9. Coach supervisor semi-structured interview protocol

Attachment 9

Coach supervisor semi-structured interview protocol

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Expiration Date: XX/XX/XXXX

SCOPE Case Study

Coach Supervisor Interview Protocol

Introduction

An important part of the Study of Coaching Practices in Early Care and Education Settings (SCOPE) study is learning about your experience working with coaches. The purpose of this interview is to help us understand your background and experiences as a <coaching approach name> coach supervisor. 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 30 minutes 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 really appreciate your help! Do you have any questions before we begin?

Great! Let’s get started.

Support for Coaches

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

1. Can you please tell me a little about your background and how you became a coach supervisor? [D/BI, RQ2]

   1. Probe: Do you have any training or guidance on how to supervise coaches? Past experience as a teacher, program director, or coach? Adult learning training? Building relationships? Diversity? What training or experience is most helpful for supervising coaches? What additional training would help?

   2. What percentage of your time do you spend supervising coaches? What other responsibilities do you have? [RQ2]

   3. How long has your program had a supervisor for coaches? How many coaches do you supervise? [RQ2]

2. Can you tell me how coaches are recruited and selected? [RQ2]

   1. Probe: What is the job description? [ask for a copy if possible] What is most important to consider when selecting someone for a coaching position? [RQ2]

3. What happens on a person’s first day(s) on the job as a coach? [RQ2]

   1. Probe: [If orientation or training is mentioned, ask] Describe what is covered and how long it is. [RQ2]

4. Can you describe your role as a coach supervisor? [RQ2]

   1. Probe: Do your coaches come to find you when they have a need or do you have an established meeting time? How frequently do you have supervisory check-ins? Content covered? What’s your supervisory style? [listen to hear if they use reflective supervision] Do you supervise coaches individually or in groups? [RQ2]

   2. Probe: What issue or concern is brought up the most among the coaches you supervise? How is it addressed? [RQ2]

   3. Probe: Do the coaches you supervise work independently or do you provide supports for their work? If you offer supports, what’s most important for you to do to support coaches? Are there other supports that you think are important for coaches, besides what you offer through supervision? Do coaches have a chance to talk with other coaches either formally or informally about their work? [RQ2]

   4. Probe: What’s your biggest challenge in supervising coaches? [RQ2]

5. Have you changed something or used information from coaches you supervise to inform your work (e.g., develop professional development)? If so, can you please give us an example? [RQ3]

6. How do you know whether a coach is performing well? [RQ2]

   1. Probe: What information helps you to know what is happening in coaching? How do you define what it means to be “performing well” as a coach? Is there anything in writing about this? How do you know what a coach does in coaching sessions? How do you know whether a coach is effective in changing teacher practice? What tools, if any, do you use to assess a coach’s performance? [RQ2]

7. Who decides what coaching should look like? [RQ1]

   1. Probe: Are there written materials (ex. manual; guidebook)? If so, who wrote them? How do you use them? How helpful do you think they are? [RQ1]

   2. Probe: Under what circumstances do you not follow the instructions in the written materials? Under what circumstances would coaches not follow the instructions in the written materials? [RQ1]

8. Do you and the coaches use data to help make decisions regarding coaching? If so, what data? And how is it used? [RQ3]

9. What types of information do coaches have to document? [RQ3] [ask for example of forms, logs, if any]

   1. Probe: How is the information used? By whom? How helpful do coaches perceive the documentation? [RQ3]

Thank you. We’re going to close with some reflection questions about coaching.

Coaching Supports and Barriers

10. What factors do you think most influence the success of coaching? [RQ1, RQ2, RQ3]

    1. Probe: What are program-level features that improve the success of coaching? Program (provider/center)-level factors? (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 can impact 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)?

    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) [RQ1]

    7. Probe: Coach background and training? If so, what? (ex. adult learning styles; cultural competency) [RQ2]

    8. 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…

11. 

    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.

    Is there anything else about being a coach supervisor that is important for us to know?

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