Teachers as Coaches:The Coaching Model

Click here to complete the pre-assessment prior to starting this module.

• Understand how coaching can be used to develop your students.

• Develop the coaching skills that help improve individual performance.

• Demonstrate the behaviors and practices of an effective coach.

• Recognize student’s strengths and give them the feedback they need to succeed.

• Identify student problems and ways you can help to correct them.

Course Overview

Defining Coaching     

    

• One school of thought suggests that teachers have all the answers. We just help students find the answers. We are a facilitator.

• The other school of thought suggests that teachers have an obligation to share some of what they’ve learned. We are more of a partner in the learning/coaching process.

• For our purposes, coaching is based on a partnership that involves giving both support and challenging opportunities to employees.

• Knowing how and when to coach is an essential skill that can benefit both you and your students.

Importance of Coaching    

    

• Name some reasons why it is important for you to enhance your coaching skills as a teacher?

• List and explain types of coaching situations you find yourself in while teaching?• Click here to record your answers.

• Hopefully, you wrote about how as teachers, you can help your student expand their capabilities and improve their academic performance and behaviors through coaching. This will help you spend more time on teaching the common core academic standards.

Coaching Example     

    

One of your students often forgets to write appropriate notes during class discussions. Therefore, they are often unable to remember important information to complete the required assignments. How would you coach them to help them change their behavior (note-taking)? You might offer them an affirmation of their effort while giving them a specific tool to help them change their behavior.

“I know that you are trying hard to take notes; however, I would like to offer you some suggestions on how to take the necessary notes you need to complete the assignments. Would an outline help you?

1. Take a minute and recall an incident when an student presented you with a performance-related problem and the resulting problem-solving conversation that went well.

2. Think about reasons why the conversation went well. 3. Recall a problem-solving conversation in which

someone presented you with a performance-related problem and the conversation did not go well.

4. What do you believe were the reasons or hindrances that kept the conversation from achieving the results you wanted?• Click here to record your answers.

Personal Coaching Example    

    

Critical Coaching Skills

• The goal of teachers as coaches are to influence your students academic performance and academic behavior as well as create an acceptable/helpful school climate. The critical coaching skills are as follows:

• Interpersonal communication skills• Helping skills• Mentoring skills• Teaching skills• Challenging skills

Critical Coaching Skills:Interpersonal Communication Skills

    

    

• Interpersonal communication skills are the vehicle by which all interactions between you and other people made clear:. The quality of these interactions affect your relationship with your students. The qualities that are important are:• The ability to praise sincerely• The ability to understand what another's role entails

(teacher vs. student)• The ability to be trusted• The ability to be warm and friendly• Honesty• Freedom to disagree

• There are two kinds of questions: Closed vs. Open.• Closed questions are where we get only specific bits of

information from the speaker. (ex. Did you do your homework?)

• Open questions are questions that help us get more information, get ideas and opinions, and help us see where the other person is coming from. (ex. What is your opinion?)

• There are five common ways to probe other people.• Open question• Pause• Mirroring question• Paraphrasing • Summary question

Critical Coaching Skills:Interpersonal Communication Skills (continued)

    

    

Non-Verbal Communication• Non-verbal messages are the messages our body

sends to others that tell them we are listening.• Cues are those short phrases that keep us connected

and tell the other person we are still listening. • Paraphrasing, clarifying, and summarizing are lengthier.

You ask questions and make statements to make sure you understand what is said.

• Non-Verbal Communication is also important when coaching students.

Critical Coaching Skills:Interpersonal Communication Skills (continued)

    

    

Critical Coaching Skills:Interpersonal Communication Skills (continued)

    

    

Non-Verbal Communication (continued)

• Many of our non-verbal messages are telegraphed to others in four different ways:

• The words we use: Words that help/words that hurt• Our tone of voice: Tones that help/tones that hurt• Our facial expressions: Expressions that

help/expressions that hurt• Other body language: Other body language that

helps/body language that hurts• List some non-verbal messages

• Coaching involves focusing on your helping skills or ability to help students change their behaviors. Helping skills involve:• Giving your students some problem solving tools,

such as determining pros/cons of various options.• Asking them to identify options and make a

recommendation as to which option they favour, and then analyse the consequences of each option.

• Becoming good at asking questions/probing.• Staying open-minded if their ideas aren’t your ideas.

Critical Coaching Skills:Helping Skills

    

    

• Coaching involves mentoring students or being a critical part of their support system. Mentoring skills involve:• Finding ways of introducing them to other people in

the school.• Arranging for them to sit in on meetings that would

be of interest to them (Parent Conferences), when appropriate.

• Helping them find other mentors in areas where you have very little knowledge and they have interests.

• Talking about their future with them so you can learn more about what they want to do and help them see opportunities for getting there.

Critical Coaching Skills:Mentoring Skills

    

    

• Of course, coaching involves teaching student appropriate behaviors that lead to success: If you find yourself often teaching content that you’re not very good at it, you might need more professional development in teaching that content. However, it also involves:• Being patient.• When students make mistakes, using these as

learning opportunities• Encouraging them to try their new skills at every

opportunity.

Critical Coaching Skills:Teaching Skills

    

    

• Coaching involves challenging your students to make the necessary changes to improve their own academic behaviors. Challenging involves:• Remembering that your role as a teacher/coach is to

help students’ reach their potential.• Being certain you are clear in your own mind about

your expectations and then discuss those expectations with the students.

• Spending a little time with the students so you have a better sense of their progress.

• Helping them set SMART goals and put it on a written. Make them accountable.

• Click here to complete a self-assessment of your critical coaching skills

Critical Coaching Skills:Challenging Skills

    

    

• What do you think about your self-assessment?

• Were there higher/lower ratings?

• In which areas did you rate yourself highest?

• In which areas did you rate yourself lowest?

• What do these scores tell you about your coaching skills?

Interpretation of the Self-Assessment

    

    

Learning Styles and Principles : How do we learn?    

    • We learn by three different ways:

• By seeing (have to write things)• By hearing (have to say it aloud)• By doing (kinesthetically)

Teachers must assume that they use all three learning styles in their classroom.

• Students learn to do by doing. • Students get their impressions through their senses, so

combine verbal explanations with written instructions, illustrations, or an object.

• Students learn when they are ready to learn.• Students tie new learning to what they know. • Students learn one thing at a time.• Students learn more rapidly when results are satisfying to

them.• Students need to understand what they learn.

• List what you can do to make sure you cover all the learning styles.

Learning Styles and Principles (continued)

    

    

Specific Skills Involved in CoachingClick below to access definition of each skill

    

    

When it comes to getting results/behavior change as a teacher-coach. Here are four steps that find their way into most coaching processes.

1.Where are you? Where do you want to be? 2.What are your options? 3.What steps will you take? 4.Give feedback and prompt self-reflection.

Steps 3 and 4 may be repeated several times when coaching employees.

The Coaching Process     

    

The Coaching Process (continued)

    

    

Here are some strategies that should be used during the coaching process:

• Use questions to prompt discussion on progress• Reach agreements on progress made• Check the student’s understanding• Give praise• Look for good points to reinforce• Clarify the next steps after each coaching session• Make it clear that you both are looking forward to the

next stage

Feedback     

    

• Giving appropriate feedback is essential to coaching. You must:

• Be descriptive• Don't use labels• Don't exaggerate• Don't be judgmental• Limit your feedback to things you know for certain/have

observed• Help students hear and accept your positive feedback

• Students often will not admit that his/her behavior was wrong.

• Student may agree with what you say, but you feel he/she is not really committed to change.

• Students are angry about classroom rules and school policies. Therefore, he/she blames the policy for the problem you are discussing.

• The individual refuses to accept responsibility. • List what you can do in the above situations to m

ake the coaching sessions more effective.

• Click here to submit your plan for improving each skill that you feel needs some improving.

Coaching Challenges

• When do you know when to consider giving up trying to coach a student?

• When the student is not willing to make ANY changes.

• When there is no support from parents, administrator, and significant peers and they aren’t about to change their position.

• When you have given the student all you can offer.

Coaching Challenges (continued)

Click here to complete the post assessment after finishing this module.

• Carnegie, Dale. How to Win Friends and Influence People. Pocket Books, 1998 (Reprint).

• Coffman, Curt, and Gabriel Gonzalez-Molina. Follow this Path. Business Plus, 2002.

• Davis, Martha, Patrick Fanning, and McKay Matthew. Messages: The Communication Skills Book. New Harbinger Publications, 1995.

• De Desadeleer, Luke, and Joseph Sherren. Vitamin C for a Healthy Workplace. Creative Bound, 2001.

Recommended Reading List

Recommended Reading List (continued)

• Kimsey-House, Karen, Henry Kimsey-House, Phillip Sandahl, and Laura Whitworth. Co-Active Coaching, 2nd Edition. Davies-Black Publishing, 2007.

• Kinlaw, Dennis C. Coaching for Commitment: Interpersonal Strategies for Obtaining Superior Performance. Pfeiffer, 1999.

• Smart, J.K. Real Coaching and Feedback. Financial Times Management, 2003.