Instructional Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction

by Jim Knight

Great teachers, like other great performers, employ habits, routines, practices, and ways of communicating that they themselves are completely unaware of.

One is that coaches have received appropriate professional development in what and how to coach. A second is that coaches have the discipline, skills, and personality required to be effective coaches. The third is that coaches are working in schools with principals who are effective instructional leaders.

On the one hand, Ric and the other ICs he works with have found that offering choice actually increases both teachers’ desire to teach with fidelity and the likelihood that teachers will implement learning strategies and teaching routines. On the other hand, when you force teachers to learn something, like most people would, teachers often choose to dig their heels in and resist.

if teachers are to be treated professionally, they must act professionally.

ignorance of what is most important to a collaborating teacher can interfere with a coach’s ability to have an impact.

Teachers don’t resist new ideas as much as they resist the suggestion that they are not competent and they need to be helped or improved.

ICs must be careful not to let their personal stories interfere with their ability to understand what is really happening.

a coach might come to believe that teachers are stubbornly resisting change when in reality they are simply taking time to balance competing demands on their time.

We should never dismiss teachers; there is always some way we can help them.”

When someone makes an emotional bid, Gottman argues, we can respond in one of three ways: (a) turning toward, (b) turning away from, or (c) turning against.

‘respect those you want to silence.’

“if you don’t pay attention, you don’t connect”

When we authentically see our collaborating teachers as equal partners, when we engage in dialogue and encourage reflection, when we focus on praxis, when we respect teachers’ choices, when we listen to and encourage teachers’ choices, when we expect to learn from others as much as they can teach us, we remove many of the barriers that interfere with communication.

Confronted with a resistant teacher, effective ICs react as relationship builders first, and then employ the tools of coaching to align themselves with teachers.

“The IC’s job,” as IC Tricia McKale has commented, “is to remove every barrier to implementation that a teacher might face.”

every time a district or school adopts a quick-fix solution, the chances of a real-fix solution taking hold go down.

Effective coaches have to motivate teachers to move forward and change, while at the same time communicating that they authentically respect, value, and believe in their collaborating teacher.

Does the teacher have a complete, detailed plan for teaching the course? Has the teacher developed essential questions for all units? Do those questions align with the state standards? Can the teacher identify the 10 to 15 core questions that are answered by the course? Can the teacher identify the top 10 concepts in the course? Can the teacher clearly and simply explain the meaning of each of the top 10 concepts?

Coaches need to mark up their books, highlight key passages, write in the margins, and cover their manuals with sticky notes.

Writing is a way of freezing our thinking, of slowing down the thoughts that pass through our consciousness at lightning speed, so we can examine our views and alter them if appropriate. Writing enables us to note inconsistencies, logical flaws, and areas that would benefit from additional clarity.

When people choose to become ICs, they choose a profession where the learning experiences come fast and furious. Coaches need to learn teaching practices, communication strategies, and leadership tactics, while also learning how to respond effectively to each individual teacher. Every coaching relationship is unique, and we are not being rhetorical saying coaches learn something new every time they work with a teacher. What coaches do with that learning, of course, makes all the difference. If ICs do not take the time to stop, reflect, and record what they’ve learned, they run the risk of missing many learning opportunities.

The best ICs have extensive knowledge to share, but they don’t make a show out of sharing. In fact, they are very careful to always to recognize a collaborating teacher’s expertise and status as classroom leader.

A good learning experience is motivating, challenging, meaningful, and inspiring. In a well-run classroom, students are focused on learning, they are respectful, and they are growing. Students learn from a teacher who is caring, compassionate, and clear, a teacher who knows what information is most important to teach and makes sure every student masters it. Students know their learning targets, and they receive useful feedback on their progress toward the target. Learning activities and reading materials are appropriate for each student’s unique learning needs, and students learn about topics that are relevant to them.

feedback is most effective when teachers lay out the criteria explicitly before students begin to practice.

Shelly has a unique way of describing how ICs work with teachers: “It’s like we’re caterers. We bring the meal in, we help them, and we pick up afterwards. I look at myself as catering to whatever the teachers’ needs are at the time.”

People who make a difference have to, like Dee, learn how to waltz around roadblocks.

The IC should be the right-hand person of the principal when it comes to instructional leadership in schools, but the principal must remain the instructional leader. No matter how effective an IC is, the principal’s voice is ultimately the voice that is most important to teachers. For that reason, coaches must understand fully what their principal’s vision is for school improvement, and principals must understand fully the interventions that their coach has to offer.

One way to ensure that ICs and principals are on the same page is to meet one-to-one for approximately 45 minutes each week. When Shelly meets with her principal, the meetings usually follow the same format. First, she asks the principal to discuss her most pressing concerns; the issues discussed are usually a blend of long-term and short-term issues. Second, Shelly and Vicki solve problems together. Third, Shelly reports on what she has done since the previous week’s meeting. Fourth, Shelly and Vicki discuss teaching practices they would like to share with each other. In this way, both Shelly and Vicki fully understand all the tools they have at their command.

Whether they like it or not, effective coaches must be effective leaders.

effective. If coaches become too personally involved in their change initiatives, if they see every attack on their program as an attack on themselves, they may find the personal consequences devastating.

“going to the balcony”

Coaches also need to ensure that their program or activities are not seen as their personal pet project.

Take the long view.

secure in their boundaries,

To stay grounded, coaches also need to stay fully conscious of the moral purpose that is at the heart of the work they do.

One way for coaches to walk on solid ground is to remind themselves—perhaps every day, hour, or minute—that the primary purpose of their work is to make life better for children.

steadiness is not the same thing as stubbornness.

core questions about the teaching and learning

questions about the school and school culture:

school culture can accelerate or inhibit change in numerous ways in schools.

culture functions like gravity, no one can see it, but it keeps things in place.

For ICs to remain emotionally healthy, given the challenges that can confront them in a school, they must take time to keep themselves healthy.

Thus, coaches may tie their own sense of worth directly to their success or failure with teachers in school.

As a result, they sometimes find themselves on the outside of the in-group, when the in-group is intent on gossiping, complaining, or blaming.