Coaching from the teacher's agenda

Today I’ve been watching the recording of another keynote from last month’s AAICIS virtual conference. I decided to watch Steve Barkley discussing coaching from the teacher’s agenda. Steve started by stating that the ability to identify the thinking process of the people you are working with is crucial. The purpose of coaching is increased student learning and success, and this requires a change in student learning behaviours. Therefore teachers have to adjust their practices to intentionally produce the student behaviours that lead to increased learning.

However all too often coaches work from their own priorities, or those of the school admin. In this situation coaches may gain compliance, but this often does not lead to sustained change. Therefore it’s important to have coaching conversations that allow the teacher’s own agenda to develop, and to create trust so that the teacher feels able to take professional risks to bring about change.

Steve spoke about how he uses a backward planning process, starting with the learning outcomes, standards and goals and then having the teacher identify what the student will do to make the learning happen. Only after this can the conversation switch to what the teacher is going to do to produce the student behaviours that will enable the students reach the learning outcomes.

Steve also spoke about how in order to get continuous teacher growth you need conversation plus reflection plus conscious practice. The role of the coach is to generate the reflection, either through being a thinking partner or perhaps by bringing in extra information or data that the teacher does not have. Ultimately it is the teacher’s decision to do something. This sets up the coaching cycle which is made up of a pre-observation conversation, followed by an observation, and then a post observation which turns into the next pre-observation conference. Steve pointed out that the most important part of the cycle is the pre-conference. A good pre-conference leads to the rest of the process flowing. The pre-conference will likely change the teacher’s lesson because of the reflection the teacher has already done, so that the teacher is now more focused on something during the lesson. It is this focus that is important.

So basically the coaching conversation identifies the teacher’s agenda, and then establishes a focus for the lesson. During the pre-observation the coach is seeking to understand the teacher’s thinking, or as Steve said to “observe through the teacher’s eyes first, rather than through the coach’s eye”. At this point, if the teacher brings up a concern, it’s best to avoid getting into solution-making suggestions - just work on understanding the problem.

It is this focus that separates coaching from evaluation. During the observation the coach will actually disregards the majority of what is going on in the lesson in order to zero in on the piece identified by the teacher.

Steve left us with the thought that coaches need to care about the people they are working with being successful. They should not get hung up on their own plan as a coach or they think the teacher should be doing. Always remember it’s the teacher’s agenda that is important.

Image by poli_ from Pixabay