Making more sense of teacher coaching

Teacher coaching is once again being promoted in many schools. In England, new versions of training using the term ‘instructional coaching’ are being rapidly rolled out both for the new teachers and those with more experience. These are often associated with commercial products such as digital platforms or branded manuals. Some are linked to the Early Career Framework and CPD provision funded through government schemes and associated with their favoured training providers and MATs.

At CollectivED we define teacher coaching as a process of sustained and focused professional dialogue in which the coached teacher (coachee) is given an opportunity to develop their teaching practice. Coaching is an inside-out process, led by the coachee and scaffolded by the coach.

We distinguish between coaching and training. Coaching is a learning process for both coach and coachee; providing both participants with opportunities for reflection and responsive decision-making. Through engaging with coaching, teachers can gain greater insights and be supported to develop specific skills to enhance their teaching repertoire. However, we are wary of processes called ‘coaching’ which are might be adopted to create cloned teaching techniques across a school or beyond.

The corollary to this is that coaching can also create a safe space to foster opportunities for experimentation with new classroom strategies. As such coaching can lead to teachers gaining enhanced self-awareness and a better understanding of the teaching context.

I have been researching and developing coaching in education for over twenty years. My experience in this field leads me to these conclusions:

· While our education sector benefits from fresh ideas, resources and energy, we do need to be careful that their adoption in practice doesn’t obscure relevant research evidence. This is a real risk in instructional coaching.

· Fidelity is a buzzword which can prevent the necessary adaptions that might make the difference between coaching success and failure.

· We benefit from making sense of both local contexts (each school and staff community is unique) while drawing on lessons from national and international practice and research. Too narrow an ‘evidence’ base limits the potential of coaching beyond being an apparent quick fix.

When it is working well, coaching offers a unique opportunity for teachers to have personalised and formative conversations about their own work. Coaching can help educators to create supportive professional relationships based on trust and curiosity. Coaching can re-connect teachers with each other, with a sense of purpose and perspective and with their potential. Coaching can create a time and space for busy teachers to focus their minds. This is essential for them to do their best thinking. And this can make all the difference to what goes on in their classrooms.

If you want to know a little more, a new CollectivED Quick Guide to Teacher Coaching might help.

You might also like watch the short Coaching in Education video.