eCoaching as an Alternative to Traditional Supervision: Practices and Perspectives From University Supervisors

Abstract

Internship is a culminating student teaching experience traditionally involving sustained mentorship in the classroom of an experienced mentor teacher with some university supervision, and as such, it is a critical component in teacher preparation. When provisionally licensed teachers complete a non-traditional internship in their own classroom, however, they must rely primarily on university supervision for mentorship. We describe a study of an eCoaching model for university supervisors who were able to successfully provide sustained mentorship to these teachers through eCoaching. After completing online training modules, the participants implemented the eCoaching model that included focused goal setting and multiple feedback loops. In this study, we examined multiple data sources to describe university supervisors’ practices when enacting eCoaching and to gain a better understanding of their perspective about the use of the eCoaching model with provisionally licensed interns.