Teachers’ perceptions of the coaching role in secondary vocational education

Abstract

This article describes a study on teachers’ perceptions of the coaching role in innovative secondary vocational education (SVE) in the Netherlands. Data from 109 teachers were collected by means of an online questionnaire, asking for their associations with the coaching role, goals concerning the coaching role, and typical coaching activities. Using multiple correspondence analyses, it was explored whether underlying dimensions could be found in teachers’ perceptions of the coaching role. Relations between teachers’ perceptions of the coaching role and background variables were also explored. The outcomes revealed that dominant themes in the teachers’ perceptions were promoting and supporting students’ meta-cognitive skills, creating a positive learning and working atmosphere, and guiding and actively supporting students. Two underlying dimensions regarding the perceptions of the coaching role could be detected. The extremities of these dimensions were interpretable in terms of learning environment and learning process on the one dimension, and general development and domain-specific development on the other. Teachers’ background variables were not significantly related to their perceptions of the coaching role.