Mentoring 'inside' the action of teaching: induction coaches' perspectives and practices

To provide a shared vision of effective mentoring and language for practice, Schwille developed a temporal framework depicting mentoring practices referred to as 'inside' and 'outside' the action of teaching. 'Inside' mentoring occurs when teachers are working with students (e.g. co-teaching and demonstration teaching), whereas 'outside' mentoring occurs before or after instruction (e.g. co-planning and debriefing sessions). 'Inside/outside' practices are complementary, yet a majority of mentoring occurs 'outside' the action of teaching, suggesting an underutilized range of practices. This qualitative study examined the 'inside' practices of six experienced, full-release induction coaches in 10 high-need elementary schools in the United States. Results indicate that coaches employed 'inside' practices to provide concrete, in-context modeling. While coaches stated that 'inside' practices can accelerate new teachers' development and increase images of students' potential, they also stated they were reticent to implement 'inside' practices, particularly co-teaching and demonstration teaching. To this end, coaches described a complex decision-making process that goes into when, how, why and why not to implement 'inside' practices, that included issues of authority and credibility, as well as a range of context, content and relational factors. Recommendations are provided for induction and coaching programs to facilitate mentors' use of 'inside' practices.