My capstone research for my Ed.D. at Vanderbilt University centered around instructional coaching, and more specifically, the professional learning needs of coaches. I was so fortunate to work with the team of coaches at Lakota Local Schools to investigate the impact a coach professional learning network had on their growth and development. That research is officially published on the Peabody College IRB Repository!
Initial research focused heavily on instructional coaching: what is it, what makes a successful coaching program, what are the character traits and dispositions of an effective coach, and what are the learning needs specific to an instructional coach? Due to the very little research on specific professional learning needs of coaches, I did a significant amount of research on high quality educator professional development, assuming many of these components would transfer to needs of a coach. And lastly, the final part of my pre-research centered around professional learning networks (PLN) and communities of practice. In theory, combining research from each of these three areas, should produce a coach network that provides high quality professional learning to instructional coaches. Below is my conceptual frame that guided the remainder of the research.
If you’re interested in getting the meat and potatoes, without investing in reading the whole paper, you can check out the Executive Summary below.
And, if you are interested in the whole paper, you can check it out on Vanderbilt’s website here. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Tech To You Later!
-Katie, Ed.D.