Instructional Coaching in Action

An Integrated Approach That Transforms Thinking, Practice, and Schools

Ellen B. Eisenberg, Bruce P. Eisenberg, Elliott A. Medrich, Ivan Charner

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781416623717
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice

Unlike "fix-it" strategies that targeted teachers are likely to resist, educator-centered instructional coaching—ECIC—offers respectful coaching for professionals within their schoolwide community. Evidence-based results across all content areas, authentic practices for data collection and analysis, along with nonevaluative, confidential collaboration offer a productive and promising path to teacher development. Coaches and teachers implement ECIC through a before-during-after—BDA—cycle that includes comprehensive planning between coach and teacher; classroom visitation and data collection; and debriefing and reflection.

Drawing on their extensive experience with ECIC, authors Ellen B. Eisenberg, Bruce P. Eisenberg, Elliott A. Medrich, and Ivan Charner offer this detailed guidance for coaches and school leaders on how you and your school can

• create the conditions for an effective ECIC program,
• get buy-in from teachers,
• clearly define the role of coach,
• roll out a coaching initiative, and
• ensure ongoing success with coaching.

Filled with authentic advice from coaches, Instructional Coaching in Action provides valuable insight and demonstrates how educator-centered instructional coaching can make a difference in teacher learning, instructional practice, and student outcomes.

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Chapter 1

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Coaching—Not Just for Athletes

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No one expects an athlete or a musician to become great without a coach—an over-the-shoulder mentor who pushes and supports, watches and intervenes at critical moments, analyzes learners' actions and challenges them to become self-critical analysts of their own performances. Just so with teaching. It is a demanding craft, requiring of its practitioners both careful planning and finely tuned adaptation to the flow of classroom activity and conversation. The craft can be learned, but not from a textbook. It must be learned through guided practice.

—Lauren Resnick, Foreword in Content-Focused Coaching

Everyone knows, or at least knows of, a coach. Most of us think we know, or know of, a good coach. Although we may not all agree on what makes a coach "good," most of us think that we know one when we see one.

Whether it is a big-time coach of a favorite professional or college sports team, the coach of a Little League team, an executive coach helping a CEO find ways to improve her leadership skills, a voice coach helping an aspiring vocalist, a life coach, or one of the many other kinds of coaches that are now ubiquitous in our culture, there is no longer anything exceptional about the concept of coaching. One study estimated that 90 percent of organizations with more than 2,000 employees made regular use of coaches (Institute of Leadership and Management, 2011).

Coaching is well recognized as a way to support a wide variety of professionals. Regardless of the kind of coaching, those doing it are all trying to accomplish the same result—to help those with whom they work grow in a job-embedded setting. The coaches all want to help their teaching colleagues go from good to great—that is, to help them refine their practices.

This is no different for the teachers and administrators who make up our own professional community, which begs two simple questions: Because so many professions recognize coaching for its valued contribution to the growth and development of skill and talent, why is it not generally accepted as a powerful tool among educators? And why aren't all teachers and school leaders coached to help nurture their own professional growth? After all, the data, though limited, strongly indicate that coaching can strengthen practice and give teachers confidence to try new things in their classrooms.

Coaching in Schools

There are no estimates of the number of coaches in schools today. Certainly, many work in subject-specific content areas, focusing on helping teachers successfully implement particular program initiatives. In these instances, coaches are essential because they can help schools get the most out of programs they adopt. The coach is recognized and accepted as an important and valuable resource.

We should ask why educators support coaching in these cases but are less willing to use coaches to help all teachers generally improve their instructional practice. If they did so, teachers would be on a par with other professionals—that is, coaching would become a tool to promote ongoing job-embedded professional growth. It would address the "whole" of teaching and learning in ways that highlight current trends in education and help teachers become better at their craft.

Whatever the particular elements and strategies associated with any single coaching model in schools, the intellectual underpinning all coaches bring to their work is well understood—coaches are committed to raising the quality of teaching and ultimately the learning outcomes for the students of coached teachers. Coaching is an investment in the improvement of practice and learning. Good coaching is not based on a deficit or "fix-it" model. Coaches are experienced teaching professionals who understand instruction, recognize effective instructional practices, assess data, and engage in ongoing conversations that ebb and flow depending on where the participants are in their professional practice. Coaches also understand that they are not experts; they are willing participants in a collaborative process that requires considerable time, consistent relationships, great leadership, and lots of humor.

Coaching in schools draws heavily on the general principles of coaching but refines these principles to align with school environments. Joellen Killion and her colleagues (Killion, Harrison, Bryan, & Clifton, 2012) offer important insights into the ingredients essential to coaching in schools: strong leadership, a clear focus and goals, essential resources, a well-prepared staff, ongoing measures to monitor progress, and rigorous evaluations. In addition to these fundamental elements, our instructional coaching framework shares some underlying beliefs with other models that promote coaching in schools:

• Coaching is professional development, and coaching is often more likely to help teachers improve practice and student learning than other forms of in-service training.
• Teachers' beliefs and philosophies need to be understood and respected by coaches, and these beliefs have a significant impact on teaching practice.
• Teachers need time to reflect on what they learn in the coaching process, what they learn from their experience in classrooms, and how they will apply these new learnings.
• Data—at the individual student, classroom, and school level—are important to the process of coaching.
• Although students are at the center of the coaching equation, there are a variety of ways to help students grow, and the most effective ways involve helping teachers improve their skills.
• Behind every effective coach is a cooperative and supportive school leader who recognizes the power of coaching.

Instructional coaching is intended to reinforce teachers' and administrators' practices in ways that support schools so that instruction is rigorous, delivery is effective, and assessment is appropriate for student learning to improve. In some cases, it helps expand both the teachers' and administrators' knowledge base; sometimes coaches help teachers and administrators use what they know to implement more-effective instructional strategies and techniques. Whatever the reason, efficacious instructional coaching builds teacher capacity, influences what students learn, increases student engagement, and helps both teachers and their students become more successful learners.

The Educator-Centered Instructional Coaching Framework

A coach's role is to help teachers, in nonevaluative and confidential ways, to implement effective instructional practices. Coaches help teachers identify their strengths and, working together, strategize ways to bolster practice. They help teachers recognize their voices and take ownership of their learning. They must coach on any given topic, not just in the coach's area of expertise. They work directly with teachers at the level that makes a difference—the classroom. Sometimes they are mistakenly identified as "fixers." But that is not the instructional coach's objective. Coaches do not provide a silver bullet that can address all that plagues our educational system. If that were true, we would bottle it and sell it! Some even think that just because teachers went to college they shouldn't need coaches. Yet they accept that professional athletes and musicians, who are at the top of their professions, are encouraged and sometimes required to be coached.

Our framework, educator-centered instructional coaching, or ECIC, rests heavily on the premise that professional growth is a career-long process. It is never "done." A teacher can always become better by working with a coach. Remember, every year teachers work with different groups of students with diverse learning needs. Working with instructional coaches provides ongoing opportunities for teachers to collaborate, practice, and learn together. They apply all they have learned to each new situation and create new learning experiences, all with the support and assistance of a coach, a skilled and knowledgeable practitioner.

Professional development for teachers has meaning only insofar as it informs teaching and learning. In our view, coaches provide the essential lynchpin that personalizes professional development to meet each teacher's needs as a classroom instructor. Thus, ECIC is much more than the antithesis of the "one-shot" or the "fix-it" mode of professional development. It embodies all of Killion's principles and builds on them with certain break-the-mold principles and practices. Specifically, it is:

• Designed to move teachers and schools from professional development (the "stuff" teachers learn) to professional learning (how deeply they learn "it" and how well these learnings are applied in other contexts).
• Structured as an interconnected combination of process, pedagogy, practice, and content that together support continuous teacher professional development and learning.
• Designed to meet the individual needs of teachers and to reflect their "voice" through one-on-one and small-group support received from their coach.
• Committed to the strictly nonevaluative and protective nature of teacher privacy so that coaches are accepted as helpers, not evaluators.
• Based on quality standards at several levels of leadership—for teachers, for coaches, and for mentors to coaches.
• Focused on applying the school's evidence-based literacy practices across all content areas.

Because most evidence suggests that short-term gains in student outcomes do not lead to long-term success (Grissmer, Beekman, & Ober, 2014), our coaching model is designed to provide ongoing, continual support to produce long-term gains by helping teachers and school leaders rethink and change their practice. Coaching is a relationship between two equals—teacher and coach—both of whom are committed to making personal and professional improvement. A coaching relationship provides the opportunity for reciprocity of gifts of knowledge and skill, caring, and support (Barkley, 2010).

This is a different message about professional development. It offers a chance to throw out the traditional playbook and rethink how to best help teachers do their best work and improve their capacity to meet the needs of their students, regardless of the content. We believe that instructional coaching, effectively implemented, helps build instructional practices across all content areas, especially with the targeted focus of literacy.

A Basic Tenet of ECIC: Understanding Adult Learners

With ECIC, instructional coaches and teachers work together in real time to plan, deliver, and debrief about practice. (In our lexicon, the debriefing process is a nonevaluative analysis of action.) Educator-centered instructional coaching provides consistency in language and practice to minimize variations between teachers in the same school and to facilitate sharing the vision for schoolwide improvement. Teachers and coaches collaborate regularly, discussing effective instructional strategies, tackling everyday problems of practice, and learning from each other. Colleagues provide specific feedback and thought-provoking discussions designed to improve practice, build teacher capacity, increase student engagement, and improve student learning.

Educator-centered instructional coaching is about adults collaborating with adults. To be effective, coaches have to understand how adults learn. The skill sets required to engage and support adults are complicated. Coaches need to be knowledgeable in at least one subject area—their own; they must be skilled in the art of questioning because establishing relationships with other adults is based on asking questions to gain understanding; and they must demonstrate that they, too, are members in a community of practice and learning. They must be active learners, recognize the differences in how adults and adolescents learn, be receptive to varying opinions and perspectives, and make teachers aware that they can establish their own learning patterns—which includes making mistakes. That's how learning occurs, but through very different processes for adults.

One might think that teachers—who foster others' learning for a living—would welcome new learning themselves. Yet many adults do not realize that their own learning can improve, which, of course, would result in improved learning for their students. We want teachers to recognize that their learning is multifaceted; that is, their learning is not just about their own subject matter but involves expanding their knowledge base and the variety of learning opportunities available to them. This kind of "teacher learning" occurs through working with coaches, adult to adult. As Malcolm Knowles suggests, "… instruction for adults needs to focus more on the process and less on the content being taught. Strategies such as case studies, role-playing, simulations, and self-evaluation are most useful" (as cited in Mulholland & Turnock, 2013, p. 16). Instructional coaches apply all of these strategies in their work with teachers, helping them to broaden their own experiences through practice and to understand how this learning is related to student growth. Here is how a coach described her experience.

Side-by-Side Learning

I didn't realize that as I was working to support and enhance a teacher's skill set and knowledge base, I was also nourishing my own professional development and learning. I was asking the teacher to dig deeper and think of alternate ways to accomplish his classroom goals. At the same time, I had to dig deeper into my repertoire of quality questioning skills to ask the right kind of questions that elicited a change in his thinking. My thinking changed at the same time, and I learned alongside the teacher!

Coaches need to help teachers understand that their way of learning differs from how adolescents learn. Familiarity with the principles of adult learning is a start; capacity to actualize these principles is something more. Whereas student learning is mostly passive and classroom based, adults tend to learn best when they are self-directed and engaged in solving problems they are experiencing. Adults want their learning to be relevant to the work they are doing—goal-oriented and designed to meet their needs. Process and content are practical. The basics of adult learning and how it differs from adolescent learning are summarized in the table in Figure 1.1, and although the principles are not hard to grasp, the practice often is.

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Figure 1.1. How Adult and Child Learners Differ

Adults: Classroom learning is just one of many learning modes.

Children: Classroom-based learning is the dominant mode.

* * *

Adults: Motivation for learning: career, qualifications, direct knowledge needed to do a job.

Children: Learning for advancement.

* * *

Adults: Adults seek learning that has meaning for them at a given point in time.

Children: Children have compulsory attendance for the majority of their learning experience.

* * *

Adults: Emphasis on self-directed learning.

Children: Teacher driven.

* * *

Adults: Learning is collaborative and facilitated and often problem based.

Children: Learning is often passive and dependent.

* * *

Adults: Adults bring lifelong experience to the subject matter.

Children: Children do not bring broad life experiences to learning.

* * *

Adults: Adults often have strong values and need to unlearn or have their values challenged.

Children: Children's values are less well developed.

Source: From "The Adult Learner May Really Be a Neglected Species," by Sean O'Toole and Belinda Essex, April 2012, Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 52(1), p. 190. Copyright 2012 by the Australian Journal of Adult Learning. Adapted with permission.

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Coaches who are quite comfortable coaching in their own area of certification may not be as comfortable in content areas that are unrelated to their field of expertise. However, their familiarity and knowledge base about adult learning reminds them to honor the teacher's expertise, understand the teacher's motivation for learning, ensure that the learning is relevant, and co-create learning goals that are manageable. Coaches need to know that the teachers understand their own personal learning styles and needs as well as their students' learning styles and needs. They must share the idea that if every student can learn, every adult can learn as well.

Four Key Areas of Practice

The four key areas of practice of ECIC—evidence-based literacy practices; data collection and analysis; nonevaluative, confidential collaboration, and self-reflection; and supporting coaches through mentoring—are interconnected. All are delivered from coach to teacher and from mentor to coach via one-on-one and small-group interactions using the BDA (before-during-after) cycle of consultation that we mentioned in the Introduction to this book and that is described further later in this chapter.

Key Practice Area 1: Evidence-Based Literacy Practices

Educator-centered instructional coaches strive to continuously stay on top of effective evidenced-based literacy practices, and their conversations with teachers often focus on practices that reinforce the importance of reading, writing, speaking, and listening across all content areas. The literacy focus is not about teaching reading; it is about the process of helping adult learners understand the importance of reading to learn and building on each student's prior knowledge and literacy skills, not just the content of their subjects. Most schools have adopted an evidenced-based literacy program, an essential component in implementing an effective instructional coaching model. Working with their school's program, instructional coaches collaborate with their teaching colleagues to ensure that students are able to interact with their text, derive meaning from what they read, and apply what they've learned in multip...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. Coaching Not Just for Athletes
• Chapter 2. Part 1 of the BDA Cycle: The B-Planning
• Chapter 3. Part 2 of the BDA Cycle: The D-Visiting and Modeling
• Chapter 4. Part 3 of the BDA Cycle: The A-Reflecting and Debriefing
• Chapter 5. Preparing the School for Instructional Coaching
• Chapter 6. Setting the Stage for the Work Ahead
• Chapter 7. Preparing to Coach: Guidance for Coaches
• Chapter 8. The Journey Begins: The New Coach
• Chapter 9. Coaches at Work: Growing Into the Coaching Role
• Chapter 10. Mentors and School Leaders: Supporting Coaches for the Long Run
• Chapter 11. Final Thoughts
• Appendix A. Sample Job Description
• Appendix B. Guidelines for the Coach Mentor Position
• Bibliography
• Study Guide
• Related ASCD Resources
• About the Author
• Copyright