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This scoping review discusses how bug-in-ear (BIE) technology has been used to coach teachers and pre-service teachers in special education, general education and initial teacher education (ITE). The purpose of the review is to identify the range of practices in implementing BIE technology and the potential impacts on teachers, learners, coaches and professional learning and development (PLD) providers.

The PRISMA framework guided the structure of the scoping review. Four leading educational database searches informed initial results. Peer review ensured that inclusion and exclusion requirements were rigorously followed. Two screenings, a hand search and snowballing found 20 relevant studies for review.

BIE coaching is a cost-effective approach to support the development of teachers and pre-service teachers, with the potential to improve learner outcomes. Delivering coaching remotely yields the widest range of benefits for PLD providers. Technology issues persist; therefore, simple approaches work most effectively. There are opportunities to explore coaching attributes required for BIE coaching and how BIE feedback can differ from in-person feedback.

PLD should be based on available resources; however, it is possible to train participants to use BIE in a short amount of time. Pre-determined prompts should be co-constructed between the coach and the teacher. Prompts should be delivered within 3–5 s of the teaching behaviour and consist of positive, corrective, questioning and goal-orientated statements.

This is the first evidence-based review of BIE coaching that highlights effective practices in special education, general education and ITE. This review also explores how BIE coaching is used with teachers, which has not been covered in detail.

There are few challenges as daunting as achieving positive outcomes for students with emotional disabilities. A major obstacle is the generally poor quality of classroom instruction. Too few general education teachers or special education teachers possess the knowledge and skills to adequately serve this population of learners. Various factors account for the inadequate level of teacher preparation, including licensure requirements that emphasize quantity over quality, the research-to-practice gap, a train-and-hope rather than a train-and-coach approach to teacher preparation, and the absence of an infrastructure to support sustained use of evidence-based practices. I discuss each of these factors and offer some recommendations for improving the quality of teacher preparation and, in turn, the potential for more positive student outcomes.

In this chapter, we examine the current research on how technology is applied to benefit students with emotional and/or behavioral disorders (EBD). First, we describe the iterative yet unpredictable nature of technological innovation to suggest that incremental successes are qualified by the creation of often unforeseen consequences. We then identify commonly used nonelectronic technologies in education to emphasize that the hoped-for advances in electronic technology have failed to deliver on their decades-old promise of educational revolution. We continue with our review of the literature on empirical studies examining how technology is used to support students with EBD. These findings indicate that the research design primarily employed in this field is single-subject. Examples of specific findings include web-based graphic organizers for student writing, virtual self-modeling for targeting student behaviors, and virtual coaching for teachers of students with EBD. We conclude by reviewing how leaders in the field of special education predict the field will change in the future. Overall, with an increased emphasis on research accessibility and practitioner-validated knowledge, and advances in neuroscience and artificial technologies, practitioners may hold a more central role to the creation and dissemination of knowledge.

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the use of a web-based collaborative platform for virtual literacy coaching and how the technology influenced reflective practice.

This qualitative study explored the use of virtual literacy coaching by examining 18 coaching sessions between a university-based literacy coach and a first-grade reading interventionist using Adobe® Connect, a web-based collaborative tool. The application provided a virtual meeting space and through the use of video pods the teacher and coach had synchronous audio and video communication. Each coaching session lasted approximately one hour and included a pre-observation discussion, an observation of a 30-minute individualized lesson with a struggling reader, and a debriefing conversation. Data, including transcriptions of the coaching sessions, interviews with participants, field notes, and journal entries were analyzed using the constant-comparative method.

Findings showed the ability to link teachers and coaches in a virtual space creates new possibilities for engaging in reflective practice that certainly are not trouble-free, but do provide opportunities to think deeply about teaching and learning without being face-to-face.

As school districts continue to experience budgetary cuts, it is important to explore alternative ways to support teachers. The findings identified in this study underscore the differences between face-to-face and virtual coaching. Understanding and accepting the limitations of the technology and recognizing the importance of the teacher/coach relationship could provide a starting point for school districts interested in computer-mediated communication.

Peer coaching has been described as an effective form of teacher professional development. Consequently, different aspects of the peer coaching process have been examined. However, no international comparative studies focusing on the differences between the applicability and adoptability of peer coaching in different educational systems were found. This paper seeks to address these issues.

This quantitative study examined cross‐national differences in educators’ beliefs about peer coaching by comparing survey responses of American and Turkish educators.

Data analysis showed that both American and Turkish educators found peer coaching adoptable at a high level in their school systems. However, on the applicability level there were statistically significant differences found at all subscales of peer coaching survey showing that American participants believed that peer coaching was much more applicable than did the Turkish participants.

While limited by the small sample size not representative of the overall populations in the USA and Turkey, this study contributes to the international discourse on the different types of teacher professional development by examining cross‐national differences in educators’ beliefs about peer coaching.

The results of this study inform practitioners and researchers about the ways peer coaching is perceived by educators in different countries. Given the findings, school districts can examine more contextually and culturally appropriate ways inherent in the post‐observation conference to increase the effectiveness of the peer coaching process.

The findings of this study enrich the body of research on peer coaching, particularly focusing on the teachers’ and leaders’ beliefs and perceptions about the adoption and applicability of peer coaching as a form of teacher professional development and calls for further empirical research on teacher peer coaching in the national and international contexts.

Preservice teachers (PSTs) typically have few opportunities to observe social studies instruction in PSTs' elementary field placements. To practice effective integration as a pathway to include more social studies instruction, PSTs developed a unit plan based on inquiry during an undergraduate methods course. The purpose of this study was to explore what scaffolds were effective in PSTs' development of social studies inquiry projects.

The author used a multiple case study approach, examining initial submissions, feedback and resubmissions as PSTs developed PSTs' inquiry projects. The data were analyzed with an eye on PSTs' ability to plan a unit according to the four dimensions of the C3 Framework's inquiry arc (National Council for the Social Studies [NCSS], 2013).

The author analyzed data related to PSTs’ area of highest need from PSTs' initial submissions: staging the task, formative tasks and resources. PSTs were able to develop inquiry projects after being supported in their (1) organization, (2) clarity, (3) alignment and (4) developmental appropriateness.

This study shows that novice teachers can create high-quality social studies learning experiences in elementary school when provided appropriate supports (in this case, feedback about organization, clarity, alignment and developmental appropriateness). With the tools to develop such projects, new teachers may be able to increase the amount of social studies taught in elementary classrooms.

This paper examines instructional coaching as a means to support teachers at all levels in primary and secondary schools in implementing new and innovative practices using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework as a design guide.

This mixed-methods study compared the impact of an instructional coaching intervention around the implementation of the UDL framework on educators versus the UDL implementation efforts of educators who did not receive the coaching intervention. Coached participants shared their experiences with the coaching cycle. These qualitative data were collected through teacher interviews, self-assessments, and observations. The data assisted in the interpretation of the quantitative findings from a quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test comparison group design.

The results of this study revealed positive outcomes for teachers in knowledge and application of UDL, although not at statistically significant levels. The qualitative data collected supported the positive gains and revealed that teachers valued and changed their practices from the use of coaching as they navigated the implementation of UDL in their learning environments.

One limitation to be noted includes the district site that participated in this study had used the UDL framework for several years and maintained high expectations for teachers to increase their UDL-aligned practices each year. Therefore, all teachers who participated in this study were under the same district evaluative expectations to participate in professional development at some level to increase proficiency with UDL implementation, whereas a district in the beginning stages of UDL implementation might serve as a better gauge of growth. Additionally, the control participants were self-identified and not randomly assigned.

This study is one of the first conducted that investigates the effect of instructional coaching on teachers' increased understanding and implementation of the UDL framework. This study examines instructional coaching as a stand-alone professional development in supporting teachers' use of UDL in design-inclusive classrooms. Written into US law, the UDL framework is a scientifically valid framework that supports teachers with the design of flexible and accessible classrooms for an increasingly diverse population of students.

The paper aims to explore the role and the involvement of local community within the context of Malaysian early childhood centers (nursery and kindergarten).

The research used a mixed method with a questionnaire survey in the first phase and qualitative interviews in the second phase. Quantitative data were obtained from a survey completed by 3,519 staffs from nursery and kindergarten all over Malaysia. Qualitative data were collected from individual and focus group semistructured interviews conducted with 140 participants of the Malaysian public and private internal and external stakeholders ranging from the relevant personnel of the early childhood care and education (ECCE) centers (administrators, teachers and practitioners), academic experts, regulatory agencies and parents.

Survey results indicate that the parents and community involvement with ECCE centers from the perspective of the management and practitioners is in the medium category. A total of three overarching themes were identified from the interviews, namely expertise collaboration, resource sharing and operation monitoring. There exists diversity in terms of community engagement and cooperation with ECCE centers.

The findings are expected to provide valuable guidelines to ECCE centers' management and leadership in the aspect of community involvement where it could help to enhance their efforts of providing quality learning experiences for young children attending their centers.

This study is part of a larger longitudinal and mixed methods project examining the quality practices in setting the standards in the Malaysian National Quality ECCE framework. These findings contribute to the understanding of community involvement with ECCE centers in the Malaysian context.