Really listening to the many languages of childhood

After having Anne van Dam present in our IBSCA PYP Community Meeting recently I've been reading further in her book Finding Our Way.  Here are some interesting ideas I'm taking away from Chapter 2 (all taken directly).

• Vitality radiates through the way children move, think, feel and connect with the world.  And it is educators' great responsibility to align themselves with this vitality - shaping classroom spaces, routines and pedagogy in ways that not only honour children's ways of being but also actively protect and nourish the conditions that allow their vitality to thrive.  
• Educators' enthusiastic embrace of children's vitality can be crimped by social, cultural and community expectations about how children ought to behave and diminished by pressures to make sure that children are meeting outcomes as measured by standardised or formal assessments.  This leaves teachers focused on instruction instead of creating curriculum that grows from and with children's own curious, zesty pursuits.
• The way teachers speak about children both reflects and actively shapes their image of the child.  Language does more than communicate: it constructs reality.  It influences how educators perceive, interpret and engage with the world, shaping what they pay attention to, prioritise, and respond to in their practice.  The language teachers use to describe children's behaviour, participation and capabilities pays a powerful role in shaping their internal frameworks for teaching, building relationships and supporting the development of knowledge, understanding, skills and dispositions.
• Culture plays a significant role in shaping what is spoken, how it is spoken, and what is left unsaid.  Words shape how teachers see themselves, their roles and their relationships with children and families - and how educators relate to and affect one another.  Over time these interactions begin to shape collective practice, culture and norms of the team.
• When teachers embrace children's vitality with abundance and enthusiasm, they create environments that foster relationships and collaboration.  This in turn gives definition to the way they design the daily flow of the classroom to create space for movement, exploration and deep engagement.
• Recognising children's competence invites teachers to place listening at the heart of their practice because listening is how this recognition takes root and grows.  Deep, sustained, and open listening enables educators to notice the many languages children use to express their thinking: spoken words, gestures, silences, drawings, constructions, movements and more.
• A teacher who embraces this view doesn't rush children through tasks but instead pauses with them, listening carefully and inviting their ideas to lead the way.  The classroom becomes a living space filled with materials that spark investigation, conversations that deepen over time, and documentation that captures evolving ideas.  Planning shifts from delivering content to co-constructing meaning, and assessment becomes a reflection of children's engagement rather than a checklist of outcomes.
• Teachers invite children to shape how, what and why they are learning by offering them open-ended materials, creating time for children to be in dialogue with one another, and supporting children to make decisions about how to proceed with their explorations and investigations.  Rather than stepping in with answers, teachers offer materials and prompts intended to extend and add complexity to children's thinking, remaining responsive rather than directive.  Through this approach they trust children to set the direction for discovery and investigation, while walking beside them as co-protagonists in the learning process.
• Agency is not a gift that adults give to children: agency is children's birthright.  It is the adults' responsibility to recognise children's agency, respect it, and make space for it to flourish ... teachers honour children's agency by intentionally creating opportunities for them to participate in meaningful decisions, such as shaping daily routines, negotiating and problem solving, discussing ideas and deciding on project directions or offering their perspectives and feedback on classroom spaces, materials and experiences.
• In classrooms alive with children's agency, the environment hums with energy, dialogue and thoughtful engagement.  Children move freely through spaces designed for exploration.  They make informed choices, collaborate meaningfully, and participate fully.  Teachers facilitate this by building structures that support autonomy and by trusting children to shape the community alongside them.
• When we acknowledge that children live and learn within an environment of relationships we begin to see how deeply their connections with others shape every aspect of their development.  The vitality that arises in these relational moments has a profound influence on children's cognitive, emotional and social growth, directly impacting their sense of self-efficacy, well-being and belonging.  As children experience relationships that are positive, respectful and responsive, they internalise a strong sense of worth, self-efficacy, and agency - qualities that fuel their motivation to engage with the world with confidence, curiosity and purpose.

Image:  Free for use under the Pixabay Content License 

The third teacher: a mirror and a provocation

Today I have dipped into Chapter 7 of Finding out way:  Developing a shared pedagogy.  This chapter opens by describing how the environment shapes how children feel, engage and participate in the world, and as a result teachers need to see the environment as a "living presence that either reinforces or hinders every interaction, every relationship, every idea that emerges".  In schools, environments also communicate the pedagogical identity and values through the arrangement of space and materials provided.  The environment is the entire context in which children develop knowledge, understanding, skills and dispositions, so it is not just the physical setting but also the emotional, social, cultural and intellectual climate that shapes experiences.  Spaces refer more to physical areas such as studios, reading nooks, outdoor classrooms, meeting spaces and so on.  

We need to think about more than just what furniture and materials to provide, we also need to consider how to design spaces that encourage meaningful connections, curiosity and collaboration.  The spaces need to reflect the character of the community, and to affirm belonging and identity: "materials need to be chosen for their capacity to provoke curiosity, represent diverse identities, contribute to the creative experience in different ways and inspire meaningful exploration.  Design elements such as light, colour, mobility, access, visibility - are approached with purpose, reinforcing the values and pedagogical beliefs of the team ... these choices send powerful messages about who belongs, whose voices are valued, which ideas matter and what is possible within the space .... when embraced with care and curiosity the environment becomes an active co-teacher, capable of inspiring wonder, fostering collaboration, and nurturing the evolving identity of the learning community".

In most early years classrooms I've been in I've noticed different classroom zones, often with bought materials, toys and posters, and the day is also often carved into segments where children move around from one activity to another in rotational groups.  Fiona and Anne write that this "compartmentalisation of space and time can constrain children's innate inclination to move fluidly between ideas, materials, and modes of expression, reducing the programme to a series of activities to be experienced.  In these classrooms, the children are often doing the same thing, at the same time, with the same equipment, in experiences that are designed to be measured by the same assessment tasks.  In these settings, teachers are expected to deliver pre-planned lessons, often from commercial programmes, that limit their ability to respond to children's thinking and diminish opportunities for inquiry-driven experiences rooted in children's evolving ideas".  As they point out, classrooms may be filled with natural materials and flexible furniture, yet these choices may simply be decorative rather than transformative.

Designing and organising spaces

Fiona and Anne describe how spaces can be organised to support autonomy, interaction, curiosity and communication.  This involves a move away from "surface-level spatial organisation and visually pleasing arrangements towards a more purposeful inquiry into how space can amplify the purpose of education: to sustain children's natural curiosity, sense of belonging, and capacity for complex thinking".  And getting back to the title of this blog post, they also write that environments also shape educators, so that the environment is both a mirror and a provocation, reflecting pedagogical beliefs while at the same time inviting new ways of seeing and being, provoking educators to question established routines, reimagine the flow of the day, or to experiment with new groupings or materials.

All design decisions about how to arrange furniture, which materials to use and so on send messages about what is valued, who the space belongs to, and how learning happens. The design of a space should be continually reshaped by what educators value, notice and prioritise.  Educators need to be intentional about how materials are arranged, how documentation is displayed, and how furniture supports or constrains relationships and inquiry.  For example when a teacher's desk or chair is right at the front of the room, or a whiteboard directs all children's attention towards a single space, or if tables and chairs are clustered to face the front, or if a large carpet is a placed where children are expected to site facing the teacher, or where materials are away out of sight in cupboards, messages are sent about who has the power and how students are expected to be passive recipients of knowledge rather than active participants in co-constructing learning.  A team that values children's agency creates environments with multiple focus points, flexible seating arrangements and open-ended materials accessible throughout the space.

The role of the leader

Once again, the leader's role is to ensure the team has ample time and professional learning to ensure that spaces are intentionally designed to reflect their pedagogical values, reflecting an ongoing commitment to inclusivity, responsiveness and the cultivation of rich, inquiry-based learning.  Leaders can make time for this in team meetings, in day-to-day interactions and in their presence within the different spaces of the school.  They can also invite their team members to walk through classrooms and shared spaces together to observe and discuss how the environment is supporting or limiting relationships, exploration and participation.

Image credit:  https://pixabay.com/photos/girls-nature-happiness-kids-happy-6174061/

Time: a race against the clock and the calendar?

Teachers in almost every school I've visited and worked at have told me that time is a challenge (specifically a lack of it) so I was keen to dip into Chapter 6 of Finding our way today.  Teachers are often under pressure to "cover" content, collect assessment data, keep with with the school's calendar of events and deadlines, write reports and so on, while at the same time trying to balance this with creating rich and meaningful learning experiences for their students.  It's not surprising that teachers are often feeling overwhelmed!

Fiona and Anne ask us to shift our view of time from "something to control, to something to inhabit with children".  They write that "reframing time is a deliberate choice - an act of professional agency through which teachers (re)claim their integrity".  In some schools the requirements are such that the whole year's curriculum is carved up into weeks, lessons and minutes, each of which has its own specific objectives that must be met and measured.  In these schools, the work of teaching and learning is dictated by external pressures rather than the capacities, interests and inquiries of the children, and deep exploration, curiosity and meaningful reflection can become marginalised.  All too often, time for work, play, eating and resting is something that emphasises efficiency, and when I often go into classrooms where there is a rigid schedule teaching is seen as something that has to be "done" within set times with little room for flexibility for curiosity, inquiry or agency in the learning process.

Aligning time with pedagogical values

Anne and Fiona write that teams that value inquiry and reflection "must intentionally structure time and space to allow children to explore questions without pressure, enabling children's sustained attention, revisiting of ideas, and deepening understandings ... the way a team sees the influence of time shapes everything they do".  Teachers need to slow down to engage more fully with children and their unfolding thoughts and feelings - they need to notice more, listen more deeply and engage more meaningfully. Teachers who feel rushed to get through the expectations of the day may well feel disconnected from the purpose of their work.  

Relationships, connection, meaning-making and community

Time is never neutral - it either constrains or enables the depth and quality of relationships.  Children's relationships with each other need time, and they also need time to return again to questions, thoughts, emotions and understandings.  Fiona and Anne write that if a teacher is constantly preoccupied with what comes next, then they often miss subtle cues that signal a child's readiness to connect and engage, whereas "when time is not urgent educators can dwell more fully in the moment with children, listen deeply to their play, pause for reflection about their thinking, respond to ideas with curiosity, and follow the path of inquiry".  They write about moving away from fixed routines, and focusing more on the rhythms of variation and responsiveness.  Routines can create predictable, yet flexible, patterns which offer structure and security for children, helping them to understand what to expect, and as a scaffold for inquiry, and they can also support inquiry through embedding habits of reflection and communication which build a culture of listening and noticing.  However fragmented schedules with frequent transitions "disrupt the natural rhythms of play and inquiry, limiting opportunities for sustained thinking and problem solving".  They write that "when their days are no longer predetermined by rigid schedules created by teachers and focused on output, attainment, and regurgitation of the "learned curriculum", it becomes easier for children to dig deeply into the ideas and concepts that matter most to them.  

Leadership and time

 Leaders need to take time to examine whether the daily schedules really reflect their values and to engage with their teams to explore whether these daily routines express their values or contradict them, how some habitual practices might be limiting or expanding children's agency and engagement, and also how the use of time might be fostering or hindering relationships with children, families and each other.  Leaders often take decisions about time, which shapes both the daily schedule and also the entire culture, so it is the leader's responsibility to protect time not only for children's inquiry, but also for educators' reflection and collaborative dialogue.  Leaders need to resist over-scheduling and fragmentation, and so open up the possibility for more meaningful relationships between children, between children and adults, and between adults to unfold throughout the day.  When teachers are given time and space to observe, reflect and dialogue they develop a deeper sensitivity to children's thinking and learning and they become more attuned to the unfolding curriculum that emerges through shared inquiry.  It is through removing roadblocks and standing alongside their teams that leaders make visible their deep trust in the capacity of teachers and children to co-construct the curriculum from "the dynamic interplay of children's ideas, theories, and questions, and teachers' thoughtful responses, provocations, and proposals".

Evidencing and documenting learning

This also takes time!  When teachers are given time to reflect and discuss, this shifts the task away from compliance-driven documentation towards a practice grounded in curiosity, interpretation and relational knowledge-building.  I once worked in a school where TAs played a role in documenting various milestones on a daily basis - the pressure was so intense that I heard some of them asking children to "do it again" so that they could video progress towards a particular learning standard to upload into an online platform at the end of each day.  Thankfully we moved away from this, but this does highlight the importance of teachers moving away from documentation as an end point, and helping them to understand it more as a process that drives pedagogy forward.

Image by Roberto Justo Kabana from Pixabay

Colleagial conversations

Last year I led the IB workshop Leading and Managing Teams.  In this workshop we explored professional inquiry and team learning, and considered how sustaining and growing teams requires leadership that takes account of the needs of the learning community.  We also learnt about how a dialogic team engages in discussion about pedagogy within and outside their own school.  I kept these ideas in mind as I read through Chapter 1 of Anne and Fiona's book Finding our way: Developing a shared pedagogy.  This chapter is all about discovering the power of true collaboration and how leadership "emerges between people, not above them".  Over and over the message that strong teams depend on shared values, trust, respect and mutual accountability is central to this chapter.  The role of the leader is to bring focus to this team, and to cultivate curiosity and deep listening that will ultimately result in a shared pedagogical vision:  the purpose, values and principles that guide the teaching and learning within a school community.  This vision is the team's commitment to how they see children, their beliefs about the role of educators and the education they will create together through a collective responsibility for children's learning and well-being.

The importance of dialogue

Anyone who has done a workshop with me will know that I often talk about the difference between discussion and true dialogue.  Anne and Fiona point out that dialogue welcomes the diversity of perspectives as team members listen and learn from each other.  This means that collaboration doesn't happen by chance but instead emerges from a deliberate and sustained effort to cultivate trust, to nurture relationships and to foster a shared sense of purpose.  It is the role of the leader to create the space for this dialogue which honours the individual and at the same time guides the team towards a deeper connection, a collective vision and a "shared responsibility for children's flourishing".  It is not the role of a leader to come up with a predetermined path with little space for teachers to think critically - otherwise teachers will just be passive implementers, will lack ownership and motivation and may feel a disconnection with the purpose of their work.  The goal of leadership is to "foster a culture of exploration in which educators navigate uncertainty with confidence, curiosity, and trust in one another".

Collaboration - the heart of leadership

It's quite a shift for a leader to decide to lead through collaboration rather than through control.  A courageous leader recognises that rich and lasting changes don't emerge from compliance, but instead from dialogue, inquiry and shared purpose.  It requires leaders to make space for uncertainty, difference and co-construction, a space where difficult questions can be raised, diverse experiences honoured and new understandings can emerge.  In this approach the leader is the "curator for collective thinking" who creates the conditions for dialogue and reflective practice.  In this context, educators feel hopeful, empowered to take risks and confident in sharing their insights.  Chapter 1 therefore lists a number of leadership roles:

• Fostering a culture of collaboration through regular team meetings where joint decisions are made about curriculum
• Developing a system of support and ensuring schedules, funding and infrastructure align with the team's pedagogical goals, including time for collaboration and investing in professional learning
• Clarifying vision and values, defining shared beliefs and using these as a reference point in decision-making
• Honouring perspectives and leveraging individual strengths
• Encouraging reflective practices
• Facilitating thoughtful dialogue by ensuring many perspectives are explored and common understandings are developed
• Modelling inquiry and curiosity, for example through the use of open-ended questions
• Creating space for experimentation where teachers can try new approaches, take risks and learn from both successes and challeges
• Ensuring alignment between children's rights and responsibilities, for example including children in classroom agreements
• Supporting documentation and storytelling about the children's learning process
• Building partnerships with families and communities
• Providing ongoing professional learning opportunities, which can include reading, conferences, visits and workshops.

How do leaders build a shared purpose?

Finding our way includes a number of different tools in each chapter that leaders can use with their teachers.  One of the first ones in building a shared purpose is to discuss values.  In almost every IB workshop I lead, I start the first session asking questions about values, as these are important to the learning that will take place.  We need to ask the why questions, not just discuss what and how we teach.  Therefore it's important for educators to consider what they care about and how these values are visible within their classrooms.  A good leader will have teachers explore their own experiences, passions, values, skills and talents and then will bring these together to see how each person's strengths contribute to the group's identify and capabilities.  Through listening to the voices of others on the team, teachers are given the opportunity to construct new knowledge and understandings about themselves.  Ultimately this can help them develop a sense of collective identity and belonging.  

The importance of inquiry in challenging assumptions and practices

In PYP schools we often talk about student inquiry, but it's also important that teachers are inquirers as well.  Just like the children, teachers need to ask questions, explore diverse viewpoints, challenge assumptions and construct new knowledge together.  Listening to others in the learning community also ensures that pedagogical practices reflect the identities, needs and stories of the community.

One important role of a leader in building a shared understanding is to ask teachers to examine their habitual practices such as classroom routines, and whether these reflect their values.  A good example of this that I've seen in several schools is deciding to do away with a reward system such as stickers and certificates for Learner profile attributes, as teachers decide to move away from extrinsic motivators towards more intrinsic motivation and responsibility.  Beliefs and values are made visible through the teachers' actions.  Decisions about "how space is used, how materials are chosen and how relationships are nurtured are often shaped by assumptions about how children grow, engage and make sense of the world.  Surfacing these beliefs provides a powerful stimulus for meaningful dialogue and insight, enabling teams to chart a more intentional and coherent path forward".

How teams construct pedagogy

We considered how teachers co-construct knowledge with children, in the same way pedagogical leaders need to mirror these pedagogical values and engage with teachers to foster a culture of ongoing learning where they build new understandings together.   Professional growth emerges through professional learning, dialogic inquiry, relationships and shared experiences.  And at times this can be uncomfortable!  For example when teachers believe in co-planning the curriculum with their students, this shifts teachers away from being the holders of knowledge and the deliverers of the curriculum.  Our roles and professional identities has changed to being thinkers, researchers and collaborators.

In IB schools we always talk about what we do as being values-driven.  Our experiences in these school and practices in our classrooms shape these values and what our community believes about children, learning and the role of education.  However in many schools that I visit there is also another agenda - one that is linked with standardised testing - which may get in the way of our own agency and autonomy.  In particular, in schools driven by a national curriculum, it is often politics that dictate what, when and how we should teach, and at times this may go against our own professional judgement and knowledge of child development.  School inspectors often prioritise knowledge and skills - which can be measured, and place little value on creativity, curiosity, social-emotional development and so on.  And the impact on teachers is bigger workloads, more documentation and accountability, and poorer teacher well-being as there is a lack of trust in their expertise.

One call in Finding our way is for time - time for children to wonder, express themselves, connect with others and to grow their own identity.  Later in the book there is a whole chapter about time (which might be the next one I read).  Sadly in almost every school I visit, time is always in short supply.  

Each chapter in Finding our way ends with lenses for leaders and talking points for teams.  It also contains a toolkit that leaders can use as part of their continuing professional development of teachers - in this chapter the focus being on building teams.  Here there are seven different tools:

• From me to we
• Reflections and stories that define us
• Seeking clarity - responding to ideas
• Mapping shifting perspectives over time
• Examining taking-for-granted practices
• Connecting beliefs to practices
• Values, actions, barriers and supports

More thoughts coming once I have read another chapter.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

A rising tide lifts all boats

So two things are happening this month.  Firstly I'm leading an IB workshop for school leaders where we are going to explore the roles of the designer, steward and teacher of a learning organization.  We will be thinking about team learning and about building a shared vision.  Secondly I have just received the book Finding our way: Developing a shared pedagogy by Fiona Zinn and Anne van Dam.  The book has only been launched a few days ago, and my copy arrived today.  What I want to do over the next few posts is to weave together my ideas for my IB workshop with the wisdom contained in this book, and to consider the role of a leader in bringing a team together to build a shared purpose.

There are seven huge chapters in this book, and to be honest each of them deserves a post of its own.  For now I'm going to highlight some of the ideas that jumped out at me from the introduction.  Having worked with Anne in Switzerland, I can almost hear her voice as I read about the importance of educators bringing their "rich tapestry of cultural backgrounds, professional perspectives and lived experiences" together with their beliefs about education and learning.  The challenge for a school leader is to bring these diverse perspectives together, through dialogue and collaboration, in order to co-construct a shared pedagogy.  Leaders need to be courageous, to have conversations that acknowledge differences but still seek common ground.  They need to encourage teachers to listen, reflect and inquire, and to ensure that all voices are valued.

Anne and Fiona write that a shared pedagogy emerges over time.  The role of the leader is to "create spaces in which ideas can collide, evolve, and merge into something greater than the sum of their individual parts".  They also explain that "when schools commit to this process, they create an environment in which leaders and educators move beyond working side by side to engaging in dynamic, collaborative harmony."  This ensures that the purpose of education is "collectively owned, actively enacted, and deeply lived each day".

In the IB workshop we discuss the role of the school leader as a designer, steward and teacher.  We think about questions such as what a leader does to develop a vision that is both individual and shared, and how we listen to other people's vision.  We also ask how a leader keeps the learning community's sights on the big picture - the purpose of the school.  In Finding our way, the introduction also discusses how the leader sets a thoughtful starting point and how this needs to be anchored in values such as inclusion, participation, agency or sustainability and how from this starting point the team engages in a shared journey.  Along the way there will be tension between individuals (their perspectives, experiences and approaches) but the leader is responsible for designing "a process that makes room for teachers to express their conflicting understandings and to hear others' ideas, so that they can, together, find a way forward".  I love the expression used here footsteps forge the path, so that the team moves forward together to bring about intentional change.  The team needs to listen, to cultivate a curious mindset, and to reflect on the ideas, theories and values that influence the work of teaching and learning.  Leaders need to cultivate a climate of trust where teachers can discuss the outcomes they want for their children as well as the pedagogy that will help them achieve these outcomes.  To support these conversations, where teachers may feel vulnerable, leaders need to ensure that everyone understands that the strengths of the team come from the gifts and perspectives of the individuals.  

We are all on a journey and we are reminded that "the commitment to a shared pedagogy is not about arriving at a final point but about moving forward with curiosity, purpose and a willingness to reorient when new insights emerge ... the journey itself is what shapes us all, connecting us to one another and to the endless potential of what education can be".

Image by Christelle PRIEUR from Pixabay

Instructional Coaching Research

Today I have moved on to watch the Keynote by Jim Knight about what he has learned from three decades of research into instructional coaching. Jim went through his own story and how he started in special education with a coach who introduced him to strategies that made an enormous difference to students’ lives. He described how students went from learned helplessness to learned optimism, and this inspired him to share ideas and to explore how to share in a way that really works. Jim also explained how we worked with Michael Fullan at the University of Kansas and how this got him thinking about what change would look like.

He explained that initially he saw a coach as a translator, someone who would translate the research into classroom practice.  He said this was a very ambitious goal aimed at students flourishing in every class, everywhere.  His initial thinking has changed and this is what he has learned through 30 years of research into instructional coaching:

• Coaching is a partnership - initially Jim wanted teachers to follow quite a prescribed, directive approach, but saw this was not effective.  He also spoke about how facilitative coaching, such as cognitive coaching, was based on the research about what made the most impact. With this approach, the coach rarely shares his/her own ideas and believes that the teacher already has knowledge that needs to be drawn out. However he later moved to more of a partnership approach - and noticed that it was much more likely that people would implement coaching. A partnership approach is more equal with people sharing ideas. It’s a dialogical approach where both parties are equal, you share ideas as a coach but honour the fact that the teacher can also think for themselves. You give up the idea that you have the “right” answer as a coach. He also spoke about how at times coaches and leaders do need a directive approach, but only when something absolutely has to change. With this approach you will get compliance, but if people don’t see the value of what they are asked to do, the likelihood they will implement it is low. Ultimately the message is that we need to treat teachers like professionals.
• Start with kids - the original idea of coaching was that research would inform a consultant who would then share it with a teacher, who would implement it and the students would perform better.  He noticed that it was not sustainable to start with the research without involving the teacher in the process. You have to start with students asking what is the change you want to see, then the coach and teacher get together and consider what research can support this change. The teacher is then focused on something that really matters to them. You have to start with a student focused goal before thinking about the strategy.
• Use an adaptive coaching model - we need a coaching cycle which a process for change. We need to think where we are, where we want students to go, and how to get there. We have to measure whether we are meeting the goal, and if not we need to modify the strategy until you reach the goal.
• Get a clearer picture of reality - video is very valuable and also motivating if you want to bring about change.
• Set PEERS goals - Jim started with SMART goals but there were problems with these (mostly teacher buy-in) - so he now uses a new model PEERS (Powerful, Easy, Emotionally compelling, Reachable, Student-focused).
• Create an instructional playbook - this is a document that is a simple clear explanation of the strategy. It includes a one pager with a description of the strategy, the purpose of the strategy and what teachers and students are doing.  It includes checklists to help the teachers implement these strategies effectively. He explained that the playbook is a living document - always being updated, and that teachers should make adaptations until the goal is met.

Image by poli_ from Pixabay

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