With the growing trend of online music education, how can educational development be more personalized to meet the individual instructor's pedagogical and technological needs? Coaching provides a means to empower online music education instructors to guide their own learning through purposeful and intentional conversations. From a review of the literature, the purpose of this chapter is to examine how and why coaching can be used in fostering robust educational and professional development practices for online music education. Forms of coaching along with elements of a successful coaching program are shared in support of online music education. The chapter concludes with four recommendations to guide coaching practice in support of personalizing learning for instructors and directions for future research.
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Terms such as faculty development, educational development and professional development are often used in reference to developing the capacity and potential of instructors. Educational development refers to “all the work that is done systematically to help faculty members to do their best to foster student learning” (Knight & Wilcox, 1998, p. 98). According to Bédard, Clement, and Taylor (2010), educational development is “broader than faculty development, in that it encompassed instructional, curriculum, organizational, and some aspects of faculty development. In another sense, the term was narrower in that it focused on the teaching domain, as opposed to all aspects of academic career development” (p.177). Felten, Kalish, Pingree, and Plank (2007) argued it is “helping colleges and universities function effectively as teaching and learning communities” (p. 93). Educational development is a “key lever for ensuring institutional quality and supporting institutional change” (Sorcinelli, Austin, Eddy, & Beach, 2005, p. xi). It is about taking action that is “aimed at enhancing teaching” (Amundsen & Wilson, 2012, p. 90).