarten, first and third grade inclusive settings as well as over a decade of higher education teaching experience.
Second Presenter's Institution
The University of Alabama
Second Presenter’s Email Address
eolee1@ua.edu
Second Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Erica Lee is a Clinical Assistant Research Professor of Special Education at The University of Alabama. Her education background includes B.S., MAEd, Ed.S., and Ph.D. degrees in various general and special education concentrations. Dr. Lee has prior experience as a special education teacher for ten years, serving in inclusive, resource, and self-contained special education settings from K-6th grade.
Third Presenter's Institution
The University of Alabama
Third Presenter’s Email Address
elizabeth.michael@ua.edu
Third Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Elizabeth Michael is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Special Education at The University of Alabama. She has over 7 years of experience working with students with disabilities across grade levels and educational settings including inclusive, resource, self-contained and residential special education settings from K-12 grade. Her background includes B.S., MAEd, and Ph.D. degrees in general and special education. Her current research focuses on equitable and trauma-informed writing interventions and supports along with social-emotional instruction for students with and at risk for emotional behavioral disorders.
Fourth Presenter's Institution
The University of Alabama
Fourth Presenter’s Email Address
benner@ua.edu
Fourth Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Gregory J. Benner is the Helen and Pat O’Sullivan Professor in the College of Education at The University of Alabama. He has a knack for grassroots collective impact—getting whole communities including families, child welfare, mental health, and schools on the same page to meet the needs of the whole child. In February 2018, he received the Presidents’ Award from the Northwest Positive Behavioral Supports Network for his leadership of school improvement. He is co-founder of the Tacoma Whole Child Initiative, a comprehensive blueprint for sustainable school and community transformation.
Document Type
Event
Primary Strand
Social-Emotional Learning
Relevance to Primary Strand
This proposal relates to the Social Emotional Learning strand as it highlights an evidence-based approach for supporting educators in skill acquisition and development of the skills needed to successfully implement tiered SEL instruction with students in K-3 classrooms. We detail evidence-based coaching strategies and how these strategies can be implemented with educators as they move through professional development focused on the screening, implementation, and progress monitoring of tiered SEL instruction. We highlight how coaching can support the acquisition, development and increased fidelity of social-emotional learning strategies implemented by educators in their classrooms.
Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics
Professional Capacity
Brief Program Description
Collaboration is a valuable resource for educators providing support and growth when working to develop skills and strategies for the classroom. This presentation highlights how collaborative educator coaching was used to support K-3 educators in the acquisition, development, and implementation of tiered social-emotional learning instruction. A coaching menu provided to teachers will be detailed along with best practices for implementation within schools and classrooms.
Summary
To improve educator effectiveness, student outcomes and school functioning, continuous focus must be placed on educator support and professional development. This is especially true when working to implement strategies to support school reform along with students' social-emotional, academic, and behavioral needs. To best meet the complex needs of educators implementing new content and strategies in their classrooms, professional development must be comprehensive, relevant, individualized, timely, and targeted. Establishing coaching is one evidence-based mode for bridging the gap between knowing and doing for educators that have demonstrated effectiveness within tiered systems of support. Traditional professional development models often lack practical use of strategies and rarely allow for real-time classroom practice and use of strategies. Engaging with instructional practice-based coaching provides educators support in real-time with access to immediate feedback on their implementation of a targeted strategy. Utilizing this method of support in the classroom has been shown to increase the implementation fidelity rates of educators while facilitating rapport and a shared understanding of professional experiences. Research shows a strong connection between high educator implementation fidelity and coaching can act as a catalyst for improving and supporting that endeavor. We highlight critical coaching components implemented within a multi-tiered system of support while focusing on social-emotional learning as the targeted instructional content. Participants will explore a coaching menu and gain a deeper understanding of how varied, yet intentional coaching models can support educator strategy implementation fidelity and their feelings of success and self-efficacy in the classroom. Coaching protocols to support educators engaging with social-emotional learning training and implementation are detailed with a focus on strategies to support educators through coaching as they engage in targeted professional training.
Evidence
Strong support is present for educator professional development that supports both content knowledge and pedagogical practices. In conjunction, coaching should be embedded within professional development to further support positive influence on educators’ instructional practices and improved student outcomes (Polly et al., 2015). Coaching is an evidence-based professional learning approach that has been widely studied, yielding several positive outcomes, such as improving quality of implementation, teacher instruction, and student outcomes (Diamond & Powell, 2011; Kraft et al., 2018; Joyce & Showers, 2002). For example, Kraft and colleagues (2018) used meta-analytic techniques of the causal evidence on teacher coaching in the classroom, inclusive of 60 studies meeting inclusion criteria. The pooled effect size estimate of the effect of educator coaching on educator instruction was .49 (p < .001) and .18 on student achievement (p < .001). For educators in elementary schools, the pooled effect size estimate was .56 for teacher instruction (observed classroom instruction) and .22 on student achievement (p < .001). Put in context, the effect of coaching on educator practice is larger than the difference in instructional quality between novice and experienced educators (i.e., .2 to .4 SD). Additionally, Garrett and colleagues (2019) conducted a meta-analytic investigation of randomized experiments (n = 40) directed at educator practice. They found that interventions (n = 33) that included an individualized component produced the largest impacts that were .16 higher than the mean effects from studies (n =8) that did not incorporate an individualized professional learning component. Implementing coaching procedures while engaging in sustained, targeted, collaborative learning provides critical elements for high-quality professional learning (DeMonte, 2013; Wei et al., 2010). The research base continues to build and point to the effectiveness of coaching for improving the implementation of evidence-based practices (Freeman et al., 2017). Professional development that does not include coaching has little impact on implementation performance and fidelity (Anger & O’May, 2001). Coaching is a critical component of ensuring accurate implementation of practices particularly within tiered support systems (Fixsen et al., 2005; Lewis & Newcomer, 2002). Strong support for coaching within the K-12 setting is present. As educators work to apply content knowledge and implement strategies in the classroom, best practices point to supporting educators through coaching.
Learning Objective 1
Participants will be able to identify best practices when implementing coaching strategies with K-3 educators.
Learning Objective 2
Participants will be able to explore coaching models with real world connections as framed within professional development content focused on social emotional learning.
Learning Objective 3
Participants will be able to identify next steps in establishing/maintaining coaching practices within their educational setting.
Recommended Citation
Walton, Melissa Webb; Lee, Erica O.; Michael, Elizabeth L.; and Benner, Gregory J., "Put Me in Coach! Using Coaching to Support K-3 Educators Implementing Social Emotional Learning Strategies" (2023). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 24.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2023/2023/24
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Put Me in Coach! Using Coaching to Support K-3 Educators Implementing Social Emotional Learning Strategies
To improve educator effectiveness, student outcomes and school functioning, continuous focus must be placed on educator support and professional development. This is especially true when working to implement strategies to support school reform along with students' social-emotional, academic, and behavioral needs. To best meet the complex needs of educators implementing new content and strategies in their classrooms, professional development must be comprehensive, relevant, individualized, timely, and targeted. Establishing coaching is one evidence-based mode for bridging the gap between knowing and doing for educators that have demonstrated effectiveness within tiered systems of support. Traditional professional development models often lack practical use of strategies and rarely allow for real-time classroom practice and use of strategies. Engaging with instructional practice-based coaching provides educators support in real-time with access to immediate feedback on their implementation of a targeted strategy. Utilizing this method of support in the classroom has been shown to increase the implementation fidelity rates of educators while facilitating rapport and a shared understanding of professional experiences. Research shows a strong connection between high educator implementation fidelity and coaching can act as a catalyst for improving and supporting that endeavor. We highlight critical coaching components implemented within a multi-tiered system of support while focusing on social-emotional learning as the targeted instructional content. Participants will explore a coaching menu and gain a deeper understanding of how varied, yet intentional coaching models can support educator strategy implementation fidelity and their feelings of success and self-efficacy in the classroom. Coaching protocols to support educators engaging with social-emotional learning training and implementation are detailed with a focus on strategies to support educators through coaching as they engage in targeted professional training.
