TRACKs erasmus+project

From Blurred to Sharp (free downloadable) is an inspiration guide on video coaching as a powerful tool for professionalisation. It is the final product of the European TRACKs project (TRAnsitions Children and Kindergarten) that ran from 2017 to 2020. The project focused on an important target group in young children's development: the so-called ECEC professionals, being the child supervisors in day-care centres and out-of-school care and preschool teachers, with their coordinators, middle management colleagues and principals.

These professionals work in institutions and schools on what can hardly be underestimated: making an essential contribution to children's cognitive, social and emotional growth. Research has already extensively shown that for children between 0 and 6 years, 'early childhood education and care' (ECEC) is crucial for their further school career and lifelong learning.

This is precisely why the partners in TRACKs (SDL - UGent and Arteveldehogeschool, together with colleagues from Poland and Italy) wanted to support these professionals. After all, they are key actors to pave the way for social inclusion, to create equal educational opportunities.

DIY booklet

This booklet brings a lively report of our experiences, with many tips, do's and don'ts, viewing frameworks, testimonies and experiences of the Ghent professionals who participated ... It is a handy DIY booklet to get started yourself, as a professional or (team) supervisor/coach. The many practices in this booklet show that video coaching can make 'the implicit explicit', that the unconscious mechanisms of daily practice (the 'hazy' in the title) become more visible, lead to 'aha-erlebnissen' (the 'sharp').

This innovative and dynamic learning method can boost the mindset, skills and reflective culture of professionals and their teams - and, by extension, of every professional involved with children, young people or learners. At the same time, teacher training programmes can also use video coaching, so that future teachers also appreciate its strengths.

"Three minutes of film immediately gave a lot of insight into a child's behaviour, there was so much to see on such a short clip," says the teacher.

"A culture of reflection is needed within the team. Reflecting together is very valuable and powerful."

"Seeing footage allowed me to nuance my image about that toddler more. I thought he was never involved but on footage I could see that he does come to watch and participate at times."