Developing Mentoring and Coaching Relationships in Early Care and Education A Reflective Approach

To bridge the gap between the vision for quality and actual practice, this book is packed with helpful reflective questions, illustrative mentoring and coaching scenarios, and ready-to-use planning tools. With its focus on building a relationship with the mentee, and encouraging reflection on current practices in order to increase program quality, meet teaching standards, and promote positive outcomes for children, Developing Mentoring and Coaching Relationships in Early Care and Education: A Relationship-Based Approach, is the ideal resource for anyone charged with guiding teachers as they encounter real world challenges in today’s early childhood programs.

Using the many ideas, suggestions, techniques, and tools presented in this practical resource, educators enhance their knowledge and skills in how to:

· Consider their own relationship-based professional development competencies (Chapter 1)

· Apply relationship-based mentoring strategies to promote professional learning through establishing expectations, understanding cultural competence and moving through steps in the process (Chapter 2)

· Effective communication to support observation, reflection and planning (Chapter 3)

· Apply adult learning theories and approaches to mentoring and coaching processes (Chapter 4)

· Understand the change process and identify and participate in a cycle of teacher inquiry (Chapter 5)

· Coach to plan, connect and evaluate curriculum, assessment and teaching (Chapter 6)

· Define and improve the role of the supervisor and teacher-leader as mentor (Chapter 7)

· Initiate professional development leadership and planning for mentoring systems that grow our own professional development leaders (Chapter 8)

· Identify personal biases that can interfere with effective teaching and mentoring and ways to support the development of community-aware and culturally competent mentoring (All chapters).

Developing Mentoring and Coaching Relationships in Early Care and Education is the ideal resource for anyone charged with guiding teachers as they encounter real world challenges in today’s early childhood programs and can turn to this practical new resource as they work with supervisors and teacher-leaders to achieve greater professional effectiveness while bridging the gap between the vision for quality and actual practice. The book is packed with helpful reflective questions, illustrative mentoring and coaching scenarios, and ready-to-implement planning tools. The focus is on encouraging reflection on current practices in order to achieve quality programs, meet teaching standards, and promote positive outcomes for children in these times of rising standards and, in many cases, lower levels of support.