Professional Learning through Coaching: toward the Enhancement of the Teachers’ Pedagogical Competence

Coaching is mainly purposed to build teacher capacity to enhance the success of learning and the quality of education in general. This paper is aimed at describing the coaching materials, methods, and the effectiveness of coaching in English Foreign Language (EFL) learning to strengthen the teachers’ pedagogical competence. Six Junior High School EFL teachers of Central Java, Indonesia (T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, and T6) attended three-month weekly coachee-centered coaching leading to the implementation of student-centered learning. Observation of the teaching-learning process, review of the lesson plan, and an interview with the EFL teachers through Focus Group Discussion were done before coaching was carried out to identify the coachees’ preliminary pedagogical competence and needs. The coaching materials encompassed using songs in EFL class, learning principles and activity-based learning, teaching methods, teaching vocabulary, teaching grammar, teaching the four language skills, assessing attitude, knowledge, and skill, and process skills. Coachee-centered coaching was implemented to present the materials through such methods as Demonstration, Scientific Approach, Lecturing and Discussion, Problem-Based Learning, Task-Based Learning, Inquiry Learning, Presentation-Practice-Production.