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Professional development (PD) is key in any specialized career. By participating in professional development opportunities, you are able to increase your knowledge about a topic, learn new ideas and implement new strategies to advance your line of work forward. PD also shows a level of commitment to and respect for your occupation. In the field of early care and learning, PD “requires knowledge of how children grow and develop, skills to communicate effectively with children and parents, and a great amount of dedication and love for the work” (NCICDP, 2001).

When working with one of our skilled Birth-to-Three Specialist (B-3S) coaches, Practice-Based Coaching (PBC) participants get the benefit of supportive and constructive feedback related to their teaching and administrative practices. This feedback has the potential to not only improve quality in the child care facility, but increase professionalism and a sense of wellbeing for staff, children and families through development of a warm and nurturing environment. An essential part of the feedback process is regular PBC participant observation to understand the impact of classroom change as it occurs. Many participants ask for the reasoning behind our diligent observation efforts. In this article, we unpack how these observations work logistically, what they are intended to do and why they are essential to helping our project enhance our coaching services.