also by stephen g. barkley - worthy shorts by stephen g. barkley quality teaching in a culture of...

Also by Stephen G. Barkley

Quality Teaching in a Culture of Coaching

WOW! Adding Pizzazz to Teaching and Learning

Tapping Student Effort ~ Increasing Student Achievement

Questions for Life: Powerful Strategies to Guide Critical Thinking

Quality Teaching in a Culture of Coaching 2nd Edititon

Instructional Coaching with the End in Mind

© 2011 Performance Learning Systems, Inc.All Rights Reserved.Printed in the United States of America10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

PLS® Products72 Lone Oak DriveCadiz, KY 42211800-506-9996Fax 270-522-2014http://www.plsweb.com/IC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Barkley, Stephen G. (Stephen George), 1950-Instructional coaching with the end in mind: using backward

planning to increase student achievement / by Stephen G. Barkley with Terri Bianco.

p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-892334-27-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Teachers--In-service training. 2. Mentoring in education. 3. Observation (Educational method) 4. Academic achievement. I. Bianco, Terri. II. Title.

LB1731.B273 2011371.102--dc23

2011019064 Cover and Internal Design: Sharon Bieganski-Negron,

Blond Renditions Creative StudioIndex: Brackney Indexing ServiceAdobe Fonts: ITC Cheltenham Handtooled, ITC Cheltenham

Book, and Cosmos

This book may be ordered from Performance Learning Systems,72 Lone Oak Drive, Cadiz, KY 42211, 800-506-9996. Quantitydiscounts available for bulk purchases, sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, and educational needs.

This is a Worthy Shorts BackOffice POD EditionISBN: 978-1-892334-34-3 PLS102PProduced and distributed for Performance Learning Systems by Worthy Shorts BackOffice Publisher ServicesFor information please visit:www.worthyshorts.com/performance/bookshop.php


Dedication

This book is dedicated to the educators who have graced my life from the days of my

childhood through my student teaching to my current work with school leaders. As I travel

nationally and internationally, I am privileged to interact with educators who strive every day to

improve student learning. These committed individuals have often made themselves vulnerable

to my observations and conversations, creating the opportunities for me to learn and for them

to best serve their students.

This book is a thank you and a dedication to their commitment

to improving the world, one student at a time.

i

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Chapter 1: The Benefits of Coaching in Education . . . . . . 1

Chapter 2: The Value and the Process of Peer Coaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Chapter 3: Backwards Planning: Motivation to Recognize the Behaviors of Learning . . . . .45

Chapter 4: The Instructional Coach: Planning it Backwards, Moving it Forward . . . . . . . . . . .63

Chapter 5: The Many Hats of an Instructional Coach . . . .87

Instructional Coaching with the End in Mindii

Chapter 6: Implementing Forward: The Role of Professional Learning Communities . . . . . .115

Chapter 7: Professional Staff Development: A New Emphasis on Student Behaviors in Teacher Training . . . . . . . . . . . .147

Chapter 8: A Focus on Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .177

Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .205

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215

About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231

iii

I would like to acknowledge the many instructional and peer coaches, teachers, principals, and admin-istrators who have assisted in the development of the “backwards planning” concept. Their efforts have escalated into many arenas, and it is hoped that this book will serve as the foundation for a village of educators to enhance their teaching by further embracing a focus on student learning.

And speaking of a village, we’ve all heard the phrase “It takes a village . . .” Creating this book is no exception. We too have a team of dedicated professionals, each member of which used his or her area of expertise to ensure a quality finished product.

Terri Bianco not only bore with my concepts and my often complex look at things, she also translated them into written words that both syn-thesized and fully explained the process and its intent. As Project Manager of this book, Terri worked closely with Production Editor Barbara Brown, who managed the myriad details of the publishing process. Together, Barbara and Terri conveyed ideas and concepts to Sharon

Instructional Coaching with the End in Mindiv

Bieganski-Negron who transformed them into visual representations: graphics, internal layout, and cover design. Beth Eck handled the permissions for our various quotations and citations, and proofreader Sylvia Seymour kept the writing honest by dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.

The Performance Learning Systems staff rounded out the process with Penny Fletcher assisting with the cover photos and Leah Tucker and Jackie Futrell managing its printing and book shipping facilities in Cadiz, KY.

Thank you all for the work you did to bring this book to fruition.

v

I have long owned a copy of Quality Teaching in a Culture of Coaching, whose concepts were created by Steve Barkley and carefully and superbly word-smithed by his long time colleague Terri Bianco. My copy has seen better days. Pages are highlighted and double highlighted. Notes are written beside key points, and there are many key points. Sticky notes are affixed to at least a third of the pages. As my rancher friends might say about a poorly treated horse, the book looks like it has been “rode hard and put to bed wet.”

I have found Quality Teaching in a Culture of Coaching to be a very useful resource since I first began studying instructional coaching at the Kansas Coaching Project more than 15 years ago. Steve’s book, in fact, was an important resource for me as I wrote my own book, Instructional Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction. His ideas about questioning, observing teachers, and structuring coaching conversations helped me as I shaped the Kansas model for instructional coach-ing, an approach to coaching that has now been implemented across North America and in many

Instructional Coaching with the End in Mindvi

nations around the world. So I am grateful for a chance to acknowledge that debt in this new work on instructional coaching.

At the Kansas Coaching Project, what we are seeing as we work with educators around the globe is a real need for books like Instructional Coaching with the End in Mind: Using Backwards Planning to Increase Student Achievement. We need to know more about instructional coaching and we need more coaching strategies, precisely because coach-ing is so important. Learning new teaching strategies is complex, and asking teachers to learn how to teach without providing follow-up in the classroom is a bit like asking a swimmer to learn how to swim without ever getting in the pool. Without coaching, professional learning may have no impact on student learning or teacher practice. With coach-ing there is hope.

Our hope for coaching, however, will only be realized if the coaching proves effective. We can’t expect coaches to have a meaningful impact in a school unless they learn and implement the art and skill of this important and complicated work. Instructional Coaching with the End in Mind helps us understand what good coaching looks like, and it provides us with many strategies we can use to improve the entire coaching process.

Perhaps Steve’s biggest contribution in this new coaching book is his concept of backwards design—the idea of beginning with students and moving back to the teaching practice. The re-search we are conducting at the Kansas Coaching Project supports the focus on students described here. We have found that if coaches and teachers

Foreword vii

focus on teaching without setting a student goal within the coaching process, they run the risk of investing a lot of time and effort with no meaning-ful change in student behavior or learning. In truth, if teachers and coaches don’t start with student goals, they may never know whether their hard work made a difference.

By starting with the student and moving back-wards, instructional coaches, principals, teachers, and all other educators become more likely to make changes that really make a difference. And few things are more motivating to teachers than watching their efforts translate into more joy, hap-piness, and learning in the classroom.

Instructional Coaching with the End in Mind is packed with useful material for anyone interested in developing good coaches or good coaching. Steve reviews the peer-coaching process, first de-scribed in his book Quality Teaching in a Culture of Coaching, and arms us with additional useful and powerful strategies that should help any coach and, particularly, instructional coaches. He deepens our understanding of the importance of trust, provides techniques and a language to help us defuse teacher resistance and introduces a question-ing model and questioning strategies that should help just about anyone who asks questions—and that would be all of us.

Steve also helps us better understand what in-structional coaches do by laying out their roles and responsibilities and by distinguishing between mentors, instructional coaches, and peer coaches. The book also describes ways in which coaches and principals can work together to support all

Instructional Coaching with the End in Mindviii

professional development, including Professional Learning Communities.

If you have had the pleasure of seeing Steve present, you know that he is a master teacher. Educators everywhere are better for having par-ticipated in one of Steve’s workshops. I am certainly better for the experience. Instructional Coaching with the End in Mind exemplifies Steve’s teaching by clearly describing strategies from which any coach can grow professionally and, in turn, augment and enhance his or her important work with teach-ers, administrators, and students.

I have benefited greatly from watching Steve present and by reading what he has written. It shouldn’t be a surprise that my copy of Steve’s earlier book is heavily annotated and well worn. I expect this new book will look just the same soon. And I expect your copy will too.

Thank you Steve—and Terri—for a deeper journey into the value, art, and practice of coach-ing in education.

Jim Knight

Jim Knight, Ph.D., is director of the Kansas Coaching Project at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning (www.instructionalcoach.org). He is the author of Instructional Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction (2007) and Unmistakable Impact: A Partnership Approach for Dramatically Improving Instruction (2010), both published by Corwin Press. He also writes a popular blog: www.radicallearners.com.

ix

I have always been a teacher. I cut my teeth in the profession working with elementary-school students. Those who teach elementary school

will know that I mean that almost literally! During those years in the classroom, I happened upon some excellent graduate courses for teachers. After several years as a student in these courses, I eventu-ally became an instructor for the company providing them, Performance Learning Systems, Inc. (PLS). I began training other teachers in the practices and techniques that supported my own teaching.

In all my years of teaching, I have significantly benefited from the support and feedback of others. As an elementary teacher, I worked closely with colleagues, my administrator, and a mentor who would coach, cajole, coddle, and otherwise guide me to achieve success with my students.

Within PLS are cadres of instructors in states or regions, all former or continuing classroom teachers, who enjoy a camaraderie, accountability, and support of one another as they tackle new courses or techniques and deliver them to teachers eager

Instructional Coaching with the End in Mindx

to improve their practices. Within this group, the thought of teaching teachers without this support never crosses anyone’s mind; we are all supporting one another for the betterment of teachers and, ultimately, their students.

I have since evolved into the role of Executive Vice President of Performance Learning Systems, Inc., which as a company continues to enjoy a wide network of expert educators throughout the country who interact and share ideas and strate-gies, taking advantage of the various means of telecommunication with which the world is now blessed. I find myself traveling throughout the country and now the world presenting to—teach-ing to—educators, administrators, school districts, state departments of education, coaches, and the entire array of those who hold positions of edu-cational leadership.

Over the past 20 years, however, I have come to specialize more and more in the concept and practice of coaching—peer coaching, mentoring, and now instructional coaching. Whatever name it is given, it involves teachers working with others to improve and enhance their teaching skills. Because I was fortunate to have the support I did in my own elementary teaching years as well as the value I currently experience when collaborating with colleagues, my focus on coaching is to bring that important aspect of teaching to teachers who often go it alone. While coaching has made its mark in many schools, districts, and states, too many teachers are tackling the complex, ever-changing, and highly pressurized occupation of teaching without the benefit of coaching. They have

Introduction xi

little or no feedback or support for their practices, their skills, and their delivery of learning.

My reason for embracing coaching as a specialty stems from the realization that, unlike my own experience of receiving support during my teaching years and the huge value I have experienced by collaborating with my colleagues at PLS, many teachers work in isolation.

When I wrote Quality Teaching in a Culture of Coaching in 2005 (and the second edition in 2010), its content represented these 30-plus years of experience in working on coaching programs and practices with educators. Most of my focus was on peer coaching and mentoring.

Peer coaching involves teachers working in each other’s classrooms, providing feedback as an exten-sion of a teacher’s personal and professional de-velopment. It is relationship-based and grounded more in asking than in telling—the teacher asks for coaching on specific skills. Sometimes peer coaching connects to a systemwide or buildingwide coaching effort; at other times it is created by individual teachers working on skills or behaviors they want addressed based on their own specific needs or desires.

While similar in process, mentoring differs from peer coaching in that the relationship is not always on an equal footing. The mentor has some respon-sibility to take more of a directive role, telling as well as asking. What has changed today and grown over the past few years is the emergence of a new type of coaching: instructional coaching. School-based instructional coaches sometimes wear the title of literacy coach or reading coach, math or

Instructional Coaching with the End in Mindxii

science coach, and they may work with teachers on instruction in all content areas. The relationship is results-based. Instructional coaches are often hired as such, and do not necessarily work as classroom teachers. They, too, fall into the roles of telling as well as asking: learning the coachee’s agenda and guiding toward improvement in areas the coachee may not be aware of.

The role of instructional coach combines the roles of peer coaching and mentoring into one. The roles often overlap in terminology and per-ceived functions, but instructional coaches are there to make sure that in the end there is student achievement. The instructional coach often part-ners with the principal, and together they decide a course of coaching for a teacher. When a coachee opts not to follow the suggestions of his or her coach in a peer-coaching relationship, the coach would understand and move on to another coachee. In instructional coaching, the coach would persevere and continue working with the coachee until some success is realized. The in-structional coach, therefore, takes on a greater responsibility and needs a broader and deeper skill set—plus a sense of authority.

Both peer coaches and instructional coaches are valuable, and certainly my work continues with both types of coaches. Beyond developing more fully the role of instructional coaching, this book looks at the value and power of its application in collaboration among teachers, administrators, professional staff developers, and other school leaders. It looks at blending instructional coaching and student achievement through avenues such as

Introduction xiii

professional learning communities, peer coaching programs, team teaching, and professional staff development that shifts its focus from teacher performance to eliciting student learning behaviors. Throughout, we look at opportunities in which educators can rely on the synergy and value of coaching to shore up their skills.

Working in collaboration, requires certain talents, of course, as does most group interaction and communication. Facilitation, for example, provides educators and coaches with the opportunity to focus on the process of learning, monitoring, and guiding toward desired improvement. It involves creating and delivering questions that are finely structured and designed to elicit the thinking—and therefore guidance—that allows others to achieve and succeed. My hope is to convey sound question-ing strategies and vital facilitation skills that create a mindset of incorporating facilitation, not only among educators, but also among students.

My “Aha’s”

The Value of Questioning SkillsMy own professional and personal growth in

recent years has spurred several “aha’s.” While I knew that questioning was an important skill in coaching, my knowledge of questioning skills has expanded to be richer and deeper to the point where I now see questioning as the most critical of all coaching skills. An in-depth, detailed look at questioning and proven facilitation skills, including PLS’s Questions for Life® model, is therefore found in these pages.

Instructional Coaching with the End in Mindxiv

A Shift to Backwards PlanningThe parallels I have begun to draw between

coach and coachee and between teacher and student constitute another “aha” in my growth as I continue my work with school-based coaching. The key piece in this book and the model I wish to present, which I’ve called “backwards plan-ning,” reveals probably my greatest “aha” and constitutes a shift that I believe will vastly in-crease student achievement.

This shift occurred for me as I began modifying my focus while observing teachers and as a coach. It continued and expanded as I worked with other coaches who were observing and coaching teach-ers. I began turning my attention away from the teacher and focused instead on what the students were doing. I had previously spent the majority of time watching the teacher and analyzing what I was seeing, comparing it to what I knew to be effective teaching practices. Students served as a secondary focus, alerting me to a problem in teacher performance if they were off task. Otherwise I looked solely at how the teacher was delivering instruction.

Once I shifted my perspective—literally turning my chair around and moving to the front of the classroom to face the students instead of watching the teacher from the back of the room—I began observing students and their behaviors. I asked myself the question, “Are students doing what they need to do to achieve the goal the teacher has set? If so, what is the connection between what the teacher is doing and the behaviors students

Introduction xv

are exhibiting that demonstrate they are learning, or at least making efforts to learn?” If those student behaviors were not there, it would be time to review the teacher’s practices and think about what else he or she might do to gain the desired student behaviors that would cause learning to occur.

The Genesis of Student AchievementStudent achievement has always been the ultimate

goal, so the “aha” I just described is not necessarily new. But as a teacher of teachers, this shift from a focus on teaching to a focus on student learning opened a wide swath of opportunity for coaching, facilitating, collaborating, and differentiating instruc-tion in its broadest applications.

After rewriting Quality Teaching in a Culture of Coaching and before developing this book, I wrote Tapping Student Effort ~ Increasing Student Achievement. That book’s content served as the genesis of my shift in perspective. I realized that in order for a student to apply effort to a task, teachers must focus on the student’s individual effort and then apply the knowledge and motivation to create that effort anew, moving the student on to increased effort, an up tick in the student’s abilities, and ultimately, success.

Teachers struggling to attain student achievement are often told to “work harder.” As I developed the Effort book, it occurred to me that it was actually students who would demonstrate certain behaviors as a result of tapping into their own efforts and abilities. Those behaviors would then result in students achieving. Once the teacher identified and then taught to desirable behaviors, it would cause

Instructional Coaching with the End in Mindxvi

student achievement to occur, rather than involving harder work by either teacher or student.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. While students can be observed exhibiting behaviors that signify an ability to learn, teachers also exhibit behaviors that show whether they are learning too. They display skills, performance patterns, and attitudes that indicate what needs to be done to bring out behaviors that will cause improved teaching, and thus improved student achievement. As teachers embody these behaviors, they become a model for similar behaviors in students.

The Crucial LinkAgain drawing a parallel between coach and

coachee and between teacher and student, I hope to show the crucial link made by identifying and facilitating behaviors that achieve learning goals. Methods of getting there include questioning strategies, facilitation skills, collaboration, keen observation, instructional coaching, and motiva-tion. Trust and transparency form the foundation and sustainability of learning among teachers, administrators, coaches, parents, and last—but never least—our students.

It is my hope that this book will help you see the parallels, grasp the importance of a shift in focus to student behavior, and embrace the value of collaboration in education.

In Chapter 1 we look at some of the forces in the world and in education that create the need and desire for collaboration among educa-tors. The complexities of teaching, impact of

Introduction xvii

technology, and value of coaching in today’s educational environment are discussed. Here we introduce the idea of shifting focus from teaching practices to student behaviors that produce learning.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the peer-coaching process first described in my book Quality Teaching in a Culture of Coaching, now in its second edition. This process has been successfully implemented in coaching programs throughout the world. The model serves as a basis for the various iterations of coaching that have developed over time, including that of instructional coach. Chapter 2 walks the reader through a three-step program of coach-ing, emphasizing the need for trust while broaching the topic of the resistance to peer coaching from some educators.

Chapter 3 delves into my “backwards planning” model—how it can be used for the benefit of teaching and student achievement. It describes student behaviors that denote learning and how “planning backwards” can benefit from “implementing forward” by adapting teaching practices to achieve desired behaviors. A key component of the book, backwards planning shows a shift in mindset from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning, and describes various techniques that motivate student be-haviors and thus student learning.

Chapter 4 further reveals the behaviors that produce learning and discusses the various

Instructional Coaching with the End in Mindxviii

roles and responsibilities of instructional coaches—how they are the same as and dif-ferent from peer coaches or mentors. It ties the concept of backwards planning to the role of instructional coach and describes various techniques and models to use with educators, including the interchangeable role of facilitator and teacher and the benefits and value of using live events to achieve student behaviors that produce learning.

Chapter 5 describes the role an instructional coach plays in altering teacher behaviors to elicit learning behaviors in students. It defines the partnership between principals and in-structional coaches, and touches on the role of instructional coaches in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). It introduces the value of a questioning model, Questions for Life, for coaching and teaching. Here are tackled the problems of resistance to coaching and to behavior change in general, outlining tactics and language that can be used to defuse resistance by employing specific ex-amples and scenarios.

Chapter 6 explores the impact of Professional Learning Communities on teaching and school leadership. It describes their benefits and value, and provides tips on forming a PLC and on making time to ensure its success. Within the framework of the PLC, we look at how facilitation and instructional coaching work with the concept of backwards planning to shore up collaboration and teamwork among teachers, instructional coaches, and principals.

Introduction xix

The Questions for Life questioning strategies introduced in Chapter 5 are fully described in relation to facilitating both teacher and student learning, including specific examples and key language.

Chapter 7 shows how the backwards-planning process finds its success by implementing forward when designing staff development. Using an analogy of the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, we show how tracing the needs and behaviors of teachers can drive the training created by staff developers. We endeavor to show how the role of staff develop-ment dovetails with instructional coaching as instructional coaches work with principals and school leaders, educators, and peer coaches, whether in training programs or Professional Learning Communities. As the focus shifts to student behaviors, staff-development training shifts to producing teacher behaviors that will elicit desirable student conduct.

Finally, in Chapter 8 we return to fully focusing on students and the importance of student learning behaviors. Methods to increase the involvement and responsibility of students in their own learning are explored by stretching beyond the confines of traditional teaching and thinking. A day in the life of backwards planning is visualized, along with methods teachers can use to alter or augment their teaching to continually raise the bar and translate student learning behaviors into suc-cessful student achievement.

Instructional Coaching with the End in Mindxx

SummaryEvery teacher experiences the thrill and satisfac-

tion that emerges when he or she see the faces of students successful in their learning. I am, and always have been, a teacher. When I watch the face of a teacher who figures out the behaviors she can choose to produce learning in her students and the opportunities she needs to offer for them to do so, I experience that same thrill. As I observe her as a coach during classroom observation, I see the teacher look over to me beaming with satisfac-tion because she noticed the behaviors of her students, shifted her teaching accordingly, and then reached the learning goal. That moment alone spurs me to further effort and achievement myself. It gets me onto the next plane to work with each subsequent group of teachers.

I hope this book will spur you on and motivate you, and that you will learn well all that we have put forth in Instructional Coaching with the End in Mind: Using Backward Planning to Increase Student Achievement.

Thank you for continuing to do noble and im-portant work in the world.

Stephen G. Barkley

1

Teaching: A Team Approach

Imagine a doctor operating on a patient all alone with no scalpel or nurse to assist him; no anesthetist, no one monitoring the patient’s

progress or suggesting where to place pressure on a leaking artery. Working alone makes no more sense in the teaching profession than it does in the medical profession.

Teaching is a team endeavor. And where it is not, it certainly should be. Given the complexities of education today and the high stakes of educating students, teachers cannot continue to operate in a vacuum, creating “silo thinking,” isolated and apart from the whole. Doing so short-changes the talents of educators who otherwise benefit greatly from the coaching, support, feedback, and collabora-tion of other professionals.

The Plight of Education Blamed on Teachers

Teachers are professionals in an increasingly complex and changing environment, as are most

Instructional Coaching with the End in Mind2

professionals today. Also increasingly, teachers are bearing the brunt of complaints and issues about education, with the focus that improving teaching practices would automatically increase student learning and erase all the educational ills accumu-lated over decades. The list of ills includes things such as a shortage of funding, elimination of programs, overcrowded classrooms, outdated cur-riculum or technology, and many other political and social issues over which a teacher has no control.

Education as a topic is bandied about among media pundits and politicians, lawmakers and churchgoers, entrepreneurs and corporate leaders. The complaints inevitably focus on teachers’ abilities to gain student achievement as a general proposi-tion, regardless of the incredibly varied and jumbled circumstances in which teachers function.

The March 15, 2010 issue of Newsweek sported on its cover a blackboard on which was written a statement repeated over and over, as though punish-ment for a recalcitrant student, “We must fire bad teachers.” The issue itself featured several articles by Evan Thomas and Pat Wingert. One article’s title, “Why We Can’t Get Rid of Failing Teachers,” echoed the repeated sentence on the cover, com-plete with a graphic of a large, circled letter “F.” Several other articles in the magazine provided a variation.

The Newsweek authors’ primary focus was on the practice of tenure, and they endeavored to make the case that incompetence among teachers was rampant, yet districts were helpless in the face of strong teacher unions to fire them, even

Chapter 1: The Benefits of Coaching in Education 3

teachers who were borderline criminal. They es-chewed the idea that problems within schools are created from a variety of sources, and instead took aim directly at teachers and poor performance.

Not willing to let that report go without a grade, Educational Leadership’s Editor-in-Chief, Margaret M. Scherer, devoted the May 2010 issue to a reprisal to the Newsweek issue, placing on the cover another blackboard with white-chalk printing of a sentence repeated over and over: “We must support good teachers.” The magazine cover itself was titled The Key to Changing the Teaching Profession. In the issue are several articles focusing on the changes within education, the promise of the upcoming generation of new teachers known as “Generation Y” or the “Millennial Generation,” and a variety of ways in which teachers are gaining from a plethora of improved, technology-boosted, mentor-supported teacher-preparation pathways.

In her editorial, “What Newsweek Gets Wrong,” Scherer defends the five million education profes-sionals while also acknowledging that, within that number, some poor teachers are bound to exist as well as some “really bad ones” that need to be weaned out of the system. She focuses her editorial “Perspectives” on the fact that placing all the problems of education on teachers does the educa-tion system a disservice and does not further the cause of producing quality educators:

Evan Thomas and Pat Wingert turn an impor-tant idea—namely, that the quality of teachers is the single most important factor in making a difference for students—on its head. They


downplay all the factors that help create good teachers—for example, adequate preparation, instructional know-how, solid curriculum, ongoing professional development, positive support from colleagues and supervisors, and a collective effort by the school, families, and community to make school a successful experi-ence for every child.1

In a closing comment bound to have stung like a ruler hitting the back of the hands of Newsweek authors Thomas and Wingert, Scherer concludes that “Supporting teachers is neither dramatic nor easy. It certainly requires more time, more concerted effort, and more understanding of the nuances of the difficult work of teaching than does criticizing teachers as a group.”

The Complex Role of TeachingTeachers not only face such criticism as they

juggle lesson preparation, tackle educational re-search, deliver the curriculum, and provide a good performance and techniques of instruction, they also work within the matrix of society’s ever-in-creasing challenges of children with learning dis-abilities; with physical, emotional, and nutritional needs. Teachers juggle various levels of student achievement—those advancing rapidly, those who struggle. Honoring both ends of the spectrum, teachers need be careful not to overtax the under-achievers and dissipate the drive of the more advanced and vice versa.

Teachers deal with gangs, drugs, students at risk, and children who have no safe haven in which to


do homework, no meal for breakfast or lunch, or both. They work with overworked parents and underfunded schools, buying needed supplies out of their own pockets—those same pockets that are being eyed by the public as possibly too full, imply-ing that teachers are overpaid. Teachers often serve as social workers, nurses, psychologists, and surrogate parents. More and more, they need to be multicultural in their approach, understanding and speaking languages they never heard of in graduate school.

Most importantly, educators are charged with imparting skills and knowledge so that students can succeed in a future that shifts and moves so rapidly they no longer have any idea what it will be like in the workplace, in society, or around the globe when their students are adults. In short, those who point fingers at teachers or suggest that the only thing needed in education today is the betterment of teaching are missing the incredibly intricate entanglement that education presents today.

In the face of all this, of course, teachers become defensive, juggling their own priorities of teaching with an increasingly unhappy citizenry. As they strive to be part of the solution in education, they are often tossed in as part of—or even the cause of—the problem. It’s no wonder that a third of newly hired teachers leave during their first three years and nearly half give up during the first five.2 This is a sad statistic. A fresh, new, eager teacher goes into educa-tion for the love of children and teaching students, only to be slammed up against political, financial, and social issues he or she never contemplated.


Worse is the plight of teachers who have suc-cumbed to pressure, who have simply given up, downshifted to a place where they make sure students get the required grades or meet the standards so they can move on, whether they have actually learned anything or not. These teachers may effectively meet requirements, but they are not teaching well. And often, they do their jobs all alone.

Coaching and Mentoring to the Rescue

It doesn’t have to be this way . . . and it shouldn’t be this way. And in many places, teaching is not performed in this way. Coaching and mentoring programs are blossoming throughout the country and in successful pockets of education throughout the world. These successful programs bring educa-tors, administrators, professional staff developers, and coaches together in partnerships that benefit from the cooperation and support of other educa-tors as they team up to work for the betterment of students.

The History of CoachingThe concept of “coach” has been around for

decades. While for some it may conjure images of a spoke-wheeled, horse-drawn wooden carriage or a red-faced, whistle-blowing athletic coach shouting orders at a team, coaching has dramatically grown as a profession and a concept, assisting people in both personal and professional arenas. Executive coaching, which evolved from the role of manage-ment consultant, now serves as a perk for those


who achieve a promotion or advancement: a raise in salary, the corner office, and an executive coach.

The coaching relationship is usually a one-on-one process, although in some organizations individual coaching is followed by a group session in which all are familiar with the methodology. Coaches are brought in for specific skill or performance issues among employees; they are used as an intervention process. New people in an organization may receive a mentor or a coach, and as long-term and high-capacity personnel retire from the workforce, coaches are brought in to work with successors to their positions.

Coaching can be cognitive—focused on a specific learning event. It can be co-active, focused on the coachee’s desire to act on various aspects of his or her life. There is collegial coaching among co-workers, technical coaching, challenge coaching, and instructional coaching, all focused on working with others to improve specific aspects of one’s profes-sional life. Life coaches stem from the executive or professional coach realm, with the object of enhancing a person’s life balance and fulfillment. There are also somatic coaches, working with the body; spiritual coaches; marriage coaches; and many others.

Whatever the coaching relationship, it involves a partnership between the coach and the client or coachee. Professional coaches typically charge by the session or the month, and are available to respond to whatever immediate needs their clients face on a path to self-improvement, overcoming obstacles, or enhancing and expanding on the circumstances in which they live or work.


Professional staff development for teachers and administrators alike remains a crucial part of the profession of an educator. Courses and seminars designed to enhance the skills and performance of teaching and leading can often be applied to im-mediate situations. Yet the seminal research and studies on coaching by Bruce Joyce and Beverly Showers, originally conducted in 1982 and aug-mented since, strongly underscore the benefits of coaching as a means to transfer learning to on-the-job applications.

Table 1.1 shows the increase in mastery, skill, and its applications with a distinct acceleration for on-the-job application when components of coaching are added to the training process.3 Beyond grasping theory and concept, and in concert with learning specific new skills, coaching provides observation—a mirror of what the other person showed through behavior and actions that he or she learned—as well as accountability when the coach encourages additional practice and observation or feedback.


The Value of CoachingJoyce and Shower’s studies and research, as

well as the results of actual coaching taking place in school districts, show that successful coaching programs have expanded the culture of coaching in many school districts nationally and coaching programs internationally. The genesis of the role of instructional coach, hired specifically to serve full-time in tandem with principals and staff developers, grew out of this research and the manifestation of its findings in established coaching programs.

The value of collaboration among school staff members cannot be overstated. Schools have embraced coaching as an ideal staff-development tool to focus on the success of educators in doing their job of reaching students. Successful mentoring or coaching programs, team teaching, vertical teams, Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), small learning communities and teams, and groups or titles from other nomenclature all speak to the growing need and value of educators gathering together in pursuit of learning.

These coaching programs rely on the concept, process, and importance of peer coaching, instruc-tional coaching, and content-specific coaching, such as IT/informational technology, reading, math, or science coaching. There are literary specialists, reading specialists, professional staff developers, supervisors, and instructional leaders who together are making tremendous strides in not only the profession of teaching but the overall improvement of schools, learning, and student achievement.


Technology’s Impact on CoachingThe persistence, dedication, effort, and constant

loyalty to education of many teachers remain strik-ing. They strive to adapt to new means, new measures, and new techniques to “get it right”— to help tackle the complicated matrix called education. Educators are also blessed with an ever-increasing array of technological advances that challenge but also serve them. Today’s resources for teachers include Web sites appropriate to research or lesson plans, photos, essays, history, and background that enrich lessons and delivery, giving students deeper learning experiences. Sites such as EdPortal (www.edportal.com), 3rd Learning (www.3rdlearning.com), and New York Learns (www.NYLearns.org) offer teachers access to lesson plans designed to meet specific state standards. Teachers can incorporate key points into lessons of their own design and augment them with resources available online.

Technology provides valuable tools, but they are only tools. Without the collaboration and synergy that come from the human interaction of face-to-face coaching or mentoring, with its incumbent observa-tion, feedback, and increased focus on student achievement, individual teachers consume only a fraction of the full plate of educational issues and possibilities before them. Until a school becomes collaborative—until it forms partnerships among teachers, coaches, instructional leaders, students, and parents themselves—it will not realize the student achievement it struggles so hard to reach. Increasing teaching collaboration is the key to increas-ing student achievement.


A Shift in Perspective from Teaching to Learning

The thrust of this book depicts the collaboration of teaching in an instructional coaching environ-ment. Within that alliance is a shift in perspective from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning. The backwards-planning model fully described in Chapters 3 and 4 makes what at first may seem an obvious point but, in practice, is somehow overlooked in most teaching situations. Its genesis lies in the importance of identifying student be-haviors that will produce learning rather than a constant focus on the way teachers are trained to improve their teaching performance.

As students advance through the educational system toward an unknown future, the content they learn and the methods or techniques their teachers use to impart that content will not matter so much as the ability of the student to achieve, no matter what the content or techniques of presentation. That the teacher performed or delivered a lesson with skill and strategy should be applauded, and has very likely made learning more available to students; it is what educators strive to accomplish. But it’s all for naught if the teacher’s delivery did not first take into account student behaviors that would produce not only learning embedded in the specific lesson, but their desire and ability to learn anything at all.

Most importantly, did students make the connec-tion between their behaviors and the learning and knowledge it produced? For that insight and other student observations, teachers benefit from the


collaboration of an instructional coach. Principals, too, would do well to know how to make effective use of coaches, and coaches need to know how to be part of building leadership teams. It’s all a partnership, with the end-user student benefiting from the process and with society gaining overall.

Teaching is complex. There is an amazing intricacy of decision making that teachers undertake through-out every day. As one develops a respect for teaching, it becomes impossible to imagine allowing teachers to work alone. The process of learning and teaching is just too multifaceted for one person to handle. Doing so might even border on malpractice.

The impact of coaching on teaching depends greatly on the system and quality of coaching programs put in place. Many schools have em-braced peer coaching programs, a viable way for teachers to coach one another on specific skills and techniques and one that works in tandem with instructional coaches. Some schools have received grants, federal incentives, or stimulus monies to create and develop peer coaching pro-grams and/or instructional coaching positions for the improvement of teaching as a way to impact student achievement. In too many cases, however, coaches are placed in positions without sufficient training. Neither coaches nor principals nor, in most cases, faculty know how to obtain the great-est gain from this coaching resource. Without training, valuable coaches have been engaged in unrelated activities such as looking for additional resources or helping teachers cover lunch or re-cess—a sad waste of talent. As a consequence,


coaching without the benefit of training has meant that these coaches have not—because they did not know how—impacted student achievement.

The Skills of Instructional CoachesAs described in Chapter 4, the role of instructional

coach, while it varies from place to place and title to title, nevertheless has specific functions and requires a certain set of skills to become effective. Primary among these skills is the ability to maneu-ver from serving as a peer coach to a role somewhat similar to that of a supervisor, then to facilitate, and then to take on a training function. Working as partners, the coach, principal, teacher, and student can observe and identify student behaviors that cause learning to occur—behaviors that will lead students, motivate them, and afford opportuni-ties to expend effort to learn. Once guided to those behaviors, students will achieve the goal on their own.

Teachers do not create student achievement; students do. Yet teachers, with the support of other dedicated professionals, can together create the environment and the platform from which students can do what they do best: learn, achieve, create, and innovate into the future. Despite all the discus-sion of issues in education, all can agree that the world seriously needs and wants students to succeed. Giving them every bit of support to do so behooves us as a nation and as a planet.

But first things first. Chapter 2 describes the proven and successful model of peer coaching. Peer coaching serves as a base—a fundamental —of most coaching relationships or programs. It


offers those with or without existing coaching programs to develop one so that they have an opportunity to foster a coaching culture within their schools or educational institutions.

231

Stephen G. Barkley serves as Executive Vice President of Performance Learning Systems, Inc. He has 33 years experience teaching educators and adminis-trators in school districts, state

departments, teacher organizations, and institutions of higher education, both in the United States and through national and international schools abroad. A riveting motivational keynote speaker, trainer, consultant, and facilitator, Steve is known for tapping his clients’ capacity for change, bringing out their creativity and best practices. A specialist in the field of instructional and peer coaching, Steve increases the efforts and success of his clients by sharing his knowledge and expertise in how to best coach teachers to excellence and students to successful achievement.

Steve’s is also the author of the following books contributing to teacher and student learning and achievement:


Quality Teaching in a Culture of CoachingWow! Adding Pizzazz to Teaching and LearningTapping Student Effort ~ Increasing Student

AchievementQuestions for Life: Power Strategies to Guide Critical

ThinkingQuality Teaching in a Culture of Coaching, 2nd Ed.

You may contact Steve at:[email protected]

You may purchase Steve’s books, including this one, through:Performance Learning Systems72 Lone Oak Drive, Cadiz, KY 42211800-506-9996http:www.plsweb.com/resources/products/books

Terri Bianco joined forces with Stephen G. Barkley and Performance Learning Systems, Inc. in 1991 where she designed and wrote several graduate courses for educators. She has

collaborated with Barkley on multiple books and articles and currently heads TBEnterprises in California. Terri is a published author in her own right, a writing coach, and a ghostwriter. She also designs and delivers live and online training pro-grams on topics such as communication, leadership, and professional advancement. She can be reached at 916-359-3007 or [email protected].

also by stephen g. barkley - worthy shorts by stephen g. barkley quality teaching in a culture of...

Documents