Teacher coaches' dialogues with prospective teachers. A study of transfer of training

In this study, the impact of a training program focusing on the deliberate use of interventions during coaching dialogues with prospective teachers was investigated. Video recordings were analyzed of coaching dialogues carried on in the workplace by 28 teachers in primary education with the prospective teachers under their guidance, both before and after they participated in the training program. The main goal of this program was to broaden the repertoire of interventions which coaches use in their dialogues with student teachers. The video recordings made were transcribed verbatim, coded by three independent researchers and analyzed using descriptive statistics and t tests for paired observations. Coaches repertoires of interventions were found to consist of an average of six types of interventions. This average remained stable throughout the training program. After training, a shift from directive towards non-directive interventions was observed. The length of the coaches speaking time decreased, while the number of their interventions increased. After training, coaches structured dialogues to a greater extent. Considerable interindividual variability existed between coaches. The relevance of these findings is that the deliberate use of interventions during coaching dialogue can be influenced through training with results noticeable in the workplace. The findings of this study suggest that the training program studied can serve relatively large numbers of teacher coaches, as its setup requires a feasible amount of effort from schools and participants