Instructional Coaching

If you are interested in being coached you can fill out the Request Form here.

Our instructional coaching model is based upon the work of Jim Knight and the Instructional Coaching Group. In particular the books The Impact Cycle (Knight, 2018) and Better Conversations (Knight, 2016) have formed a grounding for the programme.

Better Conversations

The instructional coaching programme at Markham College is built around the Better Conversation Beliefs (Knight, 2016)and the 7 Partnership Principles (Knight, 2011) put together by Jim Knight. These give the coaches a 'framework of being' and underlie all the conversations that the coach will have with their coachees. By working within this framework, the instructional coaches aim to work alongside a fellow teacher to help them achieve a meaningful goal. The coach and the teacher work together as partners, each with their own ideas and expertise to share.

Adapted from Knight (2016)

Adapted from Knight (2011)

The Impact Cycle

All coaching is built around a coaching framework, and the Instructional Coaching programme at Markham uses The Impact Cycle developed by Jim Knight and The Instructional Coaching Group (Knight, 2018).

This follows the broad pattern of:

  • Identify - the current reality; the goal; the strategy to meet the goal

  • Learn - from modelling; from checklists

  • Improve - confirm direction; review progress; make improvements; confirm actions

Identify

The coach will work with the teacher to initially identify the current reality of the teaching practices of the teachers. This can be done in multiple ways, but the most powerful is for the teacher to film a lesson they teach and then watch it back. This can be done with the coach present in the lesson, or the coach can also watch the video before the next meeting. The purpose of this stage is to allow the teacher to see what others see, and give them a deeper insight into their own teaching. It can be an uncomfortable experience, but the payoff is worth it.

If a teacher does not wish to film themselves, there are other options for this stage, but none are as powerful as watching yourself teach.

Adapted from Knight (2018)

With the current reality clarified, the coach will guide the teacher to identify a PEERS goal. This is a goal that is:

  • Powerful - it will make a difference if achieved

  • Easy - it is simple to state, and not overly complicated

  • Emotionally Compelling - the teacher cares about the goal: it matters to them

  • Reachable - it can be measured, and it is achievable through an instructional strategy

  • Student-focused - it is about improving student learning, rather than teacher actions

To get to the goal, the coach will use the Identify questions to help pick through some of the different things that the teacher is feeling after watching themselves teach.

Once a goal is set, the coach helps the teacher to identify an instructional strategy they can use to meet the goal. This conversation will be where the teacher and coach both share ideas for possible strategies. But the teacher will remain the decision maker, and they will have the final say over which strategy they wish to move forward with.

During this process the coach might refer to The Principles of Great Teaching, The Teaching Framework or utilise Prompt Cards to help the teacher narrow either their goal or their strategy.

Learn

Once a strategy has been identified to meet the goal, the teacher needs to learn to use the strategy. Ideally they get to see it in practice. This could be modelled by the coach, or by observing another colleague who uses it. It could be by watching a video of the strategy in action.

Once the teacher has had a chance to see the strategy in action, the coach and teacher will work together to put together a (some) checklist(s) for the strategy. When trying something new, it is very easy to become overwhelmed and forget the details, especially when doing something as complex as teaching. Checklists are a way to help structure thinking about forming a new habit, and also give the teacher something to guide their reflections after the lesson. "Did I do every step? What did I miss? Why do I keep missing that bit?"

Atul Gawande pioneered the use of checklists in medicine "to help experts get better" (TED Talk).

Improve

Adapted from Knight (2018)

After trialling the strategy, the teacher and coach will go through an improve cycle. This cycle will start with the collection of data (remember the goal was reachable and so it was measurable in some way).

After reflecting on the data, the teacher will need to make some further decisions:

  • have they met the goal?

  • has a different goal become apparent?

  • is the strategy working?

  • does the strategy need more time?

  • does the strategy need to be adapted?

  • does a different strategy need to be chosen?

  • do I have too much going on right now to really care?

Depending on the answer to these questions different things might happen:

  • the teacher might make minor adjustments to the strategy, or just want more time, and so they go through the Improve cycle again;

  • the teacher might want to change strategy, so they go back to the Learn phase to learn about a new strategy;

  • the goal might have changed, in which case the coach might ask the Identify questions again, to help identify a new PEERS goal;

  • the teacher decides they have had enough at this point in time, and wants to call it quits for now (for example, there is a lot of other things going on in the teacher's life).

Whichever route is followed, the coach will continue to work alongside the teacher until they have met their goal.

Aspects of Teaching

When working on our teaching it is useful to be able to identify areas of what we do. One way to do this is to look at The Principles of Great Teaching.

We have also developed the Aspect of Teaching shown, which splits up the job of teaching into four interlinked broad areas. These are also linked to the Principles of Great Teaching, and an instructional coach helps narrow down and identify a particular goal within these two frameworks.

Reflecting on the Coaching Process

Reflecton is a vital part of the improvement process, but it is not always that easy to reflect on the right things to move us forward. For this reason, we have developed a Reflection Journal for those undertaking Instructional Coaching.

The Reflection Journal is available in three formats:

If you are interested in being coached you can fill out the Request Form here.

Further resources for coaches can be found here.

References

Knight, J. (2011). Unmistakable Impact: A Partnership Approach for Dramatically Improving Instruction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Knight, J. (2016). Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to be More Credible, Caring, and Connected. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Knight, J. (2018). The Impact Cycle: What Instructional Coaches Should do to Foster Powerful Improvements in Teaching. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin