Peer (Co) coaching- improving
classroom practice, changing school
culture
Rachael Edgar Sunday 25th August
“If you want one year of
prosperity, grow seeds. If
you want ten years of
prosperity, grow trees. If you
want one hundred years of
prosperity, grow people.”
Session aims
• Look at definitions of coaching and what
are the benefits to students/staff
• Explore the skills of being an effective
peer coach
• Learning to listen actively
• Practise being a coach/ being coached
• Effective Lesson observation feedback
“Coaching is essentially a conversationa learning conversation”
Different types of coaching
Mentoring is a
structured, sustained
process for
supporting
professional learners
through significant
career transitions
Specialist coaching
is a structured,
sustained process for
enabling the
development of a
specific aspect of a
professional learner’s
practice
Collaborative (Cocoaching) is a
structured, sustained
process between two
or more professional
learners to enable
them to embed new
knowledge and skills
Why use coaching?what are the
benefits?
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A way of reaching the potential of all staff
Improved learning for pupils
Increased motivation
Willingness to take risks
Deeper commitment to accessing
research and evidence regularly
• Opportunities for collaboration with peers
• Staff learning with and from one another
Choosing a celebrity coach!
Imagine you have to buddy up with one
person from this group of people- which
would you choose?why?
Victoria Beckham
Lenny Henry
Simon Cowell
Henry VIII
Wayne Rooney
Oprah Winfrey
Victoria Wood
Katie price
What makes a good co-coach?
• Relate sensitively to learners and work through agreed
processes to build trust and confidence
• Draw on specialist resources to inform learning
• Draw on evidence from research and practice to shape
development
• Understand the goals of the co-coach
• Observe, analyse and reflect upon each others practice
• Provide information that enables learning from mistakes
and success
• Learn reciprocally with commitment and integrity
• Use open questions to raise awareness, reveal beliefs
and enable professional learners to reflect upon them
• Listen actively- listening not telling!
• Set aside existing relationships based on experience,
hierarchy, power or friendship
Be honest with yourself..
which behaviours would you naturally tend to
exhibit in a coaching/classroom/leadership
situation
Coaching is not about:
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Giving the right answers or advice
Making judgements
Offering counselling
Creating dependency
Imposing agendas or initiatives
Learning to listen actively
Skills for active listening
• Listening actively involves:
– accommodating and valuing silence
– concentrating on what’s being said
– using affirming body language to signal
attention
– replaying what’s been said using the same
words to reinforce, value and develop thinking
iSTRIDE model
i- Information gathering- Determining the coachee’s
issues, goals, confidence levels and finding relevant evidence
S- Strengths- Paying attention to the coachee’e strengths
T- Target/goal setting- Identifying the target to be
achieved and exploring the motivation to achieve it
R- Resources/reality- Exploring the current situation in
relation to the target and identifying limiting beliefs
I- Ideas/strategies- Seeking ideas that might help achieve
the desired target and overcoming limiting beliefs
D- Decisions- Selecting the most appropriate option from the
ideas generated and rehearsing success
E- Evaluation- Evaluating the solution now (exploring a
commitment to agree decisions) and evaluating later (agreeing a time
to follow up on the actions taken arising from the decision)
Role Play Scenarios 1
Pair up with someone on your table, one of
you is the coach and the other the coachee.
Choose a scenario to role play, use the
‘active listening’ prompts to help you
structure the conversation
1. My lessons with my
year 9 boys are a
disaster! They won’t
behave or listen to my
instructions..
2. I can’t seem to
finish my lessons, I
always run out of
time..
4. My class are really
quiet,
3. There is such a
huge range of ability in
my classroom, how do
I meet the needs of all
the children I teach?
Observing your peers
• A stimulating, fascinating and rewarding
thing to do
• Prompts reflection on the teaching and
learning process
• Helps us to rethink the way we do things
• Focus more on ‘what did I see?’
“Sentence Stems” to help in feedback
conversations with another teacher
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How do you think your starter went?
What were three successful things about this lesson? What would you do differently if you were to teach this lesson again?
What your thoughts behind your group work activity?
Could you tell me more about….
I am not sure I understand (or that I saw…) can you tell me what you were expecting?
I noticed that ……(“this student did…”, “The learning outcome was…” The lessons steps included…..)
Tell me more about what was happening when…
When I observed_____, it made me think of/ wonder/ consider…
What did you want to see happen when…
We’ve been talking about _____ during professional development, how does this lesson support that work?
Was there anything that surprised you?
What will be your plan in the next week to……?
What do you think about…..?
What steps have you taken/ or will you take?
Did students have the opportunity to…
It might be helpful to…
Did you get the response that you wanted?
You asked the following questions….. How do they support higher order thinking skills?
Were students able to show their understanding of the outcome you stated for this lesson?
Can we talk about how you use student data in your lessons?
I would like to visit the class again and I hope to see….
If this lesson is part of a unit , what other activities or outcomes will be a part of the unit? How will students demonstrate their
understanding?
Role play scenarios 2
http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Teachers-TV-Esther-Arnott-Lesson-1-Uncut-6084395/
Watch the 15 minute clip of a History lesson.
In pairs role play a coaching conversation
where one peer feeds back to another.
Whilst watching the clip:
• Identify one or two most important areas
for growth
• Give feedback that is specific and use the
sentence stems to guide your
conversation
“You cannot teach a man (or woman)
anything. You can only help him/her
discover it within him(or her)self”
Galileo
“Begin with the end in mind”
Stephen R.Covey
(The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People)