building a foundation of effective coaching for improving...

Building a Foundation of Effective Coaching for Improving Quality of Early

Childhood EnvironmentsBarb Reid, Executive Director, GRIT Edmonton

Veronica Smith, Associate Professor, University of Alberta

Alberta Education and Human Services

Why ASaP? Why ASaP?

What ‘is’ ASaP? What ‘is’ ASaP?

Teaching Pyramid Model Teaching Pyramid Model

Practice Based Coaching Practice Based Coaching

How do we know we’re doing

what we think we’re doing?

How do we know we’re doing

what we think we’re doing?

OutlineOutline

Impact of Coaching Impact of Coaching

Future Directions Future Directions

About GRIT

GRIT Program Unit Funding-Alberta Education programming for children and familiesGRIT Plus – enhanced specialized services through Human Services

ASaP – Capacity building for high quality, inclusive early learning and care Services)

Roughly 85 staff28 Educ. Consultants, 55 ECE (88% diploma/ degree), plus administration

Values – Practices - Outcomes

Change: Sense of Urgency(adapted from Council of Early Childhood Development, Ontario 2004)

Sense of Hope (Innovation)

You Tube video

Foundational Documents

Alberta Inclusive Child Care Project (2011) ECMap Early Development Instrument (2015)

Advancing the Educational Preparation and Professional Development of Alberta’s Early Learning and Care Workforce (Muttart Foundation, 2015)

Early Learning and Care Curriculum Framework for Alberta (2015)

ACCFCR Benchmark Survey- “What do Albertan’s know about Child Development?” (2008, 2014)

Center on the Developing Child (early childhood mental health diagnoses)

The ASaP Continuum Project

VisionEarly Childhood communities nurture and embrace all children and families.

MissionBy providing early learning and care programs access to the right supports, at the right time, ASaP builds upon the skills, knowledge and confidence of educators to ensure the meaningful participation and inclusion of all children.

The Pyramid Model: Promoting Social and Emotional Competence

All Children

SomeChildren

Few Children

The Center for Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/

The developing capacity of the child…• to form close and secure relationships

• to experience, regulate, andexpress emotions in sociallyand culturally appropriate ways

• to confidently explore theenvironment and learn - all inthe context of family, community and culture.

(Zero to Three- National Centre for Infant, Toddlers and Families )

What is Social and EmotionalDevelopment?

Children who “use disruptive behaviors significantly more often than his age group

over a long period of time”

(Center of Excellence for Children’s Well-Being, 2008)

Defining Challenging Behavior

ASaP: Intended Outcomes

1. System Navigation –o Right Supports, Right Place, Right Time.

2. Adult Capacity Building -o 120 Professional Practices

Theory of Change http://developingchild.harvard.edu

Intended outcomes – con’t

3. Parent Engagement Enhance social and emotional development

4. Policy Development Zero Rejection Inclusion policies Professional Development Inform support models

Supported Child Care (Human Services) Alberta Education Funding

(Mild/Moderate and PUF)

1. Navigation:Interrupting Traditional Processes

2. Capacity Building- Train/ Coach/Train

Leadership Development*Intensive Interventions

Targeted Practices

Universal Practices

Effective Workforce

Training of Professional Practices

Universal – Schedules, routines and activities3 hours Transitions between activitiesSupportive conversationsPromoting children’s engagementProviding directionsCollaborative teamingTargeted - Teaching behavior expectations3 hours Teaching social and emotional competenciesTeaching friendship skillsTeaching children to express emotionsTeaching problem solvingCommunicating/ with families Involving families in their child’s developmentIntensive - Supporting children with challenging behavior3 hours

Coaching

“Coaching is not telling people what to do, but giving them a chance to examine

what they are doing in light of their intentions”

(Sheldon & Rush, 2011)

Practice-Based Coaching(Fox, et al. 2011)

One Minute Evaluation

Clearest Point

Muddiest Point

Implementation Science - Stages

• Exploration Assess needs, capacity and fit

• Installation Development of supports and infrastructure

• Initial Implementation Service initiated, data decision drivers and continuous improvement

• Full Implementation - Skilled Implementation/ system changes, sustainability and outcomes

Community Based Research

A definition….Community-Based Participatory Research

(CBPR) -“ a partnership approach to research that equitably involves, for example, community members, organizational representatives, and researchers in all aspects of the research process” (Israel et al., 2003)

Benefits of Using a Community-engaged Approach

1. Researchers can develop questions about “community” issues of concern with the community

Results likely to be translatable

2. Community partnerships can help participant recruitment

Community understanding can bring community support

Benefits of Using a Community-engaged Approach

3. Community-engagement can improve the reliability and validity of:

Measurement tools Questions and study procedures

4. Can inform researchers of community interpretations of research results

g p y g p

title: "Research Diagram/Research Reality" - originally published 1/7/2008

Disadvantages….

ASaP Research in the First

Three Years

Professional Practice Outcomes

(i.e., TPOT measure)

ASaP Coaching(i.e., coaching logs, ELC

Educator reflections)

Monitoring Capacity BuildingTPOT – Teaching Pyramid Observation Tool

(Hemmerter & Snyder, 2008)

2 hour observation

30 minute interview

Debrief with staff

Professional goal setting

Professional Growth/ Change

Percentage of Site Leads use ofPyramid Model Practices at Baseline

(n=28)

Universal Practices Targeted Practices &Intensive Interventions

belo

w 5

0%80

% o

r hig

her

50%

14%

96%

82%

68%

Theory of Change





Early Learning and Care Centre Conditions

(e.g., level of SES, child transiency, educator transiency,

number of children, support staff)

Early Learning and Care Educator Characteristics(e.g., level of engagement,

readiness for change, education, experience)

Research Questions

The ASaP team were interested in finding out:

1. What are our coaching practices? 2. How do we know we are doing what we say

we’re doing? 3. Do other members of the coaching team

understand coaching in the same way?4. How do ELC educators experience our

coaching?

Method and Procedures

Developed (and redeveloped) a Coaching Log to capture the: Structure – time, duration, intervals Process – activities and interactions Content – focus of the sessions

ELC Coaching Reflection Process and Content dimensions Reflection of the experience

Demographic Information About the Educators About the Centres

Three Feedback Sessions

Two purposes: 1. To summarize the big picture while providing each coach

with individual feedback 2. To develop and improve the coach’s sharing understanding

of their practices

Findings: Improved Understanding

Coaching Processes Clarified activities that take place ‘in ratio’ and ‘out of ratio’ Deepened dimension of ‘performance feedback’

‘supportive feedback’ ‘constructive feedback’

Queried processes that were not used as frequently Video feedback Modeling

Over time greater alignment of practices across coaches

How do we know that we are doing what we

say we are doing?

STRUCTURESTRUCTURE

145150

185

88

32

123

Duration

7

28

17

Intervals(days )

6

16

10

Sessions(over 6 mo)

Coaches

Content of Coaching

Contrasting Video Observation with Coaching Logs

Process

93.85%

Content

Intensive:100%

Targeted:100%

Universal:87.14%

Findings: Positive Reception of Coaching

Theory of Change





Early Learning and Care Centre Conditions

(e.g., level of SES, child transiency, educator transiency,

number of children, support staff)

Early Learning and Care Educator Characteristics(e.g., level of engagement,

readiness for change, education, experience)

CASE STUDY #1Centre with 5 Risk Factors

ELC Engagement(1 = not a lot like me – 5 = a lot like me)

TrustCo-

operation/AmbitionDiligence

SatisfactionRelevance

Stress

4.4 4.0 3.4 4.25 4.3 4.67

Educator is an English language learnerCoaching Received: 9 sessions from Feb – JuneGoals included: Teaching Behaviour Expectations, Schedules and routines, Teaching the expression of emotion

Uni

vers

alTa

rget

ed

Case Study #2Centre with 1-2 Risk factors

ELC Engagement(1 = not a lot like me – 5 = a lot like me)

TrustCo-

operation/AmbitionDiligence

SatisfactionRelevance

Stress

4.86 4.6

3.8 5.0 4.0 4.0

Educator Received: 1 year of coaching, in the past 6 month, 12 session (12 in ratio and 8 out)Goals included: Teaching children to express emotions, teaching problem solving, teaching behaviour expectations

Uni

vers

alTa

rget

ed

One Minute Evaluation

Clearest Point

Muddiest Point

Initial Implementation:What we learned

Turn over is inevitable

Investment on one Site Lead does not lead to sustainability

Onsite leadership is key

Need to consider centre/ staff risk factors

Embedding diverse fields of study/ philosophies

From Research Coaching fidelity - “Heavy” vs. “light” coaching

Risk factors may inform practices (data-based decisions)

Deliverables Going forwardAlberta Human Services 2015-2017

1. Shift to Program Wide Implementation -

Leadership team and peer to peer coach

2. Scale Up – Edm., Calgary and Central Region Expand ASaP Team (Coaches, trainers etc.) Identify and support new and demonstration sites

3. Engage families Increase awareness of social and emotional development Family learning - (ASQ 3; ASQ-SE)

4. Explore trauma informed models (care providers)

Where are we now?

Program Wide Implementation/ Scale Up Innoweave training (Nov 2015) Detailed 1 year work plan Continuing Sites – 15 in Edmonton New Sites - 6 Calgary, 2 Central Region New Master Cadre Team Members

- 3 coaches- 1 Trainer - 3 Co-facilitators -leadership development in Sites- Mental Health Consultant

Role for Provincial Advisory Committee

Support process of implementation science

Support development of expected outcomes

Linking and leveraging with other provincial

initiatives

Inform policy development

Any knowledge/ member missing

Other?

56

Questions?