This book is intended for early childhood education mentors, coaches and other professional development educators including higher education faculty, program administrators and teacher-leaders.

Teachers engaged in professional learning communities or peer coaches will also find the book supportive of their professional development goals.

Groups planning quality improvement efforts may use the book as a resource in leadership development and as a companion to other research based coaching protocols.

Effective ways to nurture teachers, guide them toward greater professional effectiveness, and bridge the gap between the vision for quality and actual practices.

Packed with helpful reflective questions, illustrative mentoring and coaching scenarios, and ready-to-implement planning tools, this book is the ideal resource for anyone responsible for guiding pre-service, emerging, or experienced teachers as they encounter real world challenges in today’s early childhood programs. Each chapter offers a variety of ways to put teachers on the path to achieving greater professional effectiveness using responsive, relationship-based approaches. The focus is on encouraging reflection on current practices in order to achieve quality programs, meet teaching standards, and promote positive outcomes for children in these times of rising standards and, in many cases, lower levels of support.

Here readers learn to facilitate professional development by focusing on observed strengths through mentoring and coaching relationships that allow for safe conversations about what is happening, how it is affecting children, and how to investigate and try out needed changes. Included are ideas for supporting playful, inquiry-based learning and fostering the ability to explain and document why it is effective, using a process of mentoring for inquiry, reflection, and leadership.