Peer coaching in early childhood

Researchers have reached a consensus that early childhood educators should have sufficient knowledge and skills in child development and early childhood education issues. This is because the quality and success of programs designed for early childhood education lie in the qualifications of the teacher in charge of such programs. These requirements are especially true for vulnerable and disadvantaged children. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the early childhood educators to provide the children and their families with rich and meaningful educational experiences because they are often held accountable for the outcome of the children. This literature review demonstrates that one way in which early childhood educators can achieve this is through peer coaching. Peer coaching provides early childhood educators with excellent opportunities for experimentation, exchange of professional ideas, shared problem-solving, observation, and reflection. Although research has neglected peer coaching in early childhood, the small number of available studies demonstrated that peer coaching can effectively enhance professional growth for teachers in early child education. This observation is strengthened when the studies investigating the effect of peer coaching in K-12 are considered. Studies have adopted both qualitative and quantitative designs in their approaches. The samples have often involved student teachers on practicum, practicing teachers in early childhood education, as well as K-12 teachers, and some have used early childhood experts as coaches. Instruments that have been used for data collection have been reliable, as demonstrated by their measure of internal consistency. Findings from these studies call for changes in the way practicum is approached, and also in the way professional development for teachers in early childhood should be done. Further, the studies strongly reject the use of evaluation or judgment in peer coaching because this compromises collaboration, which is at the heart of peer coaching. Future research should specifically focus on the effect of peer coaching on the achievement of the child in early childhood education