This document summarizes a study on the role of coaching in telecollaborative language exchanges. It discusses how coaching was provided to 269 teachers through 550 hours of support before, during, and after telecollaborative sessions. Surveys of teachers found that coaching greatly improved their organizational, pedagogical, digital, and attitudinal competencies, especially in designing exchanges and using online tools. While the study had limitations due to sample size and being based on teacher perceptions, coaching was highly valued by teachers and helped provide necessary support for innovating their practices.

1. The role of coaching
in telecollaborative language exchanges
Dr Sabela Melchor-Couto Dr Kristi Jauregi Ondarra
University of Roehampton Utrecht University
(London)

2. Introduction
New teacher roles
Time investment
Learning curve
Training
+
SupportCoaching

3. Summary of contents
 Brief introduction to TILA
 Coaching
 Coaching evaluation in TILA
 Perceived teacher competences
 Conclusion
 Bibliography

4. TILA
Funded by the European Commission
Context: the TILA project
2013-2015
269
teachers trained
550 h
coaching

5. Coaching
Lofthouse, Leat & Towler (2010) Coaching for teaching
and learning: a practical guide for schools. Reading:
CfBTEducation Trust
Pedagogical
innovation
+
technical guidance
BEFORE
DURING
AFTER
TC
SessionsTask design
Organisation
Implementation
Evaluation

6. Coaching assessment
 Evaluation survey
 Completed by 23 teachers
 Positive feedback
 Value of the guidance:
task design
organising TC sessions
coordinating with partners

7. Coaching assessment

8. Coaching assessment
30%
39%
26%
4%
Confidence for TC
5
4
3
2
1

9. Teacher competences
 15 teachers
 At least 3 TC sessions
 No previous TC experience
 Survey:
 Demographic information
 Organisational comp.: 9 items
 Pedagogical comp.: 5 items
 Digital comp.: 3 items
 Attitudes & beliefs: 2 items
Telecollaboration
Teacher Competences
(O’Dowd, 2015)
Organisational
Pedagogical
Digital
Attitudes &
beliefs
Organisational
Digital

10. Teacher competences
Rate your ability to…
…organise and structure real-time student interaction taking
into account the particular affordances and technicalities of
synchronous tools such as videoconferencing, chat etc.
…explain clearly to possible partner-teachers your plans and
expectations related to a possible exchange
a)…employ various strategies to ‘match’ learners from the
different institutions
b)…to create effective partnerships and exchange groups
at the beginning / at the end of the telecollaboration
experience
Scale 1-10

11. Teacher competences
12 respondents
+1.48 +1.55+1.16
+1.04
ORGANISATIONAL PEDAGOGICAL DIGITAL ATTITUDES & BELIEFS

12. Teacher competences
+2.7
+1.78
+1.75
+1.75
+1.83
+1.5
+1.66
+1.5
ORGANISATIONAL
PEDAGOGICAL
DIGITAL
ATTITUDES &
BELIEFS
A2

13. Teacher competences
12 respondents
Role played by the coach in TC competences:
•Excellent guidance.
•The help provided by our coach has been priceless.
•The experience would not have been so positive without
the support and empathy provided by our coach.
•We have felt supported and motivated by our coach.
•Essential. I’ve felt supported at all times. We discussed
different options and it was very useful in terms of fine-
tuning tasks.

14. Teacher competences
12 respondents
• Very helpful, especially for organisational aspects.
• Their guidance in solving organisational and
technical problems has been useful and they have
helped us achieve our common goals.
• Their help has been useful for choosing the most
appropriate tool.
• The debriefing meetings held after every TC session
have been useful to correct certain aspects.

15. Teacher competences
Results Summary
• Digital competences
Digital competences Organisational competences
Highest
perceived
improvement
 Real-time
telecolaboration
 Explaining use of tools
 Choosing the right tool
Designing the exchange
Working with partner-teachers:
-Negotiating
-Explaining their objectives
Creating effective partnerships
& working with students

16. Conclusions
 Coaching is highly valued by participating teachers.
 It provides the necessary support, usually lacking at
their institutions.
 It provides motivation, essential when trying to
innovate
 It helps teachers develop pedagogical,
organisational and digital competences.
Limitations:
 Small number of participants
 Data gathered a few months after the TC experience
 Answers based on their perceptions
These limitations will be corrected in the next project!

17. Bibliography
Lofthouse, Leat & Towler (2010) Coaching for teaching and
learning: a practical guide for schools. Reading: CfBTEducation
Trust. Available at
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/cflat/news/documents/5414_CfT_FINAL
Web.pdf
O’Dowd, R. (2015) “Supporting in-service language educators in
learning to telecollaborate”. Language Learning & Technology,
19(1), 64–83.

18. Thank you!
Dr Sabela Melchor Couto: s.melchor-couto@roehampton.ac.uk
Dr Kristi Jauregi: k.jauregi@uu.nl