Handout 22: What is Coaching?
Coaching is creating change in a teacher’s attitudes, beliefs, and actions.
Change, after all, is only another word for growth, another synonym for learning.
We can all do it, and enjoy it, if we want to. All we have to do is change our attitudes,
our habits, and the ways of some of our institutions.
-
Charles
Handy
Coaching is the new buzz word for professional development in education and has
become a popular model for professional development in schools (Poglinco & Bach,
2004). Wood and McQuarrie (1999) describe effective coaching as one of the most
promising new approaches to professional development in education; however,
coaching is not a new concept. Students and adults have been coached for years.
Coaching is a conversation in which the coach provides the coachee with specific
feedback on his or her performance in order to change or improve the performance
and/or maintain the effectiveness of the performance. According to Costa and
Garmston (2002)… “Skillful cognitive coaches apply specific strategies to enhance
another person’s perceptions, decisions, and intellectual functions. Changing these
inner thought processes is prerequisite to improving overt behaviors that, in turn,
enhance student learning.”
In Hargrove’s book (1995), Mastery Coaching Extraordinary Results by Impacting
People and the Way They Think and Work Together, he describes coaching as
following:
A coach is someone who (1) sees what others may not see through the high quality
of his or her attention or listening (2) is in the position to step back (or invite
participants to step back) from the situation so that they have enough distance from
it to get some perspective, (3) helps people see the difference between their
intentions and their thinking and/or actions, and (4) helps people cut through
patterns of illusion and self-deception caused by defensive thinking and behavior.
Masterful coaches inspire people by helping them recognize the previously unseen
possibilities that lay embedded in their existing circumstances.
Feedback is essential for learning at the individual, group, or organizational level. It
is feedback that can help people see the discrepancy between what they think they
are doing and what they are actually doing. It is feedback that can interrupt the
defensive reasoning or routines that happen with individuals and groups. It is
feedback that allows people to recognize and eliminate error and thus allows
learning to occur. It can show people where new skills and capabilities need to be
developed and lead to insights into ways to improve work processes.
In education, coaching sometimes is viewed as a new concept, because the only
feedback teachers receive on their ability to teach comes in the form of an evaluation
rather than as a means to learn how to improve the quality of classroom instruction.
Hasbrook and Denton (2005) point out that coaching in education is essential because it
is an effective and efficient way to strengthen classroom instruction and provide
teachers with the necessary knowledge to improve the quality of instruction. Flaherty
(1999) says coaching is a process that allows for teachers to change, become more
competent, and to increase excellence in instruction. In addition, the research of Joyce
et al. (1989) indicates when schools incorporate coaching as a major part of their
professional development program, student achievement increases.
The goals of coaching in education are to help teachers learn how to provide high
quality instruction and increase student learning and achievement. Speck (1996)
states. “[Adults] need to receive feedback on how they are doing and the results of their
efforts. Opportunities must be built into professional development activities that allow
the learner to practice the learning and receive structured, helpful feedback.” One of
the best ways to provide specific feedback to teachers is through a verbal interchange
facilitated by a coach or administrator. When done effectively, teachers learn how to
change or improve their ability to teach and/or maintain the effectiveness of their
instruction and when teaching is effective, there is more student learning and
achievement.
from Coach for Success, presented by WestEd February 4-5, 2008
Handout 23: Directive Coaching Conference
Step 1: Teacher Candidate Perspective
By asking Teacher Candidate to review the lesson, mentor stimulates self-reflection and sees
lesson from the Teacher Candidate’s point-of-view.
Reinforcement: Mentor sets Ex: What did you say or do in this lesson that had a positive effect on
positive tone by asking
student learning?
Teacher Candidate to reflect
on an area of strength.
Refinement: Mentor asks
Teacher Candidate to reflect
on an area for improvement.
Ex: If you were to do this lesson again, what would you do
differently?
Step 2: Mentor Perspective
Mentor reinforces an area of strength and provides explicit instruction to improve an area of
refinement.
Reinforcement: Mentor
Ex: (identify example) During this lesson you posed a question and
identifies one area of
asked students to tell their partner what they thought the answer
strength, labels/defines this
was. (label) This strategy is called student-student interaction.
technique, and explains the
(explain the benefit) It is effective because all of your students had
an opportunity to respond to your question instead of just one. It
impact on student learning.
required all students to think about and articulate their own answer
before you called on a few individuals to share with the class. It also
gave you an opportunity to listen in and assess the understanding of
several students.
Refinement: Mentor will then
identify an area of
refinement, explicitly teach a
technique detailing how,
why, and when it can be
used.
Ex: (identify example) You mentioned many of your students
seemed to be tuning you out and you felt like they weren’t paying
attention. (label) A strategy that helps engage students is called
“group alert.” (how) Instead of calling a student’s name and then
asking a question, you ask the question first, provide wait time, and
then randomly select a student. (why) When you call on the student
first, many of the other students will “tune out” because they don’t
think they will need to answer. They are not accountable for
responding and therefore disengage. (when) You can use this
during whole group lessons whenever you pose a question that you
expect all students to be thinking about.
Step 3: Mental Rehearsal
Teacher candidates need an opportunity to review the new concept. Mentor provides both oral and
written support.
Oral review: Mentor prompts Ex: How could you use this skill in tomorrow’s lesson?
Teacher Candidate to apply
new learning.
Written support: Mentor jots
Ex: So what I heard you say was (reading from notes), you will use
down Teacher Candidate
ideas about how to
implement new learning.
the process of question, wait, select random student using popsicle
sticks during your math lesson tomorrow. And you want me to tap
my shoulder as a signal to you if you forget.
Handout 24: Question Stems to Support Reflection
Pre-observation Conference
Questions to ask when reviewing a lesson plan with Teacher Candidates BEFORE they
teach it.
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I read in your lesson plan… can you explain…?
Your objective is… how will you assess…?
What materials will you be using?
What activity will students be participating in at this point of the lesson?
How will you know if they can/have/are…?
What do you want me to listen/look for?
How do you plan to…?
Last week we identified your area of refinement as… how do you plan…?
Post-observation Conference
Questions to ask when debriefing a lesson with Teacher Candidates AFTER they teach
it.
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I heard you… students then…
I noted… tell me more about…
Why do you think ___ happened?
Explain how you/your students…
Why is that important?
Can you expand on that?
Students were…
Why?
Did students meet the learning objective? How do you know?
What specific actions on your part led to those outcomes?
How do you determine when to use…?
How can you incorporate what you learned today into tomorrow’s lesson?
Questions aligned to “Instructional Plans”
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Why is aligning the objectives to the standards important?
Which standards seem the most difficult for students to master? Why do you think
students are having difficulty mastering those in particular?
Which sub-objectives need to be taught for students to master a standard?
Was there a connection between the students’ mastery of the learning objective and
the lesson plan?
How did you decide to choose the activities, materials, and assessments included in
this lesson plan?
How did you plan to accommodate students’ individual interests and needs?
Questions aligned to “Standards and Objectives”
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How do you decide on the standards/objectives you will teach?
How do you identify the sub-objectives for a lesson?
How do you decide on the method you will use to communicate the
standards/objectives to students?
How do you utilize a visual of the standards/objectives during a lesson?
How do you communicate your expectations to students?
How will you obtain evidence that most students have demonstrated mastery of the
objective?
Questions aligned to “Presenting Instructional Content”
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How do you decide on the types of visuals you will use during a lesson?
Why is it important for the teacher to model his/her expectations?
How do you plan for effective modeling during a lesson?
How do students clearly know your expectations for their assignments and for what
they are to learn?
When planning a lesson, how do you decide on the sequencing of the instruction
within the lesson?
When planning a lesson, how do you decide on the manner in which the different
elements of the lesson will be segmented?
How do you maintain focus on the learning objective during a lesson?
Questions aligned to “Activities and Materials”
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How do you decide on the types of materials you will use for a lesson?
How do you decide on the types of activities you will use for a lesson?
How do you develop activities that are aligned to the learning objective?
Questions aligned to “Academic Feedback”
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How do you decide on the type of feedback you provide to students?
How do you use student feedback to make adjustments in your instruction?
How do you engage students in providing quality feedback to one another?
Questions aligned to “Teacher Content Knowledge”
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How do you prepare yourself to teach (insert the specific topic taught)?
How do you develop or select instructional strategies to teach (insert the specific
topic being taught)?
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How do you decide on the ways in which you will connect the content being taught to
more powerful ideas?
What are some other ideas to which you could have connected during the lesson?
Questions aligned to “Teacher Knowledge of Students”
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How do you identify the learning styles of your students and incorporate these into
your lessons?
How do you identify the interests of your students and incorporate these into your
lessons?
How do you provide differentiated instructional methods within your lessons?
Questions aligned to “Managing Student Behavior”
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How do you establish clear expectations for student behavior?
How do you maintain appropriate student behavior?
How do you respond to minor misbehaviors?
How do you address student behaviors that disrupt the learning environment?