The impact of coaching in a Greek nursery school

Master's Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Pedagogy - Job Education, Further Education, grade: With Distinction, Brunel University (School of Sport and Education), course: Educational Mangment, language: English, abstract: The purpose of this study is to identify and elucidate the influence of coaching in teachers' attitude and performance as perceived by inexperienced in coaching practice nursery school. The question that guided this study is 'What is the impact of coaching in a Greek nursery school? This study focuses on three research questions: . How do teachers evaluate the coaching experience? . What are the benefits and the implementing of coaching? . If and how teachers' interaction with coaching changes their attitude? My dissertation was influenced by my first degree in early childhood education, and my own professional background. One head teacher and five teachers provided the study evidence. The qualitative approach was used to collect and analyse the data. This research has been a follow-up to a descriptive, exploratory qualitative case study. The findings were based on several different research tools such as semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, criteria sheets, coaching sheets, and SWOT sheets. The examination of the data highlights 5 key issues: the leadership effects in the working environment and teachers' performance; the coaching understanding concerns the degree in which respondents clarify the different aspects of coaching; the next category, on coaching difficulties, includes the perceived reasons for which coaching was ineffective; the coaching benefits introduces the positive contributions of the coaching process; and the final key point is the coaching influence in the teachers' attitude. Based on these themes, the study presents a number of conclusions. It appears that the majority of respondents have a very positive concept in regard to coaching's outcomes. The respondents became familiar with the coaching experience in a short period of time; thus the participants seem to believe that this approach is an effective way to develop the teachers' internal commitment. To sum up, the findings support that coaching influences the participants' attitude to a limited but significant degree.

Auteur

Eirini Diamantopoulou was born in a village near to Sparta in Greece. This book is her first attempt to publish her dissertation. She graduated from The Technological Educational Institute of Athens in 2000. In 2007 she earned a scholarship from the National Institution of Athens. She took her Master Degree for Educational Management at Brunel University with distinction. Currently she works as a head teacher in a nursery school.