The Coaching Toolkit
The Coaching Toolkit
The Coaching Toolkit
Contents
About the authors
vii
Acknowledgements
ix
Key to icons
List of electronic resource materials
How to use this book
x
xi
xii
What is coaching?
Why coaching?
14
Getting started
19
Specialist coaching
29
36
Group coaching
45
53
65
78
Measuring impact
86
10
100
Glossary
103
References
105
Index
107
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to many people for their contributions to this book and for their
support and inspiration.
We would like to thank Julia Vincent, Sue Bond, Julie Woodward, Ian Boundy,
Trevor Pask and colleagues at Bognor Regis Community College, West Sussex, who
embraced coaching wholeheartedly and who gave generously of their time to
reflect on their experiences. We thank John Morrison for his wise counsel and
unfailing belief in his staffs capacity to make a difference.
We are indebted to Jayne Wilson for her commitment and support for the development of coaching at Littlehampton Community School and to her staff who
have engaged with the coaching process.
Many thanks to Will Thomas for his clarity, theoretical framework and vision of
coaching, and for getting us started.
We would like to thank colleagues at Patcham High School, in particular Paula
Sargent for her invaluable suggestions about measuring the impact of coaching,
John McKee for his enthusiasm and passion for developing coaching in schools,
and Pete Korman for the many conversations that helped to clear the fog.
We are grateful to Bill Whiting, Vicky Whitlock, Austen Hindman, Kerrie Parsons and
the staff at Mayfield School, Portsmouth, whose determination and teamwork were
inspirational, and to Ian Cox for encouraging all of us to step outside our comfort zone.
Our thanks go to two colleagues in particular in the West Sussex Advisory Service
Lesley Smith for challenging assumptions and for being so clear about how to support
the work of coaches, and to Mark Wilson for his grounded approach to whole-staff
coaching training.
We are indebted to Katie Morgan for her useful case study, and Tracy Smith and the
rest of the teaching staff at Seven Kings High School for their inspirational work on
Assessment for Learning.
Our thanks must also go to all those coaches and coachees with whom we have
worked in schools and from whom we have learned.
Finally our thanks to Jude Bowen and Amy Jarrold for guiding us through the publication process.
ix
Key to icons
Chapter objectives
Case study
Summary
Further reading
xi
The challenge is finding the right way to do it in your school. What have other
schools done to establish coaching? What were the practicalities? What were the
problems? How did they overcome these problems?
Finding the answers to these questions, based on the real experiences of schools, is
not easy. Coaching as a staff development process in schools is relatively new.
Schools are still trying it out for themselves seeing what does and does not work.
We have been doing what we tend to do a great deal in education, and that is working in isolation trying to work through a problem that has probably been experienced and solved by an institution 20 miles up the road. This book provides a
means for sharing some of the good practice that schools have developed.
The strategies and resources in the book have all been developed and used by the
authors and their colleagues in schools in England. Shaun has worked with Mike in
his own school, Littlehampton Community School, to develop coaching with a
view to improving the quality of teaching and learning for three years. During this
period the school has seen a steady improvement in the examination outcomes of
its students. Mike has also worked with leaders in a number of other schools, many
of which have been in challenging circumstances requiring swift improvement
following an inspection. He has worked with these schools to develop coaching. All
of these schools, have made significant improvements and have been successful in
addressing the issues raised following their inspection. We have taken the opportunity to reflect on and celebrate their successes in this book.
As coaching develops in a school, some of the things we put into place will work well
and serve to move coaching and, as a result, teaching and learning on, whilst other
initiatives will not work so well and will be abandoned or further developed. What
does happen though is that coaching will evolve and develop a life of its own again,
like a virus!
What is clear, however, is that the skills of coaching are generic. They can be used
successfully with children and with adults in schools of all sizes, from small primary to large secondary, in urban and rural settings and in schools with a range of
strengths and weaknesses.
xiii
xiii
xiv
We hope that Chapter 3 will be especially useful to teachers who are relatively new
to coaching. Here we suggest:
ways of practising coaching skills before going live with coachees
how to establish the ground rules for coaching conversations
how to conduct coaching conversations
how to give feedback on an observed lesson in coaching mode.
Chapters 46 examine the use of coaching for different purposes and will be of
value to practising coaches and school leaders alike.
In Chapter 4 we define specialist coaching and consider how school leaders can use
it to address specific developmental priorities within their school. We also look at
how coaching can play an integral role in performance management and consider
the wider issues of collaborative working within schools.
Chapter 5 explores how co-coaching can be used to develop Newly Qualified
Teachers (NQTs) and teachers in their second year of teaching.
In Chapter 6 we look at group coaching and suggest that knowledge of how adults
learn is important in the setting up of coaching groups. We then go on to look at
how different groups of staff could use coaching as a development tool for a variety of purposes.
Chapter 7 shows how coaching can rapidly develop and can have a significant
impact on teaching and learning, despite challenging circumstances. The case studies illustrate best practice in the development of coaching trios; the use of lead
teachers to drive the coaching process; how to support the work of a coaching
team; how coaching can be used to support the work of one department; how to
measure the impact of coaching. The lessons learned in the two schools can be
applied in a range of different school contexts.
Chapters 810 are of particular interest to school leaders and deal with many of the
organisational issues associated with setting up, sustaining and measuring the
impact of coaching in schools.
In Chapter 8 we suggest how to carry out a whole-school CPD audit, how to identify
and train potential coaches and how to establish whole-school coaching protocols.
Chapter 9 deals with some of the issues that arise as coaching develops in the
school. It also considers how to promote the idea of coaching to the whole school,
how to identify the needs of different coachees and match them with a coach and
how to meet the development needs of coaches.
In Chapter 10 we explore the issues around measuring the impact of coaching in
schools and suggest ways in which it can be done. Finally, we look at how to audit
the development of coaching.
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1
What is coaching?
In this chapter we will look at:
what coaching is
the differences between mentoring and coaching
a variety of coaching models that can be used in schools
what makes a good coach.
Good teachers can be developed, providing they are working in a supportive and
positive environment where it is okay to try things out, make mistakes and then further refine their ideas. They also need to be able to reflect on the issues that are
important to them with an encouraging colleague, who will listen and ask key questions to help them find their solution not the this is the way I do it, so you should
do the same approach. This, in our view, is the essence of coaching.
In the sixteenth century, the English language defined coach as a carriage, a vehicle for conveying valuable people from where they are, to where they want to be.
It is worth holding on to this definition when talking about coaching in schools.
The staff are the most valuable resource that a school has. They are the people that
make the difference to the young learners that come to our schools. We therefore
have a duty to help and support each other, to become the best teachers that we
can possibly be. Coaching is a vehicle to do this.
The good news is that as a teacher you make a difference. The bad news is that as a teacher
you make a difference. (Sir John Jones, speaking at the Accelerated Learning in Training
and Education (ALITE) conference, 2006)
Teachers are often all too aware of when things are not going well and how they
would like things to be what is often called their preferred future state. What we
often struggle with is how to get there. What do I need to change? What can I do
differently? Why is it not working? A coach is a trusted colleague who asks the right
questions to help you find your own way to your preferred future state.
It is important to recognise that this is not new, not rocket science, nor is it a
panacea. Teachers in schools have been supporting each other in this way for many
years. The skills of a good coach will be examined later on but, put simply, they are
WHAT IS COACHING?
Figure 1.1
Coaching
Questioning
Drawing out
Non-hierarchical
Subject-specific
expertise not
required
questioning, reflecting, listening or clarifying is going to move the person on, then
sometimes you need to slip into mentoring mode and make a suggestion. There is
nothing wrong with this, although we suggest that it may be helpful to be explicit
when adopting a different stance by, for example, asking permission of your
colleague Would it be all right if I were to suggest a possible course of action here?.
Alternatively, the coach may be able to tap into the coachees preferred future and ask
the coachee to visualise a possibility What would it look like if you were to ?.
Mentoring and coaching should be seen as a continuum in terms of supporting and
developing teachers.
This blended approach is often evident when mentoring NQTs. When the NQTs are
starting out, it is very much a mentoring relationship. You will be imparting your
knowledge and skills to the NQTs, so that they can develop as teachers. As the mentees
become more confident and competent, the balance between mentoring and coaching
shifts further along the continuum towards coaching.
One other important difference between coaching and mentoring is that of making judgements. Often a mentor has to make a judgement about the standard
reached by the person being mentored, for example has he or she met the qualified
teacher status (QTS) standards or the induction standards? This will result in quite
a different relationship from that between coach and coachee, where it is very
important not to be judgemental.
So, what are the skills that make a good coach? It is widely agreed that there are four:
listening
asking open questions
clarifying points
encouraging reflection.
Examples of these will be discussed later. Coaches also need to be good at:
building rapport using posture, gestures, eye contact and so on
adopting a non-judgemental view of others
challenging beliefs a good coach must be willing to have difficult conversations
seeing the big picture this is at the heart of good coaching. Ask the question So
what do you want to achieve? What do you want to be better?
summing up this helps to keep the conversation focused and on track. For
example, So, what youre saying is you want to improve
encouraging others to agree on actions an essential part of the coaching
process is committing people to action. For example, So, following our discussion you are going to
acknowledging that they dont have all the answers this is fine. The role of the
coach is to elicit the answers from the coachee
respecting confidentiality
developing a mutual trust and respect
adopting a solutions focus once the issues have been uncovered, dont allow
the conversation to descend into a spiral of negativity. Direct the coachee onto
what they are going to do about it
holding a strong belief that colleagues have the capacity to learn, develop and
change.
They also have the following qualities:
curiosity
optimism
honesty
trustworthiness
patience
consistency
flexibility
creativity
confidence
approachability
professionalism
openness
Clarifying questions
The purpose of this type of questioning is to clarify the issue to get to the nuts
and bolts, and so clear the way for deeper thinking. For example:
Tell me more about
What aspect of this do you want to discuss today?
WHAT IS COACHING?
When have you had success in this area? Tell me more about that
I am interested to hear about
You say that your starters are too long. Is that always the case?
What makes you think that this is an issue?
Reflective questions
Reflective questions encourage the coachee to think about and reflect on their practice. For example:
What do you want your starter activities to achieve?
What factors do you take into account when planning your lessons?
What did you want the students to learn today?
What would have to change in order for ?
What do you wish ?
Whats another way you might ?
What would it look like if ?
What do you think would happen if ?
How was different from ?
What sort of an impact do you think ?
What might you see happening in your classroom if ?
What is your hunch about ?
What was your intention when ?
Summarising questions
These are useful when the conversation has drifted away and you want to get the
focus back. They are also useful to check that you have listened effectively and that
the coachee has communicated accurately. For example:
So, to summarise, you say that the following factors are resulting in your
starters taking too long is that right?
So, you are saying the key issue is
So, in order to achieve this, you say that you are going to
Outcome questions
Towards the end of the coaching conversation, you will want the coachee to commit
to action. The following questions may help:
What is your first step to achieve this?
What will you do next?
What support do you need?
On a scale of 1 to 10, how compelled are you to do this?
What will it look like, when you are successful?
It should be noted that the majority of these are open questions. An open question
directs the respondent away from a yes or no answer, but towards a longer and
more reflective response. Open questions will usually start with what, how and
describe, for example, what happened when you tried that strategy with this class?
What leads you to think that it will not work? How would you do that differently
next time? Can you describe one strategy you have used that has been successful? It
is helpful to avoid why? questions as they may sound too critical. (See Chapter 3
Getting Started The shape of the conversation).
Internal listening
Here we are listening to the self-talk inside our heads. Our colleagues comments can,
and often do, prompt thoughts of our own. How many times, whilst in conversation,
have you found yourself thinking, Thats just what happened to me the other day
or I felt exactly the same when ? Such internal listening acts as interference and
prevents the coach from giving the client his or her undivided attention. With practice, coaches learn to filter out the interference and are able to listen actively.
Active listening
This occurs when the coach is paying full attention to the coachees words, tone of
voice, images and figures of speech. Then the coach is able to ask those (usually
open-ended) questions, as discussed above, that help the coachee to move towards
a solution. Moreover, by focusing all of his or her attention on the coachee, the
WHAT IS COACHING?
coach is motivating the coachee. There is, after all, something very special about
really being listened to in the hectic world of a busy school! This is likely to be very
important for the self-esteem and confidence of the coachees, especially if he or she
is, as we say, in a bad place.
Intuitive listening
When you are really tuned in as a coach, you begin to learn the thought patterns
of your colleague, detect areas that are left unsaid and sense the feelings that lie
under the surface of the conversation. You are beginning to listen intuitively
and this may lead you to ask questions that will help the coachee to explore
important and challenging aspects of issues. Such questions as, What are your
feelings about ? or Is it significant that you havent mentioned ? may be
helpful here.
Finally, before we move on to consider different coaching models, it is important
to urge the coach to allow thinking time and to resist shattering the silence with
yet another question! When the coachee is in important territory, he or she often
needs a lengthy pause in which to explore and formulate thoughts and feelings and
to summon up the courage before saying anything. Have the confidence to hold
the silence. Be attentive and encouraging, but dont speak!
Coaching models
The acronyms that accompany the following coaching models provide prompts for
the different stages of the coaching conversation. This section will examine a range
of these models and discuss the differences between them.
STRIDE model
This model has been developed by Will Thomas, author of two very useful books:
Coaching Solutions: Practical Ways to Improve Performance in Education (Thomas and
Smith, 2004) and Coaching Solutions: Resource Book (Thomas, 2005). These are two
books that we strongly recommend for anybody wishing to explore the skills of
coaching in more detail. The STRIDE model is summarised as follows:
Strengths:
Target:
Reality:
What is the current situation like now and what obstacles are there to achieving your goals?
Ideas:
Decision:
What are you going to do? What are the next steps?
Evaluation:
Check the decision: How committed are you to doing this? Over time: What
progress have you made towards meeting these targets?
The essential aspect of the STRIDE model is that it really celebrates the strengths of
the coachee so the whole process becomes a very positive experience. However, it
does encourage the coachee to consider what obstacles there may be, which could
prevent them from reaching their target, but they also have to consider how they
could overcome these obstacles. The job of the coach is to keep asking open-ended
questions to help the coachee to move towards a solution.
FLOW model
The FLOW model is explained in Powell et al. (2001).
Look at reality:
Open possibilities:
Win commitment:
There are clear similarities between the STRIDE and FLOW models. One of the key
differences is that the STRIDE model starts by looking at the coachees preferred
future, whereas the FLOW model starts by talking about the challenge, that is, What
is it that you want to address? From this starting point will then come the discussion about what the targets are. Both models emphasise the need to look at what the
reality is now. This is important, as it will open up a dialogue about what the obstacles or blocks are which are stopping the coachee from making progress. Only once
these are brought to the fore can the issue really start to be addressed. It is surprising how often this is the key part of a coaching session and that by just seeing the
situation clearly (rather than what was thought or imagined to be the situation), the
resolution often becomes obvious and straightforward. Lastly, the STRIDE model
encourages the coachee to evaluate both the appropriateness of the target and the
progress towards it over time.
GROW model
The GROW model is one of the best known and most widely used coaching models, both within and outside education. It provides a simple yet powerful framework for navigating a route through a problem, as well as providing a means of
finding your way when lost. It is described in a number of coaching books, including John Whitmores excellent book, Coaching for Performance (2002).
Goal:
Reality:
(Continued)
WHAT IS COACHING?
(Continued)
Options:
Wrap up:
This is the What, Where, Why, When and How part of the process. At this stage,
having explored all of the options, the coachee makes a commitment to action.
The attraction of the GROW model is its simplicity. A useful metaphor for GROW
is a map: once you know where you are going (the goal) and where you are (current reality), you can explore possible ways of making the journey (options) and
choose the best route.
OUTCOMES model
The OUTCOMES coaching model has been developed by Allan MacKintosh, of
PMC Scotland (www.pmcscotland.com). It was designed for managers and sales
managers to use, but it is clear to see how it could be adapted for teachers.
Understand the exact reasons why they want to achieve these objectives.
M Motivate to Action.
CLEAR model
The CLEAR model was developed by Peter Hawkins and is discussed in Coaching,
Mentoring and Organizational Consultancy: Supervision and Development (Hawkins and
Smith, 2006).
Contracting:
Opening the discussion, setting the scope, establishing the desired outcomes
and agreeing the ground rules.
(Continued)
10
(Continued)
Listening:
Using active listening and catalytic interventions, the coach helps the coachee
to develop an understanding of the situation and generate personal insight.
Exploring: (1) Helping the coachee to understand the personal impact the situation is
having on the self. (2) Challenging the coachee to think through possibilities
for future action in resolving the situation.
Action:
Supporting the coachee in choosing a way forward and deciding the next step.
Review:
The CLEAR model has a number of differences from the other models. It starts by
discussing the contract. This allows the ground rules to be set, so the coachee has
the opportunity to discuss how he or she would like to be coached. There is then a
big emphasis on listening a key component of coaching. When we are being listened to we feel valued, when we feel valued our self-confidence rises and we are
more likely to commit to change. The review stage is also important, as it not only
reviews the outcome of the coaching session but also reviews the effectiveness of
the process. This is important. We should not just assume that the session has been
effective, particularly if there is going to be a further session. We should discuss
how useful the session was, and how we could make it even more useful next time.
OSKAR model
This model has been developed by Paul Z. Jackson and Mark McKergow at
Solutions Focus and is discussed in The Solutions Focus: Making Coaching and
Change SIMPLE (2007).
The whole principle of this model is not to look at the problem, as this very rarely
yields any solutions, but instead to look at what works well and to do more of this
and less of what does not work well.
Outcome:
What is the objective of this coaching? What do you want to achieve today?
Scaling: On a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 representing the worst it has ever been and 10
the preferred future, where would you put the situation today? You are at n now; what
did you do to get this far? How would you know you had got to n+1?
Know-how and resources: What helps you perform at n on the scale, rather than 0?
When does the outcome already happen for you even a little bit? What did you do to
make that happen? How did you do that?
Affirm and action: Whats already going well? What is the next small step? You are at
n now; what would it take to get you to n+1?
(Continued)
WHAT IS COACHING?
(Continued)
Review: Whats better? What did you do that made the change happen? What effects
have the changes had? What do you think will change next?
The positive nature of this approach, coupled to the idea of scaling, makes it an
attractive model. This somehow makes the issue more tangible. This approach is
similar to the STRIDE model in that it really focuses on the strengths of the
coachees, and encourages them to consider how they could use these strengths to
address any issues that they may have.
HILDA model
One of the best bits of advice regarding coaching was also one of the simplest. It followed
a discussion with a colleague about the importance of not getting too hung up on following a script when it comes to coaching. We felt that it should be a natural and flowing dialogue between two professionals and the coach should not have to constantly
refer to a bank of questions, whilst engaged in coaching. This is most off-putting for the
coachee and does not help to create the informal and relaxed atmosphere required for
coaching. With this in mind, it was suggested that the best type of person to become a
coach is a nosey person! Someone who will quite naturally ask question after question
in order to find out what they want and in doing so, will also help the coachee to find
out. This simplicity seemed most appealing. Some readers might remember a character
called Hilda Ogden the archetypal nosey neighbour in Coronation Street (a long-running television soap, based in the north of England). What a fantastic coach she could
have made, with her continuous probing and incisive questioning. This led us to consider an alternative, simple model for coaching the HILDA model.
Identify the strengths: What do they already do well? How can these skills and attributes be used to address the particular issues?
Look at the possibilities:
address the issues? What is getting in the way of doing this? How could these obstacles
be overcome? What have they already tried? What worked and what didnt?
Decide and commit to action: What are they going to do to address the issues? When
are they going to do it? How are they going to do it?
Analyse and evaluate the impact:
What will it look like?
Although in its early days, we have used this model in schools with an encouraging degree of success. Its simplicity makes the key stages easy to remember, within
the framework of a constant reminder to ask open questions throughout each of
the stages.
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With whom in your school could you explore ideas about coaching?
What do you think the pros and cons of the different models we have
looked at might be in your own school?
Summary
The principles of coaching are consistent throughout these models. What varies
is the way in which each of the models approaches coaching. You may, of
course, wish to devise your own, based on the best bits of all of the models
described above. The advantage of doing this, in collaboration with a range of
colleagues from within your school, is that the people using the model will feel
a sense of ownership over the approach.
It is very easy to get bogged down with the theory of coaching what is right
and what is wrong. A coaching conversation should never become a scripted
event, so whichever model you decide to use, do so carefully. It would be very
off-putting for a coachee to be faced by a coach with a clipboard and a list of
questions. It should be a natural dialogue, involving a great deal of listening by
the coach and open questioning, aimed at helping the coachee to find a solution.
Electronic resources
Go to www.sagepub.co.uk/allison for electronic resources for this chapter
Beliefs and principles of coaching
Beliefs about learning and teaching
Coaching, counselling and mentoring definitions
Peer coaching
The effective coach
Further reading
Jackson, P. Z. and McKergow, M. (2007) The Solutions Focus: Making Coaching and Change
SIMPLE (2nd edn). Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Powell, G., Chambers, M. and Baxter, G. (2001) Pathways to Coaching. Bristol: TLO.
Thomas, W. (2005) Coaching Solutions: Resource Book. Stafford: Network Educational Press.
WHAT IS COACHING?
Thomas, W. and Smith, A. (2004) Coaching Solutions: Practical Ways to Improve Performance in
Education. Stafford: Network Educational Press.
Whitmore, J. (2002) Coaching for Performance. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Useful websites
www.thesolutionsfocus.com
www.coachingnetwork.org.uk
www.curee-paccts.com/index.jsp
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2
Why coaching?
In this chapter we will look at:
why coaching is a powerful developmental tool for teachers
the impact of coaching compared with other professional development activities.
Coaching, as a performance-enhancing tool, has its roots very much in the business
world. There, if something is not working, or not getting the required results, it is
changed rapidly and often coaching is the tool for that change. Whilst we would
not subscribe to the fact that schools should be run and led like or by businesses,
there is something to be learned from this approach. There is a tendency, when
things are not going well for us, to view the problems as being outside of our control. To illustrate this from a teaching point of view, if students are not as focused
or as engaged as we might wish and as a result not making sufficient progress, then
we have a choice of action. We can either change our practice to adapt to the situation and hopefully improve things, or carry on regardless, thinking that the problems are not connected to our practice and that something outside of our control
might eventually change and address the situation.
This is where coaching comes in. Coaching is a tool that encourages teachers to look
at their practice and make changes. Coaching is able to achieve this because of the
fact that the person telling the coachee how to change is not an advisor, consultant,
leader from within the school or some other expert it is themselves. The coachees
are setting the agenda they determine the issue they want to look at, they come
up with the solutions and they determine the timeline for the action they decide to
take. Once people have decided for themselves to commit to action, this is a great
motivator for achieving their own goals. All the coach is doing is facilitating this
process and witnessing the commitment and the change. Do not underestimate the
power of the witness. People are far more likely to act if they have set their own targets in the presence of a colleague, the coach, who is genuinely interested in them.
WHY COACHING?
Julian Rotter (1954) came up with the idea of locus of control. In very simple terms,
this is concerned with an individuals perception of the main causes of events in life.
Somebody with an external locus of control will feel that their behaviour is guided
by fate and luck or other external circumstances. What happens to them is beyond
their control. On the other hand, somebody with an internal locus of control will
feel that their behaviour is guided by personal decisions and efforts. They are responsible for what happens in their life, and so their actions have a direct effect on their
future. A teacher with an external locus of control may view the behaviour of the students as nothing to do with himself or herself it is all to do with other factors so
there is no need to do anything differently as it will have no effect on the students
behaviour. Following a bad lesson, this teacher may blame the students, the weather,
the fact that the bulb on the overhead projector went, the previous lesson that the
students had in fact, anything but themselves. On the other hand, the teacher with
an internal locus of control will view the situation differently. Their thought process,
following a bad lesson, would be more along the lines of: That didnt go too well
what did I do that didnt work? What could I do next time to make it better?
Coaching can help colleagues to see the link between their actions in terms of
relationships with students, teaching strategies, body language and the learning,
engagement and progress of students. This awareness will then start to shift them
from an external to an internal locus of control.
Having introduced coaching, we examined the advantages of having a staff with an
internal locus of control achieved through coaching. Following the initial introduction of coaching we had about a dozen coaching pairs set up. After these pairs had
been through a coaching cycle, we asked the coachees if they could very simply jot
down their thoughts about the process.
This provided us with evidence of the following traits that were developing
amongst staff who had been involved in the coaching process:
Self-sufficiency Staff who can solve their own problems become far more selfsufficient. This is an effective way of working. Instead of problems lingering,
becoming worse and then having a bigger negative impact on the students
learning, simply because they are not dealt with (because nobody knows how
to), they can be dealt with and addressed quickly and effectively. This minimises
the impact that issues have on the learning of the students.
The coach I worked with was really supportive. They helped me to work through the
issue myself and find a solution. And it worked! As a result, I felt more confident to
tackle issues on my own. Really good, thanks very much! (Maths teacher, five
years experience)
Self-esteem Staff who feel that they are listened to, but who can deal with
their own issues, feel confident. Good teaching and learning is all about confidence. Furthermore, the more confident staff feel, the better equipped they will
be to support and develop their peers.
The best CPD I have had in the last three years. Brilliant! (German teacher, three
years experience)
Efficiency Working in this way enables individuals, groups and the whole
school to get to the nub of the problem quickly, to deal with it and move on. The
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process enables staff to avoid getting distracted by other things that have nothing
to do with the real issue which often wastes a great deal of time in school meetings. However, for this to happen, there needs to be a no-blame culture throughout the school so that people feel safe about discussing the issues they may have.
I took the ideas on board that I discussed with my coach, used them with my classes
and as a result felt more confident, organised and generally happier about how the first
meetings with my classes went. It has had a knock on effect throughout the year with
most of my classes. (Science teacher, three years experience)
Team work Coaching helps to foster a great team spirit. Why? Because you
dont have to be an expert in the issue to coach somebody to help them resolve
the issue. This means that everybody has something to offer and so everyone
feels valued. Imagine working in a school like that!
Great to see the issue from another angle and come up with a solution together.
(Science teacher, two years experience)
In recent years, there has been a shift of emphasis towards CPD in school. This has
seen staff taking far more responsibility for their own CPD, with schools providing
a range of developmental activities for them to engage in. In the forward-thinking
school, CPD is less about staff training days and training courses and more about a
process of ongoing, collaborative professional learning where professionals support and learn from each other.
In her book, The CPD Coordinators Toolkit, Sue Kelly describes CPD as: any activity
which enhances the quality of teaching and learning within the school. It should
WHY COACHING?
develop the school and the individual and impact directly on what goes on in the
classroom. (2007: 12) When talking about challenges facing CPD coordinators, she
says: it is through our work and our vision of what constitutes creative and dynamic
CPD practices that we can transform the learning culture in our schools (2007: 1).
We would argue strongly that coaching meets the goals expressed in both of these
statements. It is certainly a strong driver for developing the quality of teaching and
learning, as well as establishing a learning culture amongst the staff. A school that
invests in coaching will be rewarded with contagious professionalism amongst its staff.
Bruce Joyce and Beverley Showers (2002) concluded from a study working with
teachers in North America that coaching had a dramatic impact on the transfer and
application of new learning. In fact, this application of new learning was significantly higher when acquired through coaching than by other training methods.
The study looked at a range of teacher developmental activities such as:
lectures on new teaching strategies, during external courses or workshops
demonstrations of new teaching strategies by expert teachers within the workshop
practising these new strategies with colleagues attending the workshop
feedback from the expert teacher or course organiser
working with a coach on these new strategies in the workplace.
Joyce and Showers then examined how each of these activities impacted on the acquisition of knowledge and skills, and whether they resulted in new strategies being
applied to classroom practice. The research found that, while lecturing teachers
improved their knowledge of new teaching strategies, it did very little to develop their
skills or classroom practice. Seeing the new strategy demonstrated improved skills
acquisition slightly, but still did not translate to a change in classroom practice. Skills
acquisition did improve when the teacher practised the new strategies in the workshop,
but this still did not result in any long-term change in practice. In fact the only way that
a significant change was seen in skills/knowledge acquisition and classroom application
was when the teachers worked with a coach on the new strategy in the workplace.
In our experience, this certainly holds true. Until recently, a vast amount of the
CPD budget at most schools has probably been spent on sending colleagues on
external training courses. They would then return armed with a folder and perhaps
a nice pen. However, the impact of the training in terms of changing their teaching strategies was often difficult to see in the classroom. Similarly, any newly
acquired skills were not shared amongst colleagues. This seems to be a very expensive and ineffective use of school resources. Unfortunately, staff do not always feel
the same way. Unless they have sat in a basement function room of a hotel and had
a substantial buffet at lunchtime, they do not feel that they have had proper CPD.
This requires a shift of culture and thinking. The range of CPD activities available
to staff, including coaching, needs to be sold to staff.
Before we started down the path of coaching, the other two main forms of CPD
that staff embarked on, apart from going on external courses, were mentoring
17
18
Summary
As learning institutions, schools have an obligation to provide a range of opportunities for their staff to engage in professional learning. Coaching facilitates this.
Evidence suggests that coaching is one of the most effective developmental tools in
schools in terms of long-term impact. As coaching is based on the idea that all staff
have the potential to develop each other, it serves to raise self-esteem and build the
capacity for sustained improvement within a school.
Electronic resources
Go to www.sagepub.co.uk/allison for electronic resources for this chapter
Coaching helps people to
Coaching is based on
Skillsmotivation matrix
Why coaching? 1
Why coaching? 2
Further reading
Joyce, B. and Showers, B. (2002) Designing Training and Peer Coaching: Our Need for Learning.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Kelly, S. (2007) The CPD Coordinators Toolkit. London: Paul Chapman Publishing.
3
Getting started
In this chapter we will look at:
20
A Coach
B Coachee
Figure 3.1
C Observer
until all three have had the opportunity to be coach, coachee and observer and have
each had feedback about their performance as coach. You may have encountered the
power of trios in your training. Certainly, in our experience, they are invaluable in
the early stages of learning how to become an effective coach.
GETTING STARTED
As the confidence of the coaches grows, staff could be offered the opportunity to
work alongside one of the coaches. This then allows the coaches to put their skills
to work on colleagues with real issues that need resolving.
21
22
with the principle of confidentiality? We deal with this issue in some detail in
Chapter 10 and take the view that any account of coaching that is given to a
third party needs to be carefully worded jointly by coach and coachee and
should respect the agreed confidences between them.
Your school may have devised a protocol for coaching which deals with some of
these questions. Although this may seem rather formal, it can be useful in that it
serves to outline what the process is and how it would work. The other advantage
of this approach is that it acts as a prompt, an ice-breaker, to generate discussion
on what coaching is all about before you begin.
The environment
Clearly you will need to find a room in which you can establish a comfortable yet
professional atmosphere. Perhaps easy chairs will be available, water to drink and
maybe a low table between you if you suspect your colleague may need a barrier,
at least to begin with. It will be important to make and sustain good eye contact,
so check that there is no excessive glare in the room. Ensure that you are not likely
to be interrupted by people knocking on the door or by telephone calls and if you
make notes, do so discreetly and with the coachees permission.
GETTING STARTED
This is called mirroring and the important thing to note is that the coach, unlike Mike
at the start of the conversation, must take his or her physical cues from the coachee.
It really does put people at their ease, if done gently. It is a technique that needs practice and is something that you could work on with fellow coaches in a supportive trio.
Similarly you can tune or modify your tone of voice. For some people, as politicians
will avow, this is a difficult area! You will need to adopt a natural, positive tone that
encourages the coachee to relax, to say more and to reflect. Again, this is perhaps
something that you could work on with coaching colleagues in a trio. Try an exercise in which the observer gives feedback examples of good (and then not-so-good)
vocal tone and discuss the impact of each on the coachee.
23
24
Setting goals
In this phase you are helping the coachee to formulate a desired outcome. Here,
as elsewhere in the process, it will be important to help your colleague to see
possible solutions rather than problems, so it is useful to avoid questions such
as, What is the issue? (problem focused) in favour of, What will it be like when
you achieve your goal? (positive focus). You are trying to help the coachee to
tune into a preferred future state. Interestingly, the real goal may not be the first
one that the coachee expresses. Be prepared to ask What else?, and to return to
goal setting later in the conversation if necessary, as your colleague talks and
reflects.
Committing to action
Having heard your colleague weighing up several possibilities, it is now time to ask,
What do you reckon is the first step? or a similar question designed to begin the
process of focusing on action. Summing up could be useful at this point, during
which you use the coachees own words to reflect what he or she has decided to do.
(Be prepared to summarise or reflect back what you have heard at any stage in
the conversation. It is a useful check of whether you have understood and, for the
coachee, whether he or she has communicated what they intended.) Once more
you could ask your colleague to scale, this time as a measure of commitment.
The answer to a question such as, On a scale of 1 to 10, how committed are you to
doing this?, will speak volumes! If the answer is Probably 3, you will need to help
GETTING STARTED
your colleague to explore alternatives. You may even have to check reality by
asking, What are the barriers to you doing this?.
25
26
behave as normally as possible. (It may be helpful to record any factual information
at the top of your observation form during this phase.)
You may wish to talk unobtrusively to children about their work, during an
active part of the lesson. (Note the time during which you were not observing
on the lesson record.)
It may be useful to observe discreetly two or three members of the class to ascertain
whether they are actively participating in the lesson and making progress.
Write down exactly who does and says what and when in the lesson. The record
of the lesson is a factual account of what takes place.
An account of classroom dialogue can be useful as an aid to recall when giving
feedback.
It is helpful to record a timeline during the observation and to log the times at
which significant or unusual events take place (for example, 2.15: child entered
with note or 10.05: practical activity began). This helps the observee to map
the passing of time. Bear in mind that managing time is a demanding skill for
most teachers.
With practice you will develop a personal shorthand that will enable you to
record as much of what takes place as possible. Even then you will be able to
record no more than about two thirds of what occurs.
At the end of the lesson thank your colleague once all the children have left the
room and confirm the time and place for the feedback. Do not be drawn into
offering judgements about the lesson.
Giving feedback
The feedback needs to take place as soon as possible after the observation (certainly within five working days), in private and in a relaxed atmosphere. It can
be useful to provide the feedback in the room in which the observation took
place in order to recall individual children by indicating where they were sitting.
Do, however, give yourself thinking time beforehand. You may need to frame
specific questions as a result of what you saw.
Begin by asking your colleague how the lesson went. This often enables the
teacher to express concerns about details of the lesson and to relax. Active listening is important at this stage.
As in any coaching conversation, be aware of your colleagues body language
during the feedback. It is effective to gently mirror his or her posture as the session progresses.
Start by saying something positive in the first sentence of the feedback. Then recount
the observation record in a matter-of-fact way, stopping as necessary to give and
receive comments and to ask questions for clarification.
GETTING STARTED
Remember to maintain good eye contact with your colleague during your feedback.
Be descriptive rather than judgemental and avoid you should have statements.
It is important to focus on what happened in the lesson. In this method of giving feedback the observer is acting as a mirror to enable the coachee to see the lesson and to draw conclusions for herself or himself.
It can be useful to model the way in which your colleague did or said something
during the lesson. This technique should be used with caution and only in a
secure, professional, coaching relationship and with the coachees permission.
As issues emerge, ask questions that will enable the coachee to open up possibilities for change. For example, What would it have looked like if ? and What
led you to ?. Sometimes the teacher will make a statement that can be
explored with the question Could you tell me a bit more about ?.
Alternatively, it may be helpful to reflect something that he or she said earlier in
the conversation. In other words, use your coaching skills.
At the end of the feedback the observee should be encouraged to reflect on the
feedback and to draw out the strengths of the lesson and any issues that he or
she wishes to tackle. So, what do you now feel about the lesson? or What did
you see in the feedback? or What do you think having heard the feedback? are
all useful ways of encouraging this self-reflection.
The coachee may decide, as a result of the coachs questioning, to specify targets
to be worked on subsequently.
A copy of the observation record may be given to the observee. It is also helpful for
the coach to provide a written summary of the observation. This should state the
strengths of the lesson and any actions that the coachee intends to take. It should
be a summary of the points raised in the feedback and should contain nothing new.
It may be useful to leave the coachee with one or two questions during the feedback to prompt reflection. These questions should be written in the summary.
At the end of the feedback both parties should feel positive about the experience.
If further observations are planned, the coach must allow sufficient time to
elapse before returning. In the meantime, updates and advice can be exchanged
informally in the staff room. It is important to allow the coachee time to consolidate the skills that have been targeted. Teachers, like other learners, may
regress before they progress!
What support is to be provided for coaches in the early stages of their work?
27
28
Summary
Coaches need to pay attention to the environment in which they hold coaching
conversations as well as to their physical posture and tone of voice.
They also need to establish some mutually acceptable ground rules for the
coaching work.
Electronic resources
Go to www.sagepub.co.uk/allison for electronic resources for this chapter
Record of coaching conversation (FLOW)
Record of coaching conversation (STRIDE)
Self-talk and performance success task
Further reading
Flaherty, J. (1999) Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others. London: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Starr, J. (2003) The Coaching Manual. London: Prentice Hall Business.
Thomas, W. (2005) Coaching Solutions: Resource Book. Stafford: Network Educational Press.
4
Specialist coaching
In this chapter we will look at:
what we mean by specialist coaching
how school leaders can use specialist coaching to address specific
developmental priorities within their school
how coaching can play an integral role in performance management
the wider issues of collaborative working within schools.
As part of a schools own self-evaluation, there will be specific areas of teaching and
learning that will be highlighted as areas for development and these will be
included in the schools development plan. It is at this stage that there is often a
gap. Having identified areas for development, schools do not always make adequate
provision to address the issues. At best, there may be a slot during a staff training
day to explore the issue. It is unlikely, however, that this will be followed up in any
widespread and sustained way and, as a result, the momentum usually gets lost. At
worst, it may be left to chance for this area of weakness to become an area of
strength this will very rarely happen.
Specialist coaching allows schools to address these specific issues in a targeted and
sustained way. When we refer to specialist coaching, we are talking about teachers
who have a strength in a particular area, for example behaviour management, working alongside and coaching colleagues who want to develop this area of their practice. This approach can be used to develop specific areas of teaching and learning,
such as how to give effective instructions or how to check what has been learned during a lesson. These will be seen as key areas that need to be developed within the
school and will of course vary from one school to another. Staff who are known to be
good practitioners in these areas can then be asked if they would be willing to work
with colleagues as coaches. This approach requires schools to have effective monitoring systems in place enabling them to identify who amongst their teaching staff is
good at what. In our experience, when staff are offered the opportunity to work with
a coach on specific areas of teaching and learning as opposed to a more generic offer
of coaching the response has been positive. Why? This is not clear, but one possible reason, emerging from discussions with staff, is that it takes away the need for
teachers to identify an area that they need to develop it is done for them.
30
This approach can be taken a stage further, and in one school we have worked with
it has now become an integral part of the performance management process. This
could be seen as a contentious approach by those who hold the view that coaching
has no role to play in performance management. We would argue, strongly, that
this does not need to be the case. Performance management should be about setting challenging and professional targets for teachers that will develop them professionally and improve standards in schools. However, this should be strongly
underpinned by looking at how the professional development needs of staff will be
met to enable them to reach these targets. This is where coaching comes in. It is
one of many professional development activities that can be offered to staff, to help
them address these targets. The recent review of performance management arrangements in England (Rewards and Incentives Group, 2007) has gone a long way to
addressing this by making it obligatory for reviewers to devise a CPD action plan
for individuals when setting their performance management targets. Furthermore,
if the performance management process is to be a success, all parties concerned
need to have a sense of ownership over it. If it is simply something that is done to
you, then people are less likely to engage with it and strive to meet the targets that
may be set. With this in mind, the performance management meeting between the
reviewer and reviewee should be run like a coaching session where the reviewee is
encouraged to find the solutions to help them meet their objectives themselves.
Coaching can play two important roles in the performance management process.
1 It encourages the reviewee to come up with their own developmental targets and
ways of addressing them during the planning meeting. The reviewer becomes the
coach and the reviewee becomes the coachee. As a result, the reviewee feels a greater
sense of ownership in the process and is therefore more likely to engage with it.
2 It serves as a developmental activity to support staff in achieving their targets for
example, the provision of specialist coaching in an aspect of pedagogy and practice.
(Continued)
SPECIALIST COACHING
(Continued)
developing literacy skills
using Information Technology as an effective teaching and learning tool.
Interestingly, this tied in with one of the requests made by teaching staff on
how they would like to see coaching progress at the school a number of staff
stated that all teachers should be offered the opportunity to work alongside a
coach. In terms of opening up coaching, this has been extremely successful.
At least 50% of those who returned their CPD action plans, following their
performance review meetings, asked either to work alongside a coach in a specific
area, or to observe a colleague teaching with a view to focusing on an area of
their teaching that they wish to develop. The latter will tend to result in the
development of a coaching relationship.
The success of this approach was further aided by time being put aside on a school closure day for colleagues to meet and have their review meetings and complete their
CPD action plans. This, in our minds, is an essential part of the process. If we want the
process of performance management, and the associated discussions regarding CPD,
to become an effective coaching conversation, then schools need to give staff the time
to carry out the process in a relaxed and stress-free atmosphere. Only then will meaningful discussions take place that may then lead to positive outcomes. This is not necessarily the case if the performance management process takes place after a busy day
of teaching. Coaching takes time.
Those who are carrying out the performance management review meetings will
need some guidance on how the meetings should run, in order to achieve more of
a coaching focus. If this is not done, then they may well revert to form and end up
telling the reviewee what they need to do better and how. Firstly, they will all need
to have had some training in the principles and skills of coaching. Secondly, they
will need to be fully briefed on how the meetings should run within a coaching
model. This will almost certainly require some briefing sessions with the reviewers,
before they embark on their meetings. This investment in time beforehand will pay
dividends in terms of the quality of the performance management process.
The important role of the CPD co-ordinator in setting up coaching, has been discussed elsewhere in this book. This role becomes pivotal if a performance management process that is linked to CPD, such as the one described at Littlehampton, is to
be successful. Here teaching staff hand their CPD action plans to the CPD co-ordinator, who is then charged with analysing the many coaching requests on these plans
and with pairing colleagues up accordingly. Clearly, this can only be effective if the
school has a very good working knowledge of the strengths of its teaching staff and
this will only be the case if the school has a strong self-evaluation structure in place.
At Littlehampton, the long-term plan was always to dovetail the processes of school
self-evaluation, the school development plan, performance management and CPD.
Incorporating the CPD action plan into the performance management process
seemed to be the final part of the jigsaw.
It is clear to see how coaching, particularly specialist coaching, plays a key role
throughout this process.
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32
Self-evaluation
form
School
development
plan
Lesson
observations;
walk-throughs;
subject leader
Interviews
Monitoring by
school selfevaluation
process
School
improvement
cycle
Subject
action plans
Frequent coaching
meetings between
subject leader
and leadership link
Individual
performance
management
objectives
High-quality and
focused CPD, e.g.
coaching
Figure 4.1
SPECIALIST COACHING
Specialist coaching is being used to support teachers at the school to turn the
principles within the document into practice. Three teachers have been
appointed to a coaching role, called professional tutors. Each of these professional tutors has been allocated to a cluster of subject areas, and is then charged
with using their coaching skills to support the subject leader in embedding the
aspects of the toolkit into the day-to-day teaching within that area. The school
self-evaluation process is used to identify areas of need, where this specialist
coaching can then be targeted. Furthermore, the coaches will facilitate the
sharing of best practice between subject areas within their clusters. So, for
example, if a teacher in history is very skilled at developing the literacy skills of
low-ability students, he or she should be asked to coach a teacher in science
who wishes to develop this aspect of teaching and learning.
There is also evidence of specialist coaching being used within teams. The science
department at Littlehampton Community School has identified AfL as being a key
priority for development this year. The subject leaders for science have bought in
some excellent AfL resources, however they are mindful of the fact that it is not
enough to just buy the resources they have to become embedded into the
teaching of all science teachers. To facilitate this, they have identified teachers
within the team who demonstrate good AfL practice. These colleagues have then
been paired up with other science teachers. The pairs will then co-plan an AfL-rich
lesson using the new resources. They will observe each other delivering the lesson, then feed back to each other in a coaching style. The best practice will then
be shared with the whole department, during departmental meeting time.
Another example of this sharing of expertise has been seen with the English
department and other departments within the school. Following an afterschool session on developing literacy strategies, members of the English
(Continued)
33
34
(Continued)
department paired up with colleagues from the geography department who
wanted to develop literacy strategies within their subject. The colleagues
within the English department then coached their colleagues by co-planning
a literacy-based activity with them. They then observed the activity in action
in the classroom, followed by a coaching conversation after the lesson on the
effectiveness of the strategy.
It is clear that the landscape of school leadership is changing towards a more collaborative approach between schools. In order to prepare our future leaders for this,
we need to facilitate this process within schools and encourage colleagues to move
outside of the comfort zone of their own subject areas especially in large secondary schools. Specialist coaching provides us with the opportunity to do this by
encouraging colleagues from one subject area who wish to develop an aspect of
their practice, to work with a good practitioner in this aspect of practice from a different subject area.
This should not be left to chance. In smaller primary schools, it tends to happen
quite naturally due to a lack of subject-based compartmentalisation and the most
effective primary schools ensure that it happens regularly. Secondary schools need
to re-evaluate how they structure themselves, in order to move towards a more
effective, internal collaborative approach and this may involve asking questions
about the effectiveness of subject-based compartmentalisation.
A common structure for secondary schools is the faculty structure. In this model,
subjects with some commonality for example, physical education, drama, dance
and so on are placed together, often with a head of faculty and then heads of
department beneath that. This may work fine. However, if the subjects within that
faculty are not working effectively, then who can colleagues learn from? This problem may be exacerbated if there are issues of poor leadership within that faculty. If
the subjects within the faculty have all identified, for example, differentiation
for the less able as a development priority, but then only ever meet together as a
faculty group, how are they going to be able to learn from another subject area not
in their faculty which demonstrates good practice in this area?
Would a more sensible alternative to the faculty approach be to group subject
areas together according to developmental needs, areas of strength and leadership
capacity, irrespective of tenuous subject-based links? For example, why not group
four or five unrelated subject areas together as school improvement teams? Each
of these small clusters of subjects could be strategically put together to include
some subjects areas with strengths in certain areas of pedagogy, coupled with
SPECIALIST COACHING
strong leadership, alongside other subject areas which need to develop certain areas
of their practice, and which may lack the leadership capacity to drive this through.
Amongst these school improvement teams could be set up some strong specialist
coaching, based on pedagogy, avoiding an over-emphasis on subject-related issues.
This model could be a very powerful driver for a more collaborative and effective
form of middle leadership within secondary schools.
Summary
School self-evaluation needs to be used to identify areas of whole-school developmental focus. There will then be a wealth of expertise within the staffroom that
should be used in a coaching capacity to develop these areas of teaching and learning.
The performance management process should also be used to enable staff to identify
their CPD needs, with regards to these areas of focus, and then commit to action.
Underlying all of this is the need for schools to look at their structures, systems and
procedures to ensure that there are opportunities for staff to work collaboratively
and share best practice.
35
5
Using coaching for new teachers
In this chapter we will look at:
how co-coaching can be used to develop newly qualified teachers
how coaching can be used to develop teachers in their second year
of teaching.
Working with trainee and newly qualified teachers (NQTs) can be a highly rewarding
part of the job. It is also often a privilege. Their energy and enthusiasm for teaching
often translates into excellent classroom practice, even very early in their careers. They
are usually highly reflective about what they do and eager to learn how to improve.
They will question why things are done in that particular way and not just accept the
status quo. These attributes make for good coachees, but also good coaches.
Co-coaching has been described by CUREE (Centre for Use of Research and
Evidence in Education) as a structured, sustained process between two or more professional learners to enable them to embed new knowledge and skills from specialist sources in day-to-day practice. (Source: The National Framework for Mentoring
and Coaching: CUREE)
With this in mind, it makes perfect sense to use co-coaching to support and
develop the work of trainee and newly qualified teachers. Teachers early on in their
careers have many questions as to how they might improve their practice and they
also have many of the solutions. Mentors can answer many of these questions, and
do a brilliant job. However, if we want to move away from dependency to independence, we need to encourage these young teachers to engage in coaching.
The Career Entry Development Profile (CEDP), developed by the TDA (Training and
Development Agency for schools, UK), is an online resource that encourages trainees
and NQTs to focus on achievements and goals early on in their careers, and also to
discuss their professional development needs. It does this by providing a series of
questions for NQTs to reflect on at various stages in their training and induction
periods. For example:
What do you consider to be the most important professional development
priorities for your induction period?
Why are these issues the most important for you now?
How have your priorities changed since the end of your training?
How would you prioritise your needs across the induction period?
What preparation, support or development opportunities do you feel would
help you move forward with these priorities?
(Source: Career entry and development profile (CEDP) 2008/9: TDA)
This provides a perfect (and ready-made) framework to use when setting up co-coaching
with NQTs. As well as discussing these questions with their mentor, they could also
pair up and use them as prompts during the early stages of a co-coaching session.
Facilitating this process of NQTs working alongside their peers in co-coaching relationships is a very useful strategy which we decided to adopt at Littlehampton. The process
was launched at an NQT meeting. Co-coaching was to be used for four main reasons:
to encourage NQTs to discuss teaching and learning outside of their own subject
to share best practice
to raise self-esteem
to encourage a can-do approach.
The session started with a general discussion of what co-coaching was and why it
could be useful. The NQTs were then asked to find partners (from a different subject to their own) and to ask each other the following questions:
What is going well?
What do I want to develop further?
They were told that they could not make any judgements and were to avoid giving
ideas. They just had to focus on listening and asking open questions. There was a
lot of very intense discussion going on. We then stopped to consider the rest of the
process, which is outlined below.
Identification of issue
NQTs identify issues that they wish to address.
37
38
Initial meeting
NQTs select co-coachees to work with.
Pairs meet to discuss issues.
Observation
NQTs observe each other.
Focus is kept on the issue that has been identified. Elements of best practice are
also noted.
Feedback meeting
Pairs meet to discuss the lesson observations, return to the original issues and
share best practice.
Follow-up
Pairs may decide to do follow-up developmental activities related to their focus,
for example visit another school that shows best practice in this area or observe
other teachers.
Stages one and two had already been addressed during this initial meeting. For
those pairs who found it difficult to find a focus for their discussion, prompt
cards were provided. These simple cards have various teaching and learning
themes noted on them and they were used by the pairs to prompt discussion on
areas of strength and areas for development. Sample cards are provided in Figure
5.1. For many, these cards acted as a very useful prompt. In fact, they are now
used widely throughout the school in a number of different contexts, for example NQT/mentoring meetings, performance management meetings and department meetings.
After the initial meeting, the pairs then had to arrange a time to observe each other.
They were all very keen to do this. A simple lesson observation review sheet was
used to focus the observation. This was completed by the teachers being observed
beforehand, to highlight the areas that they wanted the observers to look for.
During the observation, the observer then commented on these points. This kept
the ownership of the issue with the teacher being observed, but also served to keep
the observation focused. A template is provided in Figure 5.2 on page 40. This completed review sheet should not be copied and remains the property of the coachee.
Once they had observed each other, they met up again to have a mutual feedback
session. It had been agreed that the feedback would focus on the issue that the NQT
had identified as an area for development the review sheet helped to focus the
conversation on this. It was, however, fine to focus also on other aspects of good
practice that were observed.
Most interesting was the follow-up that resulted from this process. One pair, that
was focusing on assessment for learning strategies, arranged to observe another
Use of voice
Questioning skills
Use of ICT
Differentiation
Subject knowledge
Record keeping
Pace
Learning styles
Figure 5.1
Photocopiable:
The Coaching Toolkit Shaun Allison and Michael Harbour, (SAGE) 2009.
Figure 5.2
Comments/Observations/Questions
from the coach and coachee
NQT co-coaching
Photocopiable:
The Coaching Toolkit Shaun Allison and Michael Harbour, 2009 (SAGE)
teacher, who was known to be very good at using learning objectives to drive the
learning in his lesson. Another pair, interested in transition, went on a visit to one
of the feeder primary schools.
The NQTs were asked to evaluate the experience by answering a short questionnaire. The questions used and some of their responses follow.
Has the process been useful? Why?
It has been a very useful process because I was able to observe some of the same
students as I had taught in my co-coaching class. This gave me the opportunity to
observe those pupils in a different environment and to observe different techniques
and strategies that I could incorporate into my lessons.
The process has been useful because observing another teacher and discussing it
with them has given me ideas for my own teaching.
Really useful to watch a class I teach in another subject and then to discuss strategies that work with them, with another NQT.
What did you learn from the process?
I have learnt that we are constantly developing and that we can all benefit from
this experience. I have picked up new ideas and ways of both helping my teaching
and also my behaviour management.
That other NQTs have similar issues to me, and that they can be resolved.
That I had a lot of the solutions to my issues already I just had to think it
through. Talking it through with someone else really helped.
What good practice did you observe?
I observed a colleague, teaching a year 8 class, with some of the pupils that I teach
in there. He had a starter activity set up for them to complete straight away which
really helped settle them down. He also kept them on task all lesson and had extension tasks for those who had finished the previous task.
The use of a seating plan. Students working independently, whilst the teacher facilitated the process.
How will this impact on your own teaching?
Using a starter activity as soon as they enter the room is something that I will use
with my year 8 class; it helps settle them immediately and helps with the lesson. I
will also make sure that all pupils are on task all of the time and that there is extra
work for those pupils who finish their task.
I will give my students more time to work independently.
More student-focused teaching and less teacher-focused.
Next steps: Will you develop this work further? If so, how?
I could develop this work further by building up a range of starter and plenary
activities that will engage the pupils straight away. I will also try to break my lessons up into micro-chunks so that pupils can focus on key areas at a time.
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Work with my co-coach on implementing the use of the interactive white board
into my own teaching.
This whole process proved to be successful it certainly managed to achieve all of
the objectives that were set out at the start of the programme. The NQTs were all
very positive about the experience. They learned a great deal from each other, and
from themselves through self-reflection. While using coaching in this way for
NQTs and trainee teachers is not a substitute for mentoring, it certainly adds
another important element to the support and professional development that
they are offered. From a schools point of view, it goes a long way towards building capacity for growth by developing staff who are better equipped to finding the
solutions to their own issues.
How the Levels Mountains approach can be used in ICT to raise student awareness of assessment criteria.
Developing an effective bridging programme in science.
This is an important and pivotal piece of developmental work for these teachers,
for which there should be some kind of formal professional recognition.
Fortunately, the General Teaching Council (GTC) for England, has set up the
Teacher Learning Academy (TLA), that gives teachers the opportunity to obtain this
recognition. By submitting a short presentation of their learning journey, during
which they have been supported by their coaches, the teachers receive certificated
professional recognition for the developmental work they have carried out as a part
of the schools EPD programme.
Another advantage of this approach is that it has proven to be a good introduction
to the performance management process for these relatively new teachers. The
areas that they choose to look at with their coach also tend to become part of their
performance management targets, thereby providing them with another layer of
support to help them meet their performance review objectives.
There are clear long-term advantages for a school that wants to establish a culture
of coaching with new teachers in this way. The more opportunities these new
teachers are given to engage with co-coaching, the more they will be refining and
developing their own coaching skills. This is a solid investment for any school, as
these staff will then be able to continue to use these coaching skills with other
members of staff as they become more experienced a home-grown approach to
developing coaching within a school.
Summary
NQTs have the ability to co-coach each other, and should be encouraged to do
so. As they are experiencing many of the same issues, they can also provide each
other with the solutions. They can prove to be a valuable and effective resource
for each other.
Coaching is also a very powerful tool for supporting teachers in their second year
of teaching. It can provide them with the support and encouragement to set their
own developmental targets and then address them with a clear and effective
action plan.
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Electronic resources
Go to www.sagepub.co.uk/allison for electronic resources for this chapter
Coaching prompt cards
NQT co-coaching lesson observation review sheet
Useful websites
www.curee-paccts.com/
www.tda.gov.uk/teachers/induction/cedp.aspx
6
Group coaching
In this chapter we will look at:
what we mean by group coaching
the important links between adult learning and group coaching
how coaching can be used to develop groups of staff.
Much of the coaching that has been discussed up until this point involves two (or
three) people engaging in a coaching conversation. Group coaching takes this a
stage further. It is where a group of staff identify a common issue or CPD need,
which is then addressed in a group setting, usually facilitated by one or more colleagues the coach or coaches. There is an important point to be made here.
Anybody who is going to be facilitating such a group session needs to have a good
understanding of how adults learn best. We must be very careful not to make the
assumption that a good teacher who knows how to facilitate the learning of children will naturally be able to work in the same way and be effective with adults.
The field of adult learning was pioneered by Malcolm Knowles and colleagues
(2005). He identified the following characteristics of adult learners:
They are autonomous and self-directed so a group coach needs to facilitate their
learning and to engage them actively in the learning process. The learning
should be done with them and not to them.
They have accumulated a foundation of life experiences and knowledge that will
include professional knowledge. The coach needs to be able to draw this out and
link it to the learning.
They are goal-oriented. The coach, therefore, must show colleagues how the session
will help them to achieve their goals.
They are relevancy-oriented so the learning must be relevant to their role and of
value to them.
They are practical. What will they be able to take away from the session that will
help them to do their job better?
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As we move towards a more personalised learning experience for pupils, it is important that we adopt a similar philosophy for the CPD needs of our staff. Schools have
a very large and varied staff in terms of skills, experience and motivation with this
comes a wide range of development needs. It is therefore important that staff are
given a range of CPD activities, including group coaching, to address these needs.
One approach to achieving this is to move away from the one size fits all approach
to traditional school closure days, where all teachers sit together in a hall and are
presented with the same training. This time could be more effectively disaggregated
into after-school twilight sessions.
(Continued)
GROUP COACHING
(Continued)
Departments are also offered the opportunity to run one of their own twilights,
specific to their own needs and linked to the Department Development Plan.
The teachers have responded very well to these sessions. Many staff commented favourably on being able to choose the focus for their CPD. The success of the sessions has been largely due to the fact that staff have a great deal
of respect for their peers and have enjoyed hearing about how they have
approached a particular issue. Having your own colleagues leading the sessions puts the topic into context and allows staff to follow up any issues with
the person who led the session. This is usually not possible when you attend
an external training course.
At its inception, this model was never really intended to be a coaching-based
initiative. It was simply a way of facilitating the sharing of best practice
amongst staff. However, over the years, the sessions have certainly evolved
into group coaching sessions. Although the people leading the sessions will
have exhibited best practice in those particular fields, they do not claim to be
experts. They are there to share their own practice and to facilitate discussion,
sharing and learning among their peers. This is often done by posing challenging questions and encouraging colleagues to share their practice and find
the solutions to their own problems all attributes of effective coaching.
To ensure approaches, such as the one described at Littlehampton, work well in any
setting, it is worth briefing the session facilitator on the following points:
Enable all members of the group to have their say draw out their experiences.
Clarify what you hope to get out of the session and, also, what they hope to
get out of the session.
Use challenging questioning.
Encourage colleagues to listen to each other and reflect.
Provide a sensitive and thorough explanation of the goals for the session.
Make it clear that you are not the font of all knowledge, but are happy to share
your experiences with them in order to develop their work.
Encourage colleagues to commit to action!
So, when planning such a session, consider the following:
Clear objectives for the session what do you hope staff will get out of the session?
Personal goals and live issues what do your colleagues hope to gain from
the session? What concerns do they have about the issue that they would like
to be explored during the session? Remember, it is fine if you dont have the
answers, but what you can do is facilitate discussion within the group to help
find a solution.
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Your perspective and experiences on the issues being discussed you have been
asked to lead the session because you have demonstrated best practice in this
area. Share this with your colleagues What works? What doesnt? What have
you learned about the issue?
Sharing the experiences of the whole group related to the issue you will have
a wealth of experience within your group make sure you tease out and share
all the good practice that already exists within it.
Some kind of activity that involves colleagues working in small groups on a
topic related to the issue.
Time for group discussion this is one of the most valuable elements of the
sessions the opportunity to discuss the issue with colleagues that you may not
normally work with.
A few concrete examples of strategies to go away and try in order to address the
issue.
Encouraging the group to commit to action! What are they going to do differently to address the issue?
As well as the obvious advantages of transferring new skills, there have also been a
number of added bonuses from these sessions:
The self-esteem of staff has been raised as they are now facilitating the professional development of others. This makes them feel valued.
We are beginning to see a shift in culture at the school colleagues now feel
more comfortable working outside their subject areas (a familiar problem in secondary schools).
Pedagogy is no longer a dirty word.
Staff feel a sense of ownership over their own CPD.
Excellent value for money the only costs involved in running such a programme are for tea, coffee and biscuits! However, we would argue that the
impact is much greater than, for example, sending somebody on a course that
costs 500 at a venue a hundred miles away.
It is worth exploring the other ways in which teams can use coaching to galvanise
and develop themselves. In this sense, a team can be a group of individuals with
a common purpose but brought together for a variety of reasons such as:
they all work within the same area, for example subject or pastoral teams
they all have a similar role, for example middle leaders
they all work in the same school.
GROUP COACHING
(Continued)
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(Continued)
As a follow-up to this process, the head of department also analysed the tick-lists
that were completed during the observations. The team then looked to see if the
things that they thought made for effective teaching and learning were actually
observed during the lessons. Of course, some were and some were not. This was
fine, as the aspects that were not observed could then become an area of development for the whole department with a view to turning weaknesses into
strengths. Again, the useful aspect of this approach was that the members of the
team were, in effect, judging themselves. They had chosen the criteria, made a
judgement about how effectively as a group they were meeting these criteria,
and then devised some action points to address the deficiencies.
GROUP COACHING
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Summary
Group coaching can be an effective way to engage teachers in professional learning.
It is also an effective team development tool. When implementing group coaching,
ensure that those people facilitating the session have an appreciation and understanding of the principles of adult learning.
Further reading
Knowles, M., Holton, E. and Swanson, R. (2005) The Adult Learner. Boston, MA: ButterworthHeinemann.
7
Coaching in challenging
circumstances
This chapter is of particular interest to school leaders. In it we will:
look at how two schools used coaching to help them to move out of special
measures
consider how the coaching model may be used in different ways in
challenging circumstances for whole-staff training and for the
development of the practice of individuals and departments.
The integrity of the coaching process can certainly come under pressure, and yet
it can be a key to improvement in schools that are working in challenging
circumstances, including those that have been categorised as requiring a Notice
to Improve or Special Measures. Schools in such circumstances exhibit common
features:
Improvement in performance becomes urgent and school leaders begin looking
for strategies that will have an immediate impact.
Initially the school may enter a phase of denial and teachers will certainly experience a severe dip in morale. The self-esteem of even the most accomplished
and confident teachers may take a tumble.
Fairly quickly, if the school is to respond positively to its situation, key weaknesses in teaching and learning will be recognised and CPD arrangements will be
put in place to support teachers in making rapid progress in, for example, delivering effective three-part lessons or introducing useful assessment strategies.
As the process continues, teachers will begin to feel that they are being inspected
and judged at every turn. They will therefore often welcome opportunities for
professional dialogue without the risk of being graded 1 to 4.
This is where coaching can be crucial in helping colleagues to internalise rapidly
the necessary skills that will lead, over a relatively short period of time, to significant improvements in teaching and learning. Given the right sort of leadership,
54
teachers do become liberated by their situation and become willing to take more
risks in the classroom than they might have done in normal circumstances.
The distinctions between mentoring and coaching may well become blurred as good
practitioners seek to support colleagues who may feel, and indeed be, de-skilled.
Systems for running a coaching programme may be invented on the hoof during
or indeed after the event. The school should be pragmatic and use its good teachers to make a difference to the practice of others. Improvement in practice across a
school with significant challenges can be dramatic if a climate of trust is created
and when coaching and mentoring become central platforms, as the following case
studies demonstrate.
(Continued)
(Continued)
teachers were allocated a coach during their training and observed coaches
teaching as part of their induction. Two of the coaches were trained in pupil
behaviour modification and contributed to the graduates programme and to
whole-staff training to ensure that behaviour management was, as far as possible, based on consistent principles and to help teachers develop an appropriate
repertoire of pupil management strategies.
At this stage, the impact of the coaching process was particularly marked for
the graduate trainees and was evaluated both by lesson observation and by
feedback from the graduate teachers themselves. Moreover, all the teachers
who had offered their time to support others actually improved their own practice. This is not really a surprise. After all, they had to reflect on what they were
doing in order to explain and demonstrate to others.
In the report which led to special measures being withdrawn from the school,
three years after it was instigated, HMI observed: Many lessons taken by the
new trainees were taught well and adhered to the good practice guidance
issued by the school. The school has begun to tackle the long-term weaknesses
in teaching with increased vigour.
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Teacher A
Figure 7.1
Teacher C
Bill Whiting used the audit of teaching and learning and his knowledge of the staff
to ensure that the trios had the right sort of chemistry. He watched the process
closely, took feedback from colleagues and adjusted the groupings when they did
not appear to be functioning well. After working with two colleagues on assessment
for learning, one teacher commented:
It felt like someone had invented the thing I had been trying to create for some
time. It was that powerful. We developed an assessment tool to use across all years
and all abilities.
How coaching trios are put together will be a strategic decision for individual
schools. You may wish to consider the following:
1 A, B and C are all equal for example, they are good practitioners who are all
looking to develop their coaching skills.
2 A, B and C are all from different subject areas within a school. One of these areas
may be a strength of the school, whilst the other two may require some
improvement.
3 A is a teacher with a particular talent in a specific area, for example using group
work. B and C are teachers who wish (need) to develop this area.
At Mayfield it quickly became apparent that the colleagues in the most successful trios:
gave each other confidence
shared their ideas freely
enabled each other to reflect on their teaching and to commit to trying out new
strategies
developed their coaching skills.
After the work on assessment for learning, a follow-up training day was arranged
during which a range of practice was shared in a show and tell session. This was
highly significant. For example, the headteacher had been involved in one trio that
had helped an outstanding graduate trainee to develop an excellent peer assessment
strategy for her year 7 English class. She observed at the time:
You can learn so much from your peers. Its great to listen to other peoples ideas and
its a great confidence booster when other people like yours. I was initially nervous
about the idea of the coaching trio particularly as I had the headteacher in my
group.
Despite any initial nervousness, the experience was a success and the heads
involvement indicated the importance that the school attached to coaching.
Moreover, some of the ideas on show had been developed by colleagues whose
practice was not seen as outstanding. So the message was clear coaching works
for all sorts of teachers at all levels of experience and is endorsed by the senior
team.
After about a year, as colleagues moved on, the trios were seen to be losing their
impact so Bill began to organise CPD coaching into groups of six in order to revitalise the sharing of good practice.
Three years on
Lessons were now being recorded on video for analysis in coaching conversations
and the school had the technology to enable coaches to talk to teachers via an earpiece whilst lessons were being observed.
The school had developed a tightly knit coaching team that was managed by Vicky
Whitlock, now an advanced skills teacher (AST), and had instituted a teaching and
learning group which was useful in identifying pedagogical issues that could be
addressed through one-to-one coaching or through the schools CPD arrangements.
Performance management also routinely helped colleagues to identify needs for
which they could volunteer for coaching.
On reflection, Bill likened coaching to a virus that adapts to the climate of the
school. At Mayfield it had clearly gone through several mutations. As the climate
had improved, beyond special measures, people wanted to improve their practice
and began to walk through the door into the schools coaching programme.
Vickys own practice had developed significantly. She noted that coaching had
helped her to stop trying to soak up other peoples problems like a sponge. She was
now a mirror that reflected back. Coaching was about stepping into their coachees
world and seeing things from their perspective and, by asking questions, enabling
them to see their own problems and to find their own solutions. People solved
problems for themselves in the long term, she said, so being coached was not a
quick fix but a life-changing experience.
She was clear about the importance of helping her coachees to set their own targets and had developed an interesting strategy. At the end of a coaching conversation she would produce a small box into which the coachee would place the
target for the week. The box, which could be held by either Vicky or her colleague
would then be produced at the start of the next meeting and the coachee would
remove the slip of paper and discuss whether the target had been achieved a simple technique that is likely to increase the commitment of teachers to carry out
their stated intentions.
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Another impetus to the development of coaching was the work that the school was
undertaking in developing literacy strategies (see the science department case study
below). As Julie Woodward put it, for the literacy to work, it had to sit on a bed of
coaching.
The lead coaches developed several ideas that raised the profile of coaching in the
school. For example, they provided teaching and learning boxes that contained useful materials to enable teachers to widen their repertoire, and they instituted Tell
Forms that teachers were asked to complete when they had successfully tried out a
new idea. Each week the department that had been the most innovative received a
prize at the Friday staff briefing! These strategies helped to create a climate in which
colleagues were willing to try out new ideas and to be coached in applying them.
The lead coaches also took care of the coaching team. They were available for coaching conversations with members of the team and they set up regular meetings for the
coaches to share their ideas and concerns, providing tea and doughnuts as a thank you.
Trevor is very clear that the sustainability and success of coaching was in no small part
due to the leadership provided by Sue and Julie. He regarded them as key drivers of the
programme, essentially because they led from the front, organised further training,
liaised with members of the senior team and kept morale buoyant when the going got
tough. He reflected, Beware of taking coaches for granted. They need to be recognised.
Julie endorsed this view and made some telling points about the management of
coaching in a large comprehensive school:
coaches need line managers
the school needs to develop a climate in which all leaders understand the value
of coaching and are supportive of it
time is needed for ongoing training for the coaches and, for example, for video
coaching conversations.
(Continued)
(Continued)
The plan included, as one of its actions, the appointment of a coach for each
member of the department, including temporary staff. The intention was that the
coaches would work alongside the teachers to plan lessons for specific groups of
children that were identified by the teachers as posing significant challenges.
A joint planning meeting was held between the coaches and the science teachers at the start of the term. This was a difficult situation that carried considerable risks. Nevertheless by the end of the meeting it was clear that the coaches
and members of the department had begun to build rapport and requests were
made by department members to be paired with specific coaches.
As the initiative got under way, joint planning between coaches and coachees
did indeed take place but this was in practice only a small part of the collaborative work that was undertaken. For example, the coaches offered their science
colleagues Inset sessions that were based on the schools good practice in the
development of literacy for learning. This training, in the opinion of the schools
lead literacy coach, was a key to the success of the project because it provided
some tools that the teachers could use to help their students to talk and write
more effectively about their science an issue that the scientists had recognised
from the outset and it was something that did not encroach directly on their
expertise as science teachers.
In addition, there were one-to-one coaching conversations to support the
implementation of the work on literacy and some partnerships focused on
active engagement strategies, classroom management and dealing with stuck
pupils. In some cases the coaches provided in-class support and others were
present in the science corridors at lesson changeovers to help to settle the children. In effect, the coaches responded to the needs of the science teachers as
they emerged and did so positively, non-judgementally and with empathy.
At the outset, it was the coaches who provided the positive energy and unfailing
optimism that is needed for things to improve, but as the process continued it
became clear to Julie Woodward that the science team was developing what she
called the Dunkirk spirit. They were supporting each other, sharing ideas about
teaching and class management and, in doing so, the morale of the department
was rising. Over the period of the initiative, the department won the schools weekly
prize for sharing innovative ideas for teaching on three occasions, and this undoubtedly
contributed to the teachers feeling good about themselves and their work.
At the end of term, Sue Bond summed up the benefits of the programme, as
she saw them, as follows:
it had helped the science teachers to refocus their energies on teaching and
learning
the morale of the department had improved
sharing ideas and talking about teaching and learning had become the norm.
The lead coaches prepared a report in which they included the following quantitative data that was helpful in evaluating the impact of the initiative:
staff absences declined in the department by over 60% during the term
the departments use of the schools on-call system dropped by over 30%
during the term, compared with the previous four months
the teachers massively increased their use of key learning and teaching
strategies.
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20
20
40
63
34
100
48
80
60
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80
Effective questioning
92
40
52
13
30
55
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60
Figure 7.2
Figure 7.2 summarises these improvements and is based on the schools walk-through
monitoring of the department before and towards the end of the initiative. In addition, qualitative data was obtained from interviews with teachers and students. Some
of the most telling comments are included below:
Science staff
The coaches have had a huge impact in terms of support.
It has been nice to know that [coach] was interested in what I was doing and was
there if I needed her.
Meeting with the coaches has given me the confidence to develop new ideas.
I think it was a fantastic idea. It definitely raised morale.
People are sharing and talking about teaching again.
Students
Our teacher has changed and become nicer.
Our teacher jokes with us now.
We do experiments every day! Its well good.
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(Continued)
And what did his students think? They had certainly seen a change and had
commented in the feedback:
Our teacher is wicked great!
Its fun.
Weve had loads of great lessons.
Summary
With the right leadership, which can clearly come from different places in the organisation, teachers in challenging schools can be persuaded to see coaching as a positive
way of addressing their immediate professional needs. However, it is clear that the
whole-hearted and long-term support of senior leadership is needed for coaching to be
accepted and to become a significant factor in school improvement.
Schools, particularly when under the pressure of regular inspection visits, need to
identify key staff who will drive the coaching initiative and who will provide good
leadership and management of the coaching team.
It is important to ensure that the coaches develop their confidence and skills by
working with each other, after their initial training, before they take on the job of
supporting their colleagues across the school.
Ongoing training will be needed for the coaches as well as opportunities for them
to meet to discuss their work and to be coached.
Some means will need to be found to measure the impact of coaching on teaching
and learning. This issue is explored in more detail in Chapter 10.
Be prepared to allow the coaching model in the school to change, or to mutate,
as the climate in the school and the needs of the staff change.
8
The first steps for school
leaders
This chapter is of particular interest to school leaders and will
consider:
how to carry out a whole-school CPD audit
how to identify and train potential coaches
how to establish whole-school coaching protocols.
As school leaders, it is important to have a very clear insight into the CPD needs of
our staff and we recommend surveying staff CPD needs on a regular basis, using a
questionnaire (see Figure 8.1 for an example).
Poor
OK
Subject
Good
CPD activity
I would like to
be offered
more
opportunities
for this type
of activity
Figure 8.1
Photocopiable:
The Coaching Toolkit Shaun Allison and Michael Harbour, 2009 (SAGE)
Rating
3.0
2.6
2.6
2.6
2.6
2.5
2.4
2.3
2.3
2.3
2.2
2.2
2.1
2.1
2.1
1.9
1.9
1.8
4
3
2
1
Figure 8.2
=
=
=
=
very good
good
okay
poor
CPD activities rated by how well they were being used at Littlehampton
CPD activity
31.9
31.9
29.8
27.7
27.7
23.4
21.3
21.3
17.0
17.0
17.0
14.9
12.8
10.6
8.5
8.5
4.3
4.3
Figure 8.3 CPD activities rated by the percentage of staff that wanted more opportunities
to engage in that type of CPD
(Continued)
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(Continued)
Some interesting comments made by staff about their CPD included the following:
I feel that we have some excellent expertise in school and need more
opportunity to share this between colleagues.
I think that working with other schools who exhibit best practice in your
subject is a useful strategy for improving your own.
I would really like cross-school observations to see departments and classes
across the county.
Sitting in the hall all day, being talked at, is generally viewed as a waste of
precious time. Even if the speakers are good, it is often repetitive. Could at
least some of them be optional for those who wish to focus on that aspect?
Much more shared planning and observation of other staff would be excellent as would time to plan within faculties.
I would like more opportunity to observe and be observed by my peers in
a non-judgemental way.
It is a good idea then to offer a range of CPD activities that allow staff to develop their
own teaching skills, from the existing good practice of their colleagues. The one size
fits all approach does not work, so avoid having everyone sit in the hall for a day
being spoken to by an external speaker. We suggest that good CPD should involve:
sharing existing expertise with colleagues
observing and being observed by peers in a non-judgemental way
planning collaboratively (within or across departments)
developing resources with colleagues.
These are all issues that can be addressed by coaching. The questionnaire is a useful
resource, as it can give a very clear indication of whether the climate within a school
is right for coaching.
It is very important to be clear about what you want to achieve from coaching.
When we start working with a school on coaching, it soon becomes clear that there
is a large number of excellent teachers within the school, many of whom have the
capacity to develop others. In essence, this is the objective of coaching to use the
expertise that already exists within the school to draw out and develop the skills of
other teachers. This is not a new idea and it certainly isnt rocket science. What we
need to do, at every possible opportunity, is to provide opportunities for colleagues
to talk to each other and work with each other on aspects of teaching and learning.
Once you are clear about what you want coaching to do for you, consider what
would be the most appropriate coaching model for your school. For example:
a small group of teaching and learning coaches to work with colleagues on an
issue of their choice
developing coaching skills with the whole staff
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Using one of these routes you will identify potential coaches who should then be
invited to attend training in order to find out more about coaching and to consider
whether they would wish to commit to playing a key role in the development of
the schools coaching programme (see Chapter 9 for an outline of an initial training day). Of course, the training experience will be useful in helping you to decide
which of your colleagues have the necessary qualities and skills to become effective
coaches. Sometimes the training identifies colleagues who are temperamentally not
suited to coaching, because they simply cannot overcome the desire to tell others
what to do!
Following the training, it will be useful for the coaches to carry on practising their
skills on each other by conducting mutual lesson observations, giving nonjudgemental feedback (as described in Chapter 3) and conducting coaching conversations to develop further the four key skills (listening, reflecting, clarifying and
questioning). In the meantime the school will need to put in place the other essentials
a coaching protocol (see Chapter 9) and mechanisms for identifying the needs of
coachees and for matching coachee to coach.
The alternative approach to having a group of trained coaches is to have the whole
staff undergo some kind of coaching training. The obvious advantage to this is that
you then have a huge pool of potential coaches to draw from. If all the staff have
undergone some basic coaching training, then colleagues are able to support each
other in this way.
(Continued)
(Continued)
Programme for the day
The days were a great success. The coaches really bonded as a group and were
beginning to get a clear picture about what coaching was and the part they
could play in making it a success at Littlehampton.
Establishing protocols
Once you have decided what you want to achieve from coaching at your school, you
need to consider how you are going to do it. It is worth spending some time thinking through some protocols, and getting them in place, before you start any coaching. This is particularly the case if you are planning some one-to-one coaching
conversations. Consider the following questions:
What are our principles of coaching?
What protocols will we work to?
How will these protocols be established?
What will a coaching relationship look like in our school?
As we discussed in Chapter 3, ground rules for coaching are important because they
clarify the parameters within which you are working. There are broadly two ways
of establishing these protocols top down or bottom up. For the top-down
approach, those setting up the coaching programme decide on a set of protocols
and present them to the staff. They are told that this is the way the school thinks
coaching should work and that these are the protocols that have been established.
When we first started along the journey of coaching, this was the approach that we
took. The protocol that we used is similar to Figure 8.5.
When entering into a coaching relationship, both the coach and the coachee should
be asked to read and sign the document. Although this may seem rather formal, it simply serves to outline what the process would involve and how it would work. It is
important that everything is transparent and open and, by doing this, people feel
comfortable enough to engage with the process. The other advantage of this approach
is that it acts as a prompt, generating discussion on what coaching is all about.
Similarly, it is important to explain that lesson observation, if part of the coaching
process, should not be judgemental.
71
Dear ___________
We are currently in the process of setting up a teaching and learning coaching
programme at ___________ School. The principles of this are very simple good,
effective and reflective classroom practitioners are trained in the skills of coaching
to work alongside other colleagues, with a view to drawing out and developing
good practice.
We very much appreciate the work that you do at __________ School and would
like to ask you to consider being a part of the programme as a coach. This would
involve the following:
The plan is to have ____ coaches trained and in place by _____________, with a
view to training a further ____ by _______________. The Department for Children,
Schools and Families (DCSF) recognises that coaching is an essential skill for
potential school leaders, as well as one of the key criteria for passing through the
performance thresholds. So from the point of view of your own professional
development, being involved in this programme would be invaluable.
I would be really grateful if you would contact me before the end of this week
so that we can make an appointment for early next half-term to discuss your
involvement in this programme.
I look forward to chatting with you soon.
Regards
(Coaching Co-ordinator)
Figure 8.4
Photocopiable:
The Coaching Toolkit Shaun Allison and Michael Harbour, 2009 (SAGE)
The objective of peer coaching is to improve the quality of teaching by developing and sharing good
practice. It is a collaborative process.
Colleagues have been identified who are willing to share their practice and to support the development of teaching and classroom management skills in others. In the process, they too will develop their skills.
No one will enter a coaching relationship without the agreement of both parties.
Signed:__________________________________________
__________________________________________
Date:
Figure 8.5
_________________________________________
Photocopiable:
The Coaching Toolkit Shaun Allison and Michael Harbour, 2009 (SAGE)
74
The alternative approach to setting protocols is to do it from the bottom up, allowing the staff to decide what the protocols would be. This is an important process
for the staff to go through, as it will achieve two objectives:
1 Demystifying coaching by coming up with the protocols themselves, staff are able
to work through some of the issues that they might otherwise have had with it.
2 Ownership by coming up with the protocols themselves, the staff would be
clear that this is not something being done to them, but in fact is a process over
which they have control.
The staff response to this question was quite significant. It was evident that the
teachers wanted the process to be clear and transparent, but also that the
coaching pairing had to be right. It had to be one built on mutual trust and
respect, as well as being non-judgemental and confidential. The climate was
therefore right for peer coaching at our school, and the staff were ready to
move on with it.
The responses to the second question gave the following useful suggestions for
establishing coaching within a school:
Set up coaching partnerships for all staff.
Volunteer for coaching marrying up coaches and coachees both parties
must be happy with choices to enable a successful partnership.
Use informal, non-judgemental coaching.
Allow it to develop through staff being able to chat informally about an area
or problem.
Promote it as a norm perhaps most staff could have a named coach who
they can speak with should they wish. They dont have to but they can.
(Continued)
(Continued)
Create a culture of trust and positivity.
Give staff the opportunity to observe their peers.
Make all staff aware of what coaching is and that it can be very specific to
their needs.
Ensure staff realise that it is non-judgemental and confidential.
Give new and existing staff the opportunity to choose their coach to ensure
good relationships, trust and respect.
Focus on making it a sharing experience. Lots of classroom teachers are
quite good at this already sometimes responsibility gives people a front
that discourages sharing. They sometimes hide behind the appearance of
coping or knowing better.
This process was hugely significant. It was interesting to see that many of the suggestions were far more ambitious than would have been otherwise suggested. For
example, the notion of allocating everybody a coach was not something that we
had contemplated. Although this is very positive and affirming it may not have
been the right thing to do. Coaching will only work if the person wants to be
coached and if that person has some control over whom she or he will work with.
To allocate everybody a coach, whether they want it or not, goes against these two
important premises. The suggestion that people should volunteer to coach and be
coached was more in line with the way successful coaching develops. What was
coming through quite strongly was the notion that people saw this as a positive
process and that they were interested.
If you are starting from scratch in terms of setting up coaching as a whole-school
process, we would almost certainly suggest the bottom-up approach to establishing
coaching protocols. Why?
It gives staff a sense of ownership over the process it is something that they are
in control of and it is not something that is being done to them.
It allows staff to air and address their concerns over the process.
As a result, they are far more likely to engage in coaching.
(Continued)
75
76
(Continued)
interview discussing various fictional coaching scenarios. After the first year,
these two teachers left the school and therefore the role was available again.
Katie Morgan became one of two teacher coaches and the roles have been
developing since then.
Coaching is non-judgemental and confidential, and is an important part of the
CPD process within the college. Although it has to be evaluated and reported
on to senior leadership, they are unaware of who has been coached. Evaluations
are kept anonymous and feedback is used to improve what is offered.
Process
Teacher coaches are available for all staff to use throughout the year it is not
simply a process for teachers who are experiencing difficulties or underperforming. Currently, all NQTs and second-year teachers go through the coaching
process as part of their school induction support and services are also offered to
all staff, including unqualified teachers and classroom supervisors. A group of
ten teachers who are currently on the Clarendon Middle Leadership Course
have been worked with this year, the intention being that they recommend
coaching to colleagues they line manage.
Five lessons are identified for coaching over a two-week timetable. One of these
lessons is used for a meeting with the line manager and the other four are for
lesson observations and feedback sessions. An observation is arranged and the
coach and coachee agree on one or two areas to concentrate on. The feedback
session takes place a couple of days after the observation and is an informal
conversation about the lesson and how to move the teacher forward. Teachers
can then decide if they would like the coach to return to observe them with the
same class or a different class after an agreed period of time. Some teachers
choose to have only one session whereas others use the coaches on a regular
basis throughout the year.
Impact
The process has been carried out with approximately 20 teachers so far this year
and initial feedback has been very positive. Evaluations from last year have
shown that coaching has made a significant contribution to raising standards of
teaching and learning within the college and this has had an impact on lesson
observations using Ofsted-style gradings.
Summary
It is important to think carefully about what you want coaching to achieve in your
school and to carry out a CPD audit to determine where coaching may already be
happening and where there may be gaps in provision.
Deciding on the approach that is right for your school is also vital as there is no one
size fits all approach to coaching it has to be right for your context. To ensure that
you are using the right approach, it is important to think carefully about who to
train initially in the skills of coaching and how you will do it. Be clear about how you
will set up coaching protocols top down or bottom up and ensure that these
protocols are adhered to by staff.
Electronic resources
Go to www.sagepub.co.uk/allison for electronic resources for this chapter
Teaching audit
Procedures for peer coaching
CPD staff questionnaire
Protocol for peer coaching
Sample coach invite letter
Further reading
Fleming, I. and Taylor, A. (1998) The Coaching Pocketbook. Alresford: Management Pocketbooks.
77
9
Establishing peer coaching across
the school
This chapter is of particular interest to school leaders and will
consider:
issues that arise regarding coaching and how to deal with them
selling the idea of coaching to the whole school
identifying the needs of coachees and matching them with a coach
meeting the needs of the coaches.
So, you have decided that you are going to use coaching to develop the quality of
teaching and learning at your school. You are clear about the purpose of coaching
and what you want it to do. You may have some trained coaches in place all ready
to go. You may even have had the whole staff trained. You have also developed
some agreed protocols for coaching. The difficult bit is getting staff to subscribe to
coaching and then doing it. Only then will it actually begin to have any impact.
This chapter will examine how to do that.
There are many potential pitfalls with coaching. Some of these can be anticipated
and addressed, in order to avoid them becoming an impediment to developing
coaching in your school. Some of the issues or questions that staff may have
regarding coaching are outlined below, along with some possible ways to address
them.
Im doing it already
To be honest, this is probably true. When setting up coaching in schools, you will
be refining many of the skills that already exist amongst staff. Coaching is not
rocket science and many good teachers do it quite naturally. If this is the case, great
but how can these colleagues develop coaching skills in others? Engaging in the
schools coaching programme will refine their skills and make them better placed
to develop future coaches.
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80
Demystify coaching
This ties in with the point above and is key to the success of coaching in schools.
A big breakthrough is made with coaching when it is presented, explained and
discussed with all staff. They can then see the purpose of it and also its potential. However, this can only really happen once all staff have had the opportunity to try it out for themselves. Nevertheless, it may be worth devoting some
time at a staff meeting to explaining the rationale behind coaching and initial
plans before going too far. (See the initial slides in the Coaching for Performance
PowerPoint presentation, included in the electronic resources for this chapter,
for some ideas.)
I havent got time for this, why cant I just tell them what to do?
A common and perfectly natural response bearing in mind the hectic and busy
ways in which schools operate. However, if this is all we ever do, then all our colleagues will do is continue to ask instead of looking to find the solutions for themselves. Coaching is about breaking the cycle of dependency, which in turn results
in sustainable progress.
Just as we have argued for the value of trios in the training of a small group of
coaches, so learning sets of threes can be an effective way of maintaining coaching
across the staff.
One advantage of developing coaching trios is that the focus is very much on
planning and sharing ideas rather than necessarily on lesson observation and feed-
back. This addresses a problem that was identified by Joyce and Showers in their
work on peer coaching teams (1996: 1216). They observed that:
when teachers try to give one another feedback, collaborative activity tends to disintegrate. Peer coaches told us they found themselves slipping into supervisory, evaluative comments despite their intentions to avoid them [Teachers] often pressured
their coaches to go beyond technical feedback and give them the real scoop.
Their solution was to move away from the observation and discussion format to
coaching teams, which are not unlike our trios.
The other group of people who need to subscribe to the idea of coaching, if it is
going to be a success in your school, is the leadership team. They need to be modelling a coaching approach when dealing with colleagues, if it is going to become
a common way of working within the school. How can this be done?
Initially, you may need to explain the rationale behind coaching to the senior
leadership team (SLT). Unpacking Joyce and Showers research (2002 and see
Chapter 2) and exploring the advantages of coaching as opposed to other forms
of CPD have proved to be useful starting points in some schools.
Train the senior team in coaching skills. Suggest that they go through the initial training programme, either as a group or mixed in with other staff, depending on their availability and on the messages that they wish to send to their
colleagues.
Encourage them to attend and participate in coaching-based Inset days. You
have seen at Mayfield School (Chapter 7) what a powerful message is sent to the
staff when, for example, the headteacher takes a clear and visible coaching role
as part of a schools CPD activity.
Engage school leaders with National College for School Leadership (NCSL) programmes such as Leading from the Middle, Leadership Pathways and the
National Professional Qualification for Headteachers, all of which use coaching
as part of the training process.
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82
Name: ________________________________________
Department: ___________________________________
Date: __________________________________________
For which aspect(s) of your role would you like coaching support?
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
The coaching co-ordinator will talk with you confidentially to clarify the issues
and to find the most suitable coaching match for you.
A coach will then be identified for you to work with.
You and the coach will meet to agree a focus and a plan.
You will review the work that you do together each half-term, or earlier if the
coaching process is completed in less time.
The coaching protocol will be followed throughout the process.
Figure 9.1
Photocopiable:
The Coaching Toolkit Shaun Allison and Michael Harbour, 2009 (SAGE)
84
and the training needs of the coaches. Establish a clear protocol for the work of the
forum. Commonly, it is useful to agree that the names of the coachees are never
used in discussions. It may also be useful to require that the half-termly reviews
between coaches and coachees have been completed before the coaching forum
takes place. The reflections of all parties to the coaching process, summarised in
this way, give a greater focus to the meeting.
It may be useful to organise the coaches into self-support pairs or trios tasked to
provide ongoing coaching support for each other. After all, the coaches, in common with all staff, will need coaching from time to time. Alternatively, the coaching co-ordinator could provide coaching support for the coaches, either directly or
by engaging the services of an external consultant. It would be usual for the ongoing training needs of the coaches to be identified through one or other of the
mechanisms suggested above.
Finally, it is important that the school finds ways of acknowledging the demanding work that the coaches have undertaken.
Above all, the challenge for the go-between is to use emotional intelligence to identify those colleagues who are likely to strike up good rapport and to engage the
human heart in the coaching process.
Summary
It is important to have a clear strategy of how you are going to sell coaching to your
staff and get all members involved. This can be done by setting up coaching trios
or clusters across departments and giving these groups specific tasks to carry out
which will impact on the quality of teaching and learning in your school.
It is also important to dedicate time to sharing ideas about how to teach, for example by providing opportunities on training days for colleagues to discuss and
demonstrate what they have been doing, and to find opportunities for recognising
the work of the coaches.
By encouraging your senior team to get involved in coaching you will encourage
more people to take it up, but do remember that considerable tact and sensitivity
are needed when pairing up colleagues into coaching partnerships.
Electronic resources
Go to www.sagepub.co.uk/allison for electronic resources for this chapter
The coaching cycle
Coaching for performance PowerPoint presentation
Coaching for performance training plan
Coaching for performance programme
Request for coaching form
85
10
Measuring impact
This chapter is of particular interest to school leaders. In it we
will look at:
why the impact of coaching on teaching and learning needs to be
measured
the different ways in which this can be done
how to review how coaching is developing in your school.
If any school is to succeed, it is not enough to have a good idea and then put it
into practice. A good idea is only good when it translates into positive outcomes
until then, it is just an idea. This is the case for coaching in schools. In earlier chapters, we discussed the need to establish a schools vision for coaching what do you
want it to become and what do you want it to achieve? With this in mind, it is
imperative to consider how you will monitor and evaluate whether or not coaching
is achieving these objectives.
Can coaches and coachees contribute to the review of success while maintaining confidentiality and trust?
What data could be gathered to infer or confirm that the coaching process
has been successful?
What is the role of other colleagues (other than coach and coachee) in monitoring the impact of coaching?
What role could the children play in confirming the success of coaching?
It is worth taking some time to consider why we should monitor and evaluate the
impact of any CPD activity, such as coaching, in schools.
Here are some possible reasons:
To improve the coaching process, with a view to further improving teaching and
learning.
MEASURING IMPACT
To improve the self-esteem of the coachees. If they feel that the process has been
useful and has made a difference, they will feel better about themselves. This
will undoubtedly have a positive effect on their performance.
To provide an evidence bank for Ofsted inspections. The fact that schools are
engaging in coaching will be viewed as a positive move. If it can be demonstrated that coaching is having a positive impact on teaching and learning,
even better.
To justify the process to stakeholders. It is highly likely that coaching will draw
on the schools resources. It will be easier to justify this to stakeholders such as
the governing body if positive outcomes can be identified.
To grow and develop coaching. Once reluctant colleagues see that it works, they
may be more likely to engage with coaching.
However, the process of monitoring and evaluating the impact of coaching is fraught
with difficulties. It could be argued that it goes against the whole principle of coaching.
Firstly, coaching is meant to be a confidential and non-judgemental process. As soon as
you start measuring the effectiveness of it, these principles could be compromised.
Secondly, coaching is just one of many interventions that could be having an impact
on teaching and learning. There will be many other variables involved, for example
other discussions with colleagues, reading an article in a journal, own self-reflection,
a discussion at a staff or department meeting and so on. It is very difficult to draw a
direct link between an improvement in the quality of teaching and learning and any
coaching that the teacher may have engaged in. These two issues can be addressed by
considering what can be measured to evaluate impact and how this can be done.
87
88
Starters
Plenaries
Learning objectives
Figure 10.1
Differentiation
Aspect of teaching
Starters
Plenaries
Learning objectives
Differentiation
Figure 10.2
that they are not as threatening as a numerical value. The chart is concerned with
how people feel about themselves. However, from an analytical point of view, there
is nothing to stop these being turned into numerical values, making a quantitative
analysis of the impact possible.
A star diagram can also be used for coaching purposes. The example in Figure
10.3 focuses on the criteria for a good lesson. Teachers are encouraged to assess
themselves along each of the five spines, on a three-point grading system. They
can then join each of the five points to obtain a visual representation of their
own performance.
Questionnaire
Another way to get qualitative information from the coachee is by way of a simple
questionnaire. Although not as easy to anaylse in a numerical way, it will certainly
give feedback on the process. Some questions to consider include:
Has the coaching process been useful? Why?
What have been the main learning points for you from the process?
How has your practice changed as a result?
MEASURING IMPACT
Figure 10.3
What has been the impact of this change on the learning of your students?
What are your next steps?
How else can we continue to develop coaching at school? What changes should
we introduce for next year?
The last question is very important. Colleagues who have been coached often have
very good ideas about how to move coaching on in a school.
Coaching log
In Chapter 8, it was suggested that it is good practice for both the coach and the
coachee to keep a reflective coaching log that will enable them to focus further conversations and to record the progress of the coachee against his or her self-determined
targets. This log will provide evidence of progress over time. It is useful, perhaps
every half-term, to devote a coaching conversation to reviewing progress. The
coach will need to ask good questions to elicit the coachees realistic self-review and
to avoid negative self-talk. Any notes that are made in this meeting should be
agreed and should remain the property of the coachee (see Figure. 10.4 for an
example of a coaching review template).
89
Coaching review
Date and time
Action taken
(What have you
done differently?
What steps have
you taken?)
Signed:
Figure 10.4
What next?
(Have you any
targets for the next
steps?)
(Coachee)
Coaching review template
Photocopiable:
The Coaching Toolkit Shaun Allison and Michael Harbour, 2009 (SAGE)
(Coach)
MEASURING IMPACT
91
We are developing ways to help you improve your learning. This is called
Assessment for Learning and is a major part of the work of the school. In order to
help us develop this work, we need to know what you think about some of the
things that happen in lessons.
We will be taking your responses seriously so please try to answer as sensibly and
honestly as possible. Please think carefully about your responses to the questions
they only require you to put a tick or a cross in the relevant box.
The questionnaire is confidential all we want to know is your year group and
whether you are male or female.
Instructions
The first three columns ask whether or not a particular practice happens. The
other column is about your preferences.
Tick one box in the first three columns. Then tick or cross the last column to
indicate whether you would like this to happen or not.
After completing the questionnaire, hand it back to your tutor.
Year group
Male
Female
(Continued)
(Continued)
When teachers ask you questions in class do they:
Yes
No
Sometimes
Preferred/not
preferred
No
Sometimes
Preferred/
not preferred
(Continued)
When teachers mark your work do they:
Yes
No
Sometimes
Preferred/
not preferred
Student survey
Photocopiable:
The Coaching Toolkit Shaun Allison and Michael Harbour, 2009 (SAGE)
MEASURING IMPACT
Again, it is easier to make links between the coaching and the impact on teaching
and learning if the coaching has had a specific focus, for example on developing
the use of lesson starters.
There may be additional data available that could indicate the success in the coaching process. Perhaps a colleague has been coached in establishing positive relationships with children and clear rules and expectations in the classroom. In this case
it would be appropriate to look at the data on, for example, the teachers use of the
schools formal rewards and sanctions systems. Possibly a teacher has experienced
low self-esteem or stress symptoms as a result of difficulties and is reporting a more
positive feeling about the job as a result of peer coaching. This could be evidenced
in improved attendance by that teacher.
Student outcomes
It may be fair to assume that if coaching is being effective, then the quality of
teaching and learning should improve and, as a result, so should the student outcomes. This is a somewhat simplistic assumption to make. We have already mentioned the fact that there are many other factors at play when it comes to student
outcomes. With this in mind, it may be useful to focus the criteria more specifically. For example, if a teacher is being coached on improving the performance of
his or her students in their GCSE Science coursework, then it may be more realistic to use the coursework scores of those students as a yardstick of success in terms
of the coaching.
Attitudinal surveys
Experience has shown that coaching, if done well, will definitely improve the selfesteem and confidence of the coachee. This is difficult to measure, however a general attitudinal survey issued to staff will give you an insight into the impact of
coaching. It is important to give some careful thought to what you want to find out
from the survey and a quick internet search for teacher attitude survey will offer
guidance. For example, if a school wanted to gauge the willingness of staff to take
risks and try new strategies as a result of coaching, the survey provided in Figure
10.6 could be used.
95
Aspect of practice
Agree
strongly
I am a reflective practitioner
Figure 10.6
Photocopiable:
The Coaching Toolkit Shaun Allison and Michael Harbour, 2009 (SAGE)
Disagree
strongly
MEASURING IMPACT
Feedback from
coachee/coach reviews
Coaching
co-ordinator
data, findings from interviews with students, and student outcomes. This information is usually held by different colleagues in a large comprehensive school.
It could become the role of the coaching co-ordinator to gather this information in order to assess the impact of the coaching process (see Figure 10.7).
Schools often invest a good deal of resources in setting up coaching, and so
they need to develop effective mechanisms to ensure that the time and money
is well used.
97
Aspect of coaching
Embedded as a part
of our practice
a strength
Developing
strength
Peer coaching
Teacher is coached
by a peer on an area
of their choice
Specialist coaching
Teacher is coached
by a peer in a
specific area,
e.g. AfL
Co-coaching
Two teachers coach
each other
Team coaching
Coaching occurs
within a team,
e.g. department, on
a topic of interest
to them
Group coaching
One or two teachers
coach a group
Leadership coaching
Coaching is focused
specifically on
leadership
Figure 10.8
Photocopiable:
The Coaching Toolkit Shaun Allison and Michael Harbour, 2009 (SAGE)
MEASURING IMPACT
Summary
On its own, none of the strategies described above will enable you to measure fully
the impact of coaching or how it is developing in your school. However, when used
together the strategies described they will certainly go a long way towards giving a
very clear indication as to whether or not coaching is having an impact. We believe
that coaching can contribute to a major cultural shift in schools something that is
difficult to measure. When coaching becomes truly embedded, staff are more receptive to change, more open to discussing what goes on in their classrooms, more willing to share aspects of their best practice and more confident about what they are
doing. When this happens, then you know that coaching is really making a difference.
Electronic resources
Go to www.sagepub.co.uk/allison for electronic resources for this chapter
Coaching review template
Job satisfaction chart
Teacher attitudinal survey
Whole-school Coaching
Student survey
99
Steps to take
Questions to consider
(Continued)
Steps to take
Questions to consider
Establish
working
partnerships.
coaching
(Continued)
101
102
Steps to take
10
11
12
Questions to consider
How will coaching partnerships be established? How will
personalities and needs be
matched?
(See Chapter 9)
Will the forum be for all staff or
for a group of identified coaches?
Who will chair the meetings?
How will confidentiality be
maintained?
(See Chapter 9)
How should coaches, coachees,
children and colleagues with a
monitoring role contribute to the
evaluation of the impact of
coaching in the school?
How will confidentiality be
maintained when evaluating the
success of the programme?
(See Chapter 10)
Have the targets been met?
In the second year, will coaching
have a different focus?
Who will lead the second year of
development?
(See Chapters 47 for ideas about
different uses and contexts for
coaching)
See step 2.
GLOSSARY
Active listening: Occurs when the coach pays full attention to the coachees language, tone of voice, verbal images and figures of speech without being distracted
by his or her own thoughts or internal listening.
Clarifying questions: Help the coachee to identify the issue with precision and
to deepen thinking as well as to sort out misconceptions.
Coaching: A non-directive helping process that enables people to identify and
clarify issues, solve problems, commit to action, develop their skills, motivation
and self-esteem. The coach enables the coachee to find his or her own solutions by
using the skills of listening, questioning, reflecting and clarifying.
Co-coaching: An activity in which two colleagues coach each other in order to
develop aspects of their practice.
Group coaching: When one or two teachers coach a group of colleagues who
may have similar issues.
Incisive questions: Questions that are intended to get to the nub of an issue and
to cut through perceived limitations. They may present the coachee with real challenge. They should therefore be used with care.
Internal listening: The self-talk that goes on inside ones head that can act as
interference in a coaching conversation.
Intuitive listening: This occurs when the coach tunes in to the coachees
thoughts and feelings, to what is implied or suggested by non-verbal cues, to what
lies under the surface of the conversation.
Leadership coaching:
Locus of control: The mechanisms that people perceive are present to guide
and control the events in their lives and their behaviours. These may be internal
(determined by self) or external (determined by others). In coaching, the aim is to
help the coachee to identify which aspects of the situation are truly within their
control.
Mentoring: A helping process in which the mentor will offer expert knowledge,
advice and guidance. While the mentor may use the skills of coaching (listening,
104
GLOSSARY
questioning, reflecting and clarifying), they have a responsibility to oversee colleagues and for the evaluation of progress.
Mirroring: Used by the coach to reflect the body posture of the coachee in order
to put them at ease. This will require the coach to observe small signs in the body
language of the colleague and to respond appropriately. It may involve, for example, adopting a similar seating position or respecting the coachees sense of what
constitutes a safe distance between the two individuals.
Outcome questions: Useful towards the end of the conversation when the
coachee wishes to commit to action.
Peer coaching:
Preferred future state: An imagined future in which issues are resolved. Coaches
often help their clients to visualise this state in order to begin to formulate the first
steps towards it.
Reflective questions: Help coachees to think about their practice and why they
behave as they do as well as how they might change.
Scaling: A tool used in coaching to test the degree of success so far or to check commitment to future action. The coach may ask the coachee to assess, for example on a
scale of one to ten, the likelihood of taking the next step. A low score in this case is
likely to indicate lack of commitment or uncertainty about the course of action.
Self-talk (negative): The state of mind in which we feel that we cannot control
or improve our situation. The task of the coach is to assist the coachee to adopt realistic,
positive self-talk rather than the action-sapping negative.
Self-talk (positive): The talk that goes on in our heads in which we adopt a positive can do attitude to our challenges.
Solution-focused coaching: A term used in the literature to stress the positive,
action-focused nature of coaching that it is concerned to assist the coachee to
work away from a problem and towards a solution.
Specialist coaching: This occurs when a teacher uses specific expertise to support
the development of a particular aspect of a colleagues practice. It may require real
restraint on the part of the coach in order to avoid telling the coachee what to do.
Summarising questions:
been said.
Team coaching: This occurs when a department or other distinct team within
the staff use coaching techniques to develop their practice.
References
Department for Education and Skills (2004) Pedagogy and Practice: Teaching and
Learning in Secondary Schools: London: DfES.
Flaherty, J. (1999) Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others. London: ButterworthHeinemann.
Fleming, I. and Taylor, A. (1998) The Coaching Pocketbook. Alresford: Management
Pocketbooks.
Harbour, M. (1996) Collaboration, Competition and Cross-phase Liaison: The North
Lowestoft Schools Network, in D. Bridges and C. Husbands (eds) Consorting and
Collaborating in the Education Marketplace. London: Falmer Press.
Hawkins, P. and Smith, N. (2006) Coaching, Mentoring and Organizational
Consultancy: Supervision and Development. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Jackson, P.Z. and McKergow, M. (2007) The Solutions Focus: Making Coaching and
Change SIMPLE (2nd edn). London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Joyce, B. and Showers, B. (1996) The Evolution of Peer Coaching, Educational Leadership,
53(6): 1216.
Joyce, B. and Showers, B. (2002) Designing Training and Peer Coaching: Our Need for
Learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Kelly, S. (2007) The CPD Coordinators Toolkit. London: Paul Chapman Publishing.
Knowles, M., Holton, E. and Swanson, R. (2005) The Adult Learner. Boston, MA:
Butterworth-Heinemann
Powell, G., Chambers, M. and Baxter, G. (2001) Pathways to Coaching. Bristol: TLO.
Rewards and Incentives Group (2007) Performance Management for Teachers and
Head Teachers Guidance. London: DfES.
Rotter, J.B. (1954) Social Learning and Clinical Psychology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Starr, J. (2003) The Coaching Manual. London: Prentice Hall Business.
Thomas, W. (2005) Coaching Solutions: Resource Book. Stafford: Network Educational
Press.
Thomas, W. and Smith, A. (2004) Coaching Solutions: Practical Ways to Improve
Performance in Education. Stafford: Network Educational Press.
Whitmore, J. (2002) Coaching for Performance. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Index
Added to a page number f denotes a figure.
A
action
committing to 245
considering options for 24
active listening 67
adult learners 456
attitudinal surveys 95, 96f
audits
coaching 97, 98f
conducting CPD 678
B
Bognor Regis Community College
coaching
after special measures 601
Ians story 634
team development 51
under challenging circumstances 58
bottom-up approach, establishing protocols 745
C
Career Entry Development Profile (CEPD) 367
case studies
coaching
after special measures 601
in challenging circumstances 545,
58, 634
conversation 23
in group 467, 4950, 51
in performance management process 301
relationship 2
trio 20
conducting CPD audit 678
The Learning Toolkit 334
Clarendon College 756
clarifying questions 45
CLEAR model 910
co-coaching 36, 3744
coachees
feedback from 879
matching coaches and 845
coaches
feedback from 91
identifying needs of 814
identifying potential 29, 6970
matching coachees and 845
sample invite letter 72f
training a group of (case study) 701
coaching
action
committing to 245
considering options for 24
appropriate, considering 689
coaching cont.
audits 97, 98f
case studies see case studies
in challenging circumstances 5364
checking current reality 24
continuum of support and development 3f
conversations
conducting 223
establishing ground rules 212
coordinators 957
defining 14
demystifying 74, 80
feedback see feedback
goals
revisiting 25
setting 24
group sessions 4552
listening 67, 223
logs 8991
management 60
measuring impact of 8699
and mentoring 23
models 711
for new teachers 3644
ownership of 30, 38, 74, 75
partnerships, setting up 85
programme timeline 1002
prompt cards 39f
protocols 21, 716
qualities 34
questioning 46, 23, 24
reasons for 1418
relationships 2, 85
request for (form) 83f
review template 90f
reviewing 97
skills see skills
solution-focused coaching 23
specialist 2935
trios 1920, 556, 801
vs other CPD activities 1618
Coaching, Mentoring and Organizational
Consultancy: Supervision and Development 9
Coaching for Performance 8
Coaching Solutions: Practical Ways to Improve
Performance in Education 7
Coaching Solutions: Resource Book 7, 24
collaborative leadership 34
continuing professional development see CPD
contract (coaching) 10
conversations
conducting 223
establishing ground rules 212
108
INDEX
coordinators
coaching 957
CPD 17, 31, 69
CPD
action plans 30, 31, 32
activities 67f, 68
audit (case study) 678
coaching vs 1618
staff questionnaire 66f
The CPD Coordinators Toolkit 1617
culture of coaching 43, 79
D
dialogue about pedagogy 16
E
efficiency 1516
environments, for
conversation 22
external locus of control 15
F
faculty approach 34
feedback
from coachees 879
from coaches 91
from students 91
lesson observation 257
FLOW model 8
G
glossary 1034
go-betweens 84
goals
revisiting 25
setting 24
group coaching 4552
GROW model 89
H
HILDA model 11
I
incisive questions 24
inset days 51
interference, in listening 6
internal listening 6
internal locus of control 15
intuitive listening 7
J
job performance pie 87, 88f
job satisfaction chart 87, 88f
K
knowledge acquisition 17
L
leadership 34
Leadership Pathways 50
Leading from the Middle 50
learning
application of new 17
measuring quality of 915
The Learning Toolkit 334
lesson observation
feedback 257
review sheet 40f
line-management structures 51
listening 67, 223
Littlehampton Community School
conducting a CPD audit 678
establishing protocols 745
group coaching 467
introduction to coaching 20
performance management 301
The Learning Toolkit 334
training a group of coaches 70
locus of control 15
logs (coaching) 8991
M
MA education programmes 18
Mayfield School 545
mentoring 23, 18
Middle Leader Development Programme 50
middle leaders, developing 501
mirroring 23, 27
monitoring
for identifying coaches 29
relationships 85
N
National College for School Leadership 50
negative self-talk 23, 24
newly qualified teachers
Career Entry Development Profile 367
co-coaching process 3742
O
open questions 6
OSKAR model 1011
outcome questions 6
OUTCOMES model 9
ownership of coaching 30, 38, 74, 75
P
partnerships, setting up 85
pedagogy, dialogue about 16
Pedagogy and Practice pack 51
peer coaching 73f, 7885
performance management
coaching in 301, 43
review meetings 31
performance-enhancing, coaching as 14
positive future state 24
positive self-talk 23
posture 223
preferred future state 1, 8, 24
professionalism 17
prompt cards 39f
protocols 21, 716
Q
questioning 46, 23, 24
questionnaires, feedback 889
R
reality, checking current 24
recently qualified teachers 423
INDEX
STRIDE model 78
student feedback 91
student outcomes 95
student survey 94f
subject action plans 32
subject leader meetings 50
subject-based compartmentalisation 34
subject-based teams 4951
summarising questions 5
support and development,
continuum 3f
T
teacher attitudinal survey 96f
Teacher Learning Academy (TLA) 43
teachers
coaching for new 3644
skills audit 69
teaching, measuring quality of 915
team development 51
team work 16
tone of voice 23
training (case study) 701
V
voice, tone of 23
W
whole-school audit 98
why questions, avoiding 23
109
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