System of Mentoring and Coaching
Mentoring and coaching along with ongoing professional learning opportunities are shown to support the growth of practitioners at various stages in their professional careers and to improve an organization’s ability to deliver effective, high quality early care and education services.
“Mentoring is a relationship-based process between colleagues in similar professional roles, with a more-experienced individual with adult learning knowledge and skills, the mentor, providing guidance and example to the less-experienced protégé or mentee. Mentoring is intended to increase an individual’s personal or professional capacity, resulting in greater professional effectiveness.”
“Coaching is a relationship-based process led by an expert with specialized and adult learning knowledge and skills, who often serves in a different professional role than the recipient(s). Coaching is designed to build capacity for specific professional dispositions, skills, and behaviors and is focused on goal-setting and achievement for an individual or group.”
Currently, a HCYC work group has been focused on designing a system of mentoring and coaching. Some activities of this HCYC work group have included identifying organizations in Hawaiʻi who offer some form of mentoring and coaching to their early educators; conducting research on early care and education coaching resources and coaching systems in other states; and developing an early care and education coaching framework, which includes elements of an effective coach; and components of an organization that supports coaching.