COLLEGIAL COACHING

An Investigation of the Effects of Collegial Coaching On the Positive Affects on Students with
Technology Integration in the Classroom
Melissa Eggleston
Houston Baptist University

COLLEGIAL COACHING

Abstract
The purpose of the following study is to determine whether the implementation of a collegial
coaching program within a lower school environment would significantly impact students in a
positive way with technology integration in a pre-kindergarten classroom, Aftercare Program and
in The Launch Pad (computer lab). This study was conducted within the Lower School (prekindergarten through fourth grades) of a moderately sized private school located in the Houston
metropolitan area. The researcher served as the collegial coach to three participants from
amongst the Lower School faculty and staff. The results of the study were determined on the
basis of information obtained from interviews and pre- and post-coaching technological efficacy
ratings from each of the three participants. After studying this data, collegial coaching shows
promise for significantly impacting the students in a positive way with technology integration in
the classroom.

COLLEGIAL COACHING

COLLEGIAL COACHING

COLLEGIAL COACHING

An Investigation of the Effects of Collegial Coaching and the Positive Affects on Students with
Technology Integration in the Classroom

COLLEGIAL COACHING

COLLEGIAL COACHING

Education has changed so much over the past twenty years, due to technology. Or has it?
With digital natives as the students and digital immigrants as the teachers, we must look at the
affects of technology in the classroom and see its positive effects on the students. Jayne Clare
says that teachers should make sure to include the following in their teaching in order to reach
the digital native: explaining objectives clearly, student-centered learning, problem-based
learning, project based learning, inquiry based learning, active learning, asking the open ended
questions, constuctivism or co-constructing, learning by doing, allowing students to find and
follow their passion, allowing time for questions and sharing their thoughts and opinions,
creating presentations in text and multimedia, giving students guidance, delivering material in
context, creating rigor, practice through games, and teach that failure is a learning process.
(Clare, 2013). Prensky defines those born into an innate new culture while the digital
immigrants are old-world settlers, who have lived in the analogue age and immigrated to the
digital world. He is the grandfather of the digital age in education so it is best to follow his
lead. Trying to teach teachers to use technology in order to improve their educational standards is
best for the students because they will reap the benefits of well thought out material and
designing curriculum with the results in mind . Wendy Guilford published an outline slideshow
through Haiku Deck. Her last slide sums up how technology integration is utilized in backward
design. Backward Design and Technology Integration * supports the identification of the
desired results, * students use technology to show what they know* engages the learner, keeping
the learner motivated meets the needs of all learners (remediation and differentiation)can be used
to build curriculum and planning. (Guilford, 2015) Finding the balance within education and
technology seems to be the key to success in teaching students while using technology to meet
and enhance the students learning and pleasure in learning certain skill sets in school. Director of

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Technology and EducatorU co-founder, Andrew Marcinck, explains that The key in all of this
good instructional design along with a consistent vision and culture built by school
administration. Find applications that promote and strengthen a variety of skill sets for students,
not just one or two. He goes on to say that finding a focus rather than trying every single tool
out there on Web 2.0 is frustrating and confusing for all involved. He advises to seek out
instructional technology specialists or coaches in your school for help. Understand that its okay
to ask a student-they know a lot! (Marcinek, 2014). Making our faculty feel confident in what
they are teaching as well as how they teach it is important to our schools and most importantly
the students involved in the process. They have the most and the least to gain form absence or
presence of technology in the classroom, and collegial coaching so teachers can learn in a safe
environment.. Menotring is not a new idea. It has been a staple in teaching teachers how to teach.
Paul Galbraith and Kris Anstrom suggest six strategies for finding time for teachers to
collaborate throughout the school day.
1.Use administrators to teach a class for one period a day so that the teacher is free to be
involved in peer coaching.,
2.Bring students together into larger groups for appropriate activities. This will allow
teachers to visit one another while students were actively engaged in learning activities.
3.Arrange for teachers to use the library during class times. This allows both teachers and
students to study and research together.
4.Enlist volunteer aids.
5. Seek out student teachers who might be able to be given limited certificates that allow
them to take on legal responsibility for students.

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6. Organize and promote team teaching, which would give teachers more
flexibility in how they plan and implement a peer-coaching program. (Galbraith, P.,
Anstrom, K.)
Research Questions
The following study was designed to determine whether the implementation of a collegial
coaching program within a lower school environment would significantly impact the students in
a positive way in regards to technology integration.
The research questions addressed are as follows:
1. Is the use of a collegial coaching program focusing on technological applications
appropriate for faculty and staff members within a lower school environment?
2. What effects will this program have on the students directly in regards to retention of
material, collaborating with classmates and understanding academic material?
Methods
This study of the effects of collegial coaching was conducted within the Lower School
(pre-kindergarten through fourth grades) of a moderately sized private school located in the
Houston metropolitan area. The researcher served as the collegial coach to three participants
from amongst the Lower School faculty and staff.
Throughout the semester, the collegial coach met with the coaches several times over a
four month period. It was difficult at times to meet directly with each coachee so implementing
a secondary method was necessary to complete the coaching assignment. Working through email
and telephone helped shore up the loose ends in learning each tool before the teachers needed to
teach it on their own. The coach made time for researching each tool and designing a lesson

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including sufficient practice time with each coachee. Each coachee was coache for
approximately fifteen hours in order to fulfill the internship requirements.

Participants
Participant 1 is employed as an Innovative Technology Specialist. Her responsibilities
include teaching in the computer lab to students in grades Pre-kindergarten through Fourth
Grade. Assisting classroom teachers with new innovative ways to share student work, help
classroom teachers try new technology applications with students such as circuits, sewing,
cardboard representations, host collaborative teamwork activities and producing displays to be
posted in hallways, among various other daily tasks. At the beginning of the program,
Participant 1s initial technology efficacy score was five, on a scale from one to five, with five
being the highest rating. She is our technology specialist thus, an expert in the field of
technological applications within the school environment, however, she was new to working
with the primary grade students and classroom teachers and there was still more to be learned.
She mentioned being most excited about learning about the capabilities of our youngest learners
so she could better serve the students and their teachers. Her fear was that she was
underestimating their capabilities and wanted to be able to help them reach their potential.
Therefore, Participants 1's focus learning activities included programming BeeBots with
the students, making mats to help make connections between math and literacy and programming
BeeBots, In addition, Participant 1 was also interested in how Pre-kindergarten students would
respond to collaborative work done with a small group. She wanted to make a connection to our
classroom teaching/ learning, so she ventured into teaching the students how to draw a picture on
KidPix, then use the microphone to make a voice-over. They could make multiple slides and then

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shared with other small groups. Participant 1 has also begun to experiment with Excel for new
purposes. Making an all-encompassing plan book to help organize her many responsibilities,
schedules and creative ideas. She is an expert in using Excel, so this is not the stretch, or
coaching point. We met two times to brainstorm ideas in how to better organize her extremely
busy schedule. She decided to bind two planning books for next school year, one for each
semester.
Participant 2 has been employed at the school for sixteen years in different capacities.
She is currently our After School Care Director and organizes many activities for students
ranging from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. In the initial stages of the program,
Participant 2s technological efficacy score was two. Although she had been able to experiment
somewhat with technology in more of an administrative assistant s capacity, she still felt as
though she lacked knowledge in even the most basic areas in communicating with parents and
trying to market the school to others that might be interested in our schools extracurricular
activities. She was so excited about learning how to use PhotoBucket to communicate all of the
fun that the children had in After School Care. Sharing photos and adding music and text to the
slideshow with a Web 2.0 tool was completely new to Participant 2. This tool was more
complicated initially, but became more clear as the sessions progressed.
Participant 2's second tool was to learn more about Excel in making a custom planner that
would house all of the different activities, the time slots and participants involved in daily
schedules. It also had a small space for writing in teaching notes and lesson plans for each
activity. More specifically, the collegial coach demonstrated the process and assisted her in
creating a template that she could tweak each year and always be able to refer back to, year after
year. Integrating the aftercare support staffs schedule and rotations for duties was particularly

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beneficial in making this planner. Listing all of the contact information for each vendor was
important to help keep the program running smoothly. Next, she learned how to use Blogger
Junior with her storytellers. The students take turns each day with storytelling time. This tool is
designed to help them share their love for stories with families and friends . It also keeps the
families involved in their childrens aftercare activities while they finished their professional
workdays. Unfortunately , Participant 2 was reluctant to using this web 2.0 tool for fear that
childrens private information would get into the wrong peoples hands. This spurred on the idea
to quickly review the process in using Photo Booth as an excellent recording device that
students could manage and save independently. Teaching the children to practice, edit and
shorten their wait time were three recurring nudges that effected teaching time.
At the conclusion of this year, Participant 3 will have completed her first year back in the
work force after staying at home to raise her children for several years. She works with a selfcontained pre-kindergarten classroom as an assistant teacher. At the beginning of the study,
Participant 3s initial technological efficacy score was three; she felt as though she was fairly
confident in her ability to integrate technology into the classroom, but lacked ideas with this age
group and knowledge of the latest in technology for this grade level. Being closer to the age of a
digital native, Participant 3 was not nervous or anxious at all when it cam to technology
integration. In fact, she was happy to try anything and was able to apply her knowledge of the
age group to help support the lead teacher in the classroom (me!). In order to enhance student
engagement through technology, Participant 3 hoped primarily to assist her students in using
Blogger Junior, programming with BeeBots, and implementing games or mats that connected
with previous teaching during Literacy and Math Work Station time. In addition to this project,
Participant 3 also desired to learn to use Excel to adapt her lesson plan book to reflect her duties

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and goals for the children in an organized fashion without having to repeatedly write in specific
schedule titles and times each day, similarly to Participant 2.
Information regarding the participants, including years of experience in the field, position
within the school, pre- and post-coaching technological efficacy ratings, and the three primary
projects undertaken by each, has been summarized in Table 1.
Table 1
Summary Participant Information

Years
Participant
Position
Experience

Pre-/PostCoaching
Technological
Efficacy Rating

15

Technology
Innovation
Specialist

5 to 5

-Bee Bots for primary grade

students
-movie makers and voice overs
in KidPix
-making Bee Bot Mats for all
grade level students and
teachers with plot printer

15

After School Care 2 to 4

Director

-Photo Bucket
-Excel schedule enhancements
-BloggerJunior

Pre-K Assistant

-Excel schedule enhancements/

2 to 4

Projects
Undertaken with
Coach's Assistance

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planning book template

-Bee Bots/ also making games
that connect with literacy
workstations

Results
The results were very positive from our collegial coaching. We all learned quite a bit about
planning and efficacy. Choosing such a diverse group in regards to what they taught and their
prior technology background was most impressive. Each of them felt like the children benefitted
from their new knowledge in technology integration. If you were going to compare this type of
collegial coaching to that of traditional professional development, it is hands down better for the
teachers and the students. Everyone benefits! The teachers are engaged in furthering their
technology integration skills in the area that they are most interested. Like the students, teachers
benefit from being given choices in their education and professional development. Participant 2
commented that she was happiest about getting to choose her areas of technology that she
wanted to improve, parent communication and organization. Participant 1, our Technology
Specialist was very clear in her wishes for technology coaching in our lower school. The
following excerpt is taken from her Peer Coaching Teacher form that she filled out.
Suggestions. No suggestions. It was a great learning experience and I enjoyed the collaboration
with a colleague. This is the kind of stuff that needs to happen all of the time in schools, where
people can share their learning and expertise with others in an informal way.
The best take-aways about this experience in collegial coaching from both
perspectives was being given the opportunity in a safe setting (where mistakes are welcome!)
and the conversations were genuinely interesting for both parties. Everyone learned so much!
Participant number one was our technology specialist who is obviously an expert in the

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technology field. She was particularly open to discussing the benefits of different tech ideas that
were appropriate for students in the primary grade levels. She asked questions about classroom
management and watched as I modeled how to get them to re-focus on our skill at hand while in
the computer lab.
In seeing how much work it actually was over this semester to plan, research and mentor
colleagues in technology integration, the main obstacle was time. Referring back to the lit review
portion of the paper, it is important to take the advice of Anstrom and Galbraith who believe that
there are six ways to help colleagues help each other in technology integration coaching. It all
begins with a flexible plan and scheduling time to meet with each other to work out details in
different application in technology. Combining classes and asking an administrator were the two
most feasible ideas in this area.

The coaching process was humbling and exciting all at the same time. It showed me how
much work it took to coordinate schedules and work within the confines of our school day in
order to better understand the challenges of taking the time to learn/ teach a new skill in an
already packed school day! The most critical portion of this exercise is to become more
organized on so many levels. Keeping up with paperwork, turning it in to be signed, then off to
the professors to be signed, meeting deadlines, coordinating schedules, being ready with
knowing the applications and programs well enough to teach and being sweet gentle and kind in
teaching other adults how to do something that can be very frustrating to an entire generation.
Organization is the key to making this process work at its highest potential.
Coachs Personal Reflections

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In addressing possible implications associated with the collegial coaching process, there
is always concern with using all participants time wisely in efforts to help reach the students
potential. If there was a positive affect with the students learning more material, having fun
( better retention of material), communicating with parents more effectively , and organizing
schedules using Excel, then it was a beneficial use of time for all involved coaches and coaches.
After being interviewed, the coach involved with this study said, I love to see the affects that
three completely different teacher with very diverse backgrounds can have such a positive affect
on the students! As an example, the coach explained, In teaching others how to use programs
such as Excel, KidPix, and Photo Bucket, I was forced to go back and re-learn how to use the
programs in order to help troubleshoot any questions that the coaches might have. This made me
a better teacher to my own students at the same time! Apparently, all of us benefit from working
with teachers and staff in a technology coaching format. It spreads the enthusiasm, promotes
collaboration, and definitely benefitted me as well as the coaches.
Final Reflections
The results of this study demonstrate the fact that within a lower school environment,
collegial coaching can serve as an effective means of enabling faculty and staff to gain more
knowledge regarding technological tools, as well as to have a positive affect on students while
learning about and implementing technology tools. For example, in her final interview,
Participant 1 commented, I clearly underestimated the pre-kindergarteners abilities before my
coaching experience. Additionally, the collegial coaching process has the potential to increase
the usage of technology in the classroom and become easier to implement in the future with
some practice. With these tools now in their own technology tool boxes, the coaches can help
spread their new knowledge and confidence through the halls. For instance, by the conclusion of

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the collegial coaching process, Participant 2 showed confidence and excitement regarding such
opportunities, honestly explaining that It was great to get all of my organization materials into
one focused area.(the planning book).

Participant 3 was such a quick learner. She was

surprised in how the students were engaged for such long periods with technology. She was most
excited about making the literacy connections with BeeBots since it was very hands-on and it
integrated with technology at the same time.
Although setting up collegial coaching with technology every year for our teachers seems
like an impossibility, it might be easier to add a technology component to each teachers yearly
evaluation plan so that teachers will be encouraged to meet on a regular basis and share ideas
that they might not have otherwise shared with each other. This collaboration in technology and
the ability for one to coach another peer is so beneficial to our staff as well as our students
growth!

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References

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Clare, J.(2013), Can digital immigrants teach digital natives? Teachers with
Apps. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
Galbraith, P., Anstrom, K. , Using peer coaching to improve

instruction, Classroom Connect

Inc.
Guilford , W., published through Haiku deck .com?integrating-backward-design-and-technologyeducation-presentation published( November 19, 2015).
M a r c i n e k , A . ( 2 0 1 4 ) . Te c h n o l o g y a n d t e a c h i n g : fi n d i n g a
balance.
Prensky ,M. Real world learning for the digital generation, Harvard Business School , 2015
.