Certification Procedures

The certification process allows participants the benefit of a peer coaching system as the route through which conscious and deliberate reflections about professional work can occur. The process of visiting a colleague for the purposes of assisting her in this reflection, and having her visit you, enables you to think through what you are doing. Comparing this with a specific criteria permits you to choose the arenas where you wish to attempt change and to receive support in implementing and evaluating these changes.

Without exploration and change over time, there is no process; and candidates must be aware that this process of coaching and being coached by another is a growing process, at first a tentative sort of thing which gradually gathers focus and purpose and becomes a source of change in professional development and a source of strength. It requires a certain patience with the process, an acknowledgement that some things will be difficult but that is just fine; they can be accepted and become challenges to problem solve. It is a generative process which when done to its fullest can be richly rewarding.

The consultant or coach is the person who visits a colleague in action. There is a particular stance towards these visits which we have found to be helpful in these peer coaching sessions. The following describes the key aspects of this role.

1. LISTENING: The coach withholds her own agenda and is receptive to what the participant tells her. She permits a "debriefing" after observing so that the participant can describe what she is trying to do and what concerns her. The coach supports her in this, rather than trying to give expert advice or tell her what to do.

2. CONSTRUCTING A SHARED AGENDA: The coach works to construct a shared vocabulary, a common understanding between them; for example, by active listening and debriefing, by probing and clarifying what the participant means. Together, then, they develop an understanding of what the participant is trying to do. As well, they have the criteria for Certification before them, an explicit external criteria, and part of this shared understanding is communicating about the criteria, its meaning to them, and how they are using it in the setting. The participant takes the lead in selecting criteria upon which to focus and the coach supports her in this.

3. SUPPORTING PROBLEM-SOLVING: The coach supports a problem-solving approach by asking questions (What could we do about that? How could we get that working better for you?) and works to elicit solutions and consequences of these from the participant. Since the participant is the one with the most information about the problem, the solutions she generates are both the most likely to work and the ones to which she will make a commitment. It gives her competence, a disposition to cope. This can be done by role play for instance, or discussion.

4. FOCUS ON A SPECIFIC PROBLEM: The coach keeps the session focused on a specific problem or issue. Focusing on the children and the program and what one wants to see happening there avoids digressions into personality or teaching style, differences which can be threatening to participants and put them on the defensive.

5. COACH AS SCRIBE: Sometimes the coach can keep a running record of the thinking process the participant goes through on the way to solutions or new ideas, and this documentation of process and ideas can be very helpful. It leaves the participant free to think, knowing she does not have to worry about remembering everything.

6. INTEGRITY: Both coach and participant maintain their own integrity, that is, their autonomy. If the coach disagrees, there is no advantage to false sympathy, but an important gain to be had from a different idea put forth. The key is for the coach to "own" the idea and to present it not as something the participant should do, but simply as different information.

It is often difficult for women to disagree because women value connection to others so very much, and disagreement is often accompanied by a feeling of emotional discord. It is a mark of maturity for two adults to disagree and still retain respect and emotional equilibrium for each other.

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This excerpt is from Certification Procedures, published by the Certification Council of Early Childhood Educators of Nova Scotia.

Posted by the Certification Council of Early Childhood Educators of Nova Scotia, July 1997.

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