What do primary teachers perceive as the effective elements of a specialist- coaching approach when developing their classroom practice in mathematics?

Bilateral Conference, Edgehill University 24/25.03.14

Jennie Pennant Cambridge University jennie@growlearning.co.uk

Specialist coaching • a structured process• focussed on supporting teachers to explore their own

classroom practice in an active and self-responsible way

• where the specialist coach can offer ideas as appropriate.The specialist coach needs to be a fellow professional with knowledge and expertise relevant to the goals of the professional learner. Cordingley (2005)Coaching enables people to find genuinely practical ways to be the best that they can be, and to do it for themselves.Smith (2004)

Professional learning

Professional learning is held to be activities that support teachers to add to their professional knowledge, develop their professional skills, clarify their professional values and enable students to be educated more effectively.

Rogers (2002) Earley & Bubb (2004)

Mathematics teaching

The researcher/consultant held a connectionist orientation towards mathematics learning, meaning:

• students become numerate through engaging in purposeful mathematical activities that promote interactions with others

• misunderstandings are recognised, made explicit and worked on together.

Askew, Brown, Rhodes, Johnson and Wiliam (1997)

Context • Primary school in south-east England.• All the teachers needed to improve the quality of learning and

teaching: school in Ofsted category – classroom standards judged to be too low.

• Mathematics development project: regular specialist-coaching sessions for every teacher combined with whole-school training.

• Researcher also delivered the programme.• Head teacher actively supported the development of a whole-

school Professional Learning Community based on coaching principles.

The literature review

Carried out against the four aims of the project.

Key features of the approach for teachers

• is aligned with the connectionist orientation to mathematics teaching Whitmore (2002)

Askew, Brown, Rhodes, Johnson and Wiliam (1997)

• is personalised to the individual teacherSmith & Thomas (2004)

• is able to offer support for both their emotional and intellectual needs Day & Sachs (2004)

• is based on a non-judgemental, questioning approach, aiming to draw out ideas from the teacher and build their confidence and self-belief. Cordingley (2005), Tolhurst (2006), Starr (2003)

The specialist-coaching approach as a model of Continuing Professional Development

Best fit: category 3. So can be viewed as a valid model for Continuing Professional Development.

Primary teachers and mathematics

• In England, most are generalists rather than specialists

Williams (2008)

• May be challenged by:– negative emotional responses to maths

Ernest (2011) Millet, Brown & Askew (2004)

– limited subject knowledge Haylock (2001)

– not having a connectionist approach to mathematics. Allen (2010).

The whole-school Professional Learning Community and individual teacher professional development

An effective Professional Learning Community and specialist coaching are closely aligned, with shared features such as: – the responsibility for and focus on student

learning Timperley (2007)

– professional learning approach that is based on reflective enquiry, supported by openness, trust and respect between colleagues. Stoll & Seashore Louis (2007)Bolam, McMahon, Stoll, Thomas and Wallace (2005)

Methodology

Research design

• small-scale study: single school • case study: individual teacher perceptions in

depth• three teachers only: depth (time restrictions)• looked at common and contrasting themes so

semi-structured interviews• teacher sample: spread of length of time in

the profession, responsibilities and year group taught

• none of the sample teachers were mathematics specialists.

Bias• interviewer had been the consultant• choice of teachers• choice of school• Head teacher view of the approach• school in Ofsted category• researcher’s view of the approach• time working with teachers• researcher's view of mathematics:

connectionist orientation

Findings

Documentary evidence: Ofsted Nov 2011

Significant efforts made to successfully reverse a trend of underachievement and secure evidence of improved provision, leading to improved outcomes for students.

( Based on 21 lesson observations, meetings with staff, the Local Authority, governors and students plus the findings from analysing attainment data, curriculum files, monitoring records and strategic planning documentation).

The chief inspector gave great credit to all who worked in and supported the school to secure the improvements: – to raise achievement in English and

mathematics – to improve the quality of teaching and

assessment – to ensure that leaders and managers at

all levels drive forward improvements.

Camilla: 3rd Year teacher

Three ways that she had found the specialist-coaching approach useful:• to sort out a set of ideas• to personalise an idea for her class • to give her a new idea – a ‘seed’ - that she felt she could

grow into a lesson or series of lessons for her own class.

Specialist coaching:

• helped Camilla grow as a teacher because she had an active role in developing the ideas for her classroom

• built her confidence that she could effect change in her classroom as she had taken the ideas and developed them herself

• helped her persevere: if an idea didn’t work Camilla felt she would keep trying until it did as it was her idea and that inspired her to make it work.

Camilla discovered that mathematics teaching was less scary than she thought, with more options and the possibility of being creative. Making links to her English planning frame of mind had been helpful for her, as that was where she felt the most confident. Camilla now felt confident that she could, ‘do it’.

Developing as a teacher

Katharine 10th Year teacher Years 5 & 6 team leaderKey Stage 2 English Leader

Katharine had changed her own teaching style quite significantly, although she felt it was, ‘not completely there yet’. Her way of describing this change was that she had moved from being the ‘oracle’ where the students expected her to know all the answers to a position where ‘she was a human being as well’ and the class felt able to discover together.

Team leader role

• Katharine no longer wanted to mentor: ‘tell’ her team members what to do.

• She saw mentoring as a passive process where, ‘getting better’ was like taking medicine, ‘you just take the medicine don’t you, the whole bottle’.

• She now encouarged her team to come up with ideas themselves. Then they knew exactly what each idea looked like and could refine it.

• Katharine found this way of working took more time, yet felt it was quicker in the long run.

Susan 25+ years teacherEarly Years, Year 1 & Year 2 team leaderKey Stage 1 English Leader

Since the Ofsted ‘Special Measures’ categorisation was inclined to make Susan feel ‘rubbish’ she benefitted from the positive approach in the specialist coaching where she felt encouraged to build on what she already did well.She had noticed that the specialist coach spoke in positive terms, not dwelling on negative things or things that had gone wrong. This made her feel, ‘much better about things’.

Susan’s comment about the process

‘I don’t know how you do it but I come to each session with you determined not to take on anything new or change my classroom ideas – no way. Yet I come out of every session with ideas that I am keen to go away and try, that I feel I can manage and most of all I feel excited about!’

Key Stage 1 English Leader role

Susan developed her staff-training style to match the positive one used by the specialist coach.She knew colleagues liked to be affirmed in what they were doing, believing the key to getting them to engage and change what they did was to present the change as, ‘just a bit extra’.

New finding – not in the literature –termed the ‘Ripple’ effect

Comparing and contrasting the three interviews revealed that the specialist-coaching approach was operating at three levels:

1. delivering classroom-content professional development 2. modelling classroom practice: in particular the way of working with students to develop independent thinking

3. promoting a connectionist approach to mathematics.

Implications • A set of recommendations at a

personal-practice level.

• A set of recommendations at a school level.

• The possible potential of the approach for effective teacher professional development.

• The ability of the approach to support teacher learning in the twenty-first century.

Coach: personal practice (1)

• To ensure the teachers’ emotional needs are clearly addressed by endeavouring to create a safe, positive learning environment that supports risk-taking. The way to create a safe environment may vary from teacher to teacher.

• To support the personalisation of intellectual content so that it builds on the teacher’s knowledge of their students and their previous teaching and classroom experience.

Coach: personal practice (2)

• To ensure teachers have ownership of ideas to increase their motivation to engage with change.

• To support each teacher to devise small, manageable steps to implement in the classroom, to maximise the chance of a successful session outcome.

Coach: school level (1)

• Ensure that the whole school has a shared vision for: – the professional development– the common values underpinning it.

• In particular, if specialist-coaching is to be seen as form of mentoring, then the knowledge that the coach is seeking to pass on through it needs to be made explicit to schools when designing the programme and needs to be in line with their needs.

Coach: school level (2)

• Ensure the school has a commitment to develop a whole-school Professional Learning Community that supports the specialist-coaching approach.

• Ensure that all teachers are involved in the specialist coaching.

• Secure the provision of safeguarded, sustained time for each teacher.

Teacher professional development model

The specialist-coaching approach is flexible enough to offer development opportunities to all teachers at differing stages in their career.So, it has the potential to be an effective whole-school model.

21st Century Learning

• quality of student learning in a school depends on the quality of teacher learning. Sarason (1990), cited in Aubusson (2009)

• our understanding of learning is changing through the emergence of neuroscience research and developments in technology.

SO• the ‘hand-me-down wisdom’ offered by some models of

CPD will no longer be helpful. CPD model needed that supports teacher enquiry and enables teachers to be risk-takers. Muijs and Reynolds (2011)

Otherwise the risk is that teaching and classrooms become mismatched to the needs of learners, resulting in the decline of standards.

To find out more

Jennie Pennant jennie@growlearning.co.uk