Using the EQuIPD Coaching Model to Implement Inquiry, Technology, and Engineering Design in K-9 Classrooms

This research to practice paper describes a K-12 Teacher Professional Development (PD) program model which has been applied in multiple academic settings to help teachers develop an understanding of four main principles for effective teaching: pedagogy, curriculum, system thinking, and technology integration. The Engaged Quality Instruction Through Professional Development (EQuIPD) PD Program was an intensive 3-year program with 184 hours of facilitative coaching, bootcamps, and PD sessions for over 200 K-9 teachers from 121 schools across Florida. This paper explores the coaching model that was developed to support the successful grant program. A facilitative/dialogic coaching model was developed for this PD model and was designed to allow coaches to support teachers in achieving personalized grant objectives while simultaneously targeting program goals. These grant goals were centered around eight key areas: inquiry-based lessons, student use of technology for concept knowledge building, collaborative grouping for concept development, core concept model building, engineering design/design thinking, system thinking/process mapping, authentic workforce applications, and fostering quality classroom discourse. The facilitative/dialogic coaching model was unique in that it combined research-based practices for coaching with an infrastructure and coaching model that provided coaches with rubrics, coaching logs, resources, and templates for use with their teachers. This unique coaching model can be applied to other professional development programs to improve teacher practice. The role of the coaches was not specifically addressed in the grant, but we posit the in-service teacher PD coaching framework was largely responsible for the successful implementation of the PD model. This coaching model is novel in that it transcends the traditional relationship between expert and learner through facilitative coaching. This study analyzed the coaching process utilized by expert instructional coaches and teachers within a teacher professional development program, EQuIPD, and the resulting PD framework for coaching.