A Review of the Literature: Distance Coaching in Early Childhood Settings

Coaching is becoming a common professional development support in early childhood settings. Effective distance coaching may provide more efficient or cost-effective methods of coaching and opportunities for practitioners unable to access in vivo coaching (e.g., rural programs). To determine the current evidence-base for distance coaching, a thorough search of the literature was conducted to identify experimental studies of coaching practitioners via distance methods. Twenty-seven studies were identified and coded for participant, intervention, and design variables. Results include information on how observations were conducted (e.g., video live and video recorded), how feedback was provided (e.g., video conferencing, email, and text), the characteristics of coaches and coaches participating in distance coaching, the rigor of studies included in the review, and the outcomes of distance coaching. Future directions for research on effective distance coaching are discussed.