Coaching is fundamental to Child Aid’s success in helping teachers gain the knowledge and skills needed to improve their instruction. Learning and mastering new skills is hard and requires guided practice and support. Coaching is effective because it turns learning into a collaborative process based on trust, communication and shared goals.

Child Aid literacy trainers visit teachers in their classrooms multiple times after each workshop. During these one-on-one coaching sessions, trainers model new techniques with students, offer suggestions and answer questions. Child Aid trainers adapt their coaching to fit the needs of individual teachers, depending on each educator’s knowledge of literacy instruction. Since most teachers in Guatemala have never had a coach in their classroom, Child Aid trainers make it clear from the beginning that their role is not to supervise or monitor, but to support the educators and help them improve. 

Teachers tell us that Child Aid’s approach to coaching is like nothing they’ve experienced before. Our approach not only provides educators with useful knowledge and techniques, it also makes them feel respected and valued as professionals.