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Abstract
Coaching is one of several professional development approaches being used in early childhood to facilitate improved teacher instruction to promote child outcomes. Despite its use, little is known about how coaching promotes teacher knowledge and skills (Sheridan, Edwards, Marvin, & Knoche, Citation2009). We reviewed the early childhood coaching literature to determine what specifically coaches do to promote teacher practices. Though we found that coaching with some form of professional development often improved teacher behaviors and practices and/or child outcomes, detailed descriptions about explicit coaching behaviors that were linked directly to improved teacher behaviors and practice and/or child outcomes were rarely available. To measure the impact of coaching, it seems necessary to know first what behaviors and actions coaches use—meaning the process of coaching—to then determine the impact of these behaviors and actions (Sheridan et al., Citation2009). We suggest specific elements be used to define future coaching interventions so that researchers may determine with strength the impact of coaching on improved and sustained teacher practices and child outcomes in the early childhood classroom setting.