Instructional Coaching as a Tool for Professional Development: Coaches’ Roles and Considerations

In this study, we primarily aimed to investigate coaches’ roles and their considerations in shifting coaching roles they perform. Employing a qualitative descriptive research, we conducted semi-structured interview sessions with ten instructional coaches to determine their roles and considerations in shifting roles during coaching English teachers in primary schools. Utilizing Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phase approach, we employed thematic analysis to analyse the desired data collected in the study. The findings suggested that there were three roles instructional coaches enacted, namely, the role of the implementer, advocate, and educator. The roles were influenced by coaches’ considerations of teacher readiness, coaching style and coaches’ qualities. The findings also showed that the coaches performed a non-authoritative approach in their coaching and constantly role-shifted between the roles according to the demand of different situations. Influencing their decision in role-shifting, the coaches’ roles and their considerations provide insights into instructional coaching. As such, practitioners and stake holders can reflect and enhance the implementation of the coaching programme to encourage supportive coaching activities. Because there is a need to conduct adequate research on instructional coaching specifically in the context of Malaysia, this study offers an insight into coaches’ specific roles in Malaysia. Future research can take a closer look at the “in-the-moment” coaching process to determine the professional development programmes designed based on coaches’ understanding of role-shifting

Keeping Teachers Afloat with Instructional Coaching: Coaching Structure and Implementation

Despite the press for instructional coaching as a form of effective teacher professional development (TPD), there is still a need to understand what instructional coaching is and how its operations look like. Meanwhile, the coaching literature provides scant guidance particularly about the coaching implementation in the Malaysian context. For the purpose of this study, we explored the processes of instructional coaching in Sarawak, particularly focusing on conceptualising the coaching processes to fine-tune teaching practice. Employing a qualitative case study design, we conducted non-participant observations on coaching conferences of four coach-teacher pairs on a one-to-one basis. We analysed the data obtained using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phase thematic analysis. The findings suggested that the coaching cycle consisted of three stages: pre-observation conference, classroom observation and post-observation conference. An additional stage of intervention was identified in the coaching cycle. Coaching support to the teachers was provided on an average of one session per month. Structuring coaching conversations was a key aspect in conducting coaching support for the teachers. For future research, we offer recommendations of larger-scale studies to discover the impact of instructional coaches that include the intervention component as a part of the coaching cycle to enhance teacher instruction and student achievement. We would also suggest studies based on comprehensive theories and empirical evidences into the development of fully articulated models of instructional coaching related to the Malaysian context