The Power of Co-Coaching

1. The Power of Co-Coaching Building capacity and achieving improvement through coaching & collegial lesson observations

2. From this morning … • Lifelong yearning to educate themselves • Active participants in whole of British community • A pupil - centred school • Develop high order thinking skills / independent learning • Success is the journey not the destination • This is who I am … invite you to understand me, to find out what I stand for. • Outstanding learners and outstanding human beings • Personalised learning and personalised excellence • Promote the owls and shoot the foxes

3. More from this morning … • The dreams we want for our children • Community cohesion • Shift happens • Building self-esteem • Only 38% look forward to going to school • Peer mentoring / coaching for achievement • Transformation of society • Islamic education versus secular education … mathematics and Islam … • N (texts per day) > N( people on planet) … • 2.4million Muslims in UK

4. Outline • Nature of coaching • Coaching trios • Management implications • Emotional intelligence • Skills required for co-coaching

5. What is collaborative teaching? • Collaborative teaching provides an opportunity for a symmetric relationship between fellow professionals; one based on respect and trust.

6. Collaboration can take place in all phases of teaching: • Planning • Preparation • Implementation • Monitoring & Assessment • Evaluation

7. THE TEACHING CYCLE Plan Teach Monitor Outcomes Reflect Where can coaching make a difference?

8. Diagnosis/ promotion of understanding of teaching issues, awareness of strategies, help with preparation & planning Diagnosis / assistance/ Guidance/ encouragement & collaborative support Plan Teaching Attempt Monitor Outcomes Diagnosis, assistance, provision for monitoring outcomes and processes of teaching attempts Reflect Feedback Diagnosis/assistance to relate monitoring back to teaching plan intentions

9. Mentoring or Coaching? • Mentoring • Specialist Coaching • Peer Coaching / co-coaching

10. CUREE model

11. Mentoring or Coaching

12. Coaching • The focus of coaching is the in-depth development of specific knowledge, skills and strategies. • Coaching does not depend on the coach having more experience than the ‘coachee’; it can take place between peers and staff at different levels of status and experience. • Coaching is usually informed by evidence.

13. Coaching Trios • Video of coaching trios

14. Coaching Trios (notes) • Sharing good practice • Teaching & learning focus (AfL) • Trios cross-curricular initially • ============ • Departmental trios • Status of observer and teacher • Focus is on sharing and developing expertise • ============ • Discussion then within trio of what has been learnt

15. EQ & Coaching John Whitmore claims the following. • Emotional intelligence (EQ) is an attitude, a way of being. • Coaching is a behaviour, the practice of EQ. • Both are invaluable life skills which can be developed. • Coaching is the practice of emotional intelligence – both are invaluable life skills. Leading Coaching in Schools www.ncsl.org.uk

16. A barrier to deliberative reflection • Skilful improvisers often become tongue tied or give obviously inadequate accounts when asked to say what they do. Clearly it is one thing to be able to reflect-in-action and quite another to be able to reflect on our reflection-in-action so as to produce a good verbal description of it; and it is still another thing to be able to reflect on the resulting description. Schön 1987

17. Leading Coaching in Schools www.ncsl.org.uk

18. Nature of teacher knowledge • Teacher knowledge versus knowledge for teachers • Knowledge for teachers … knowledge as a possession capable of being monitored • Teacher knowledge …embedded in teachers’ lives … knowledge in context … personal … based in values • Connelly F M & Clandinin D J in …. Tomorrow’s Teachers

19. Self-awareness Awareness of others Self Management Social Skills

20. Change • Change comes through people’s actions. • We cannot or should not seek to re-bake people. • They cannot change unless they are aware. • Confronting unawareness can be a gift Leading Coaching in Schools (www.ncsl.org.uk for full details)

21. Building strategic capability Davies & Davies Developing a Model for Strategic Leadership

22. Coaching practice in schools is built on four essential qualities: • a desire to make a difference to student learning • a commitment to professional learning • a belief in the abilities of colleagues • a commitment to developing emotional intelligence

23. Coaching is grounded in five key skills: • establishing rapport and trust • listening for meaning • questioning for understanding • prompting action, reflection and learning • developing confidence and celebrating success www.ncsl.org.uk/coaching

24. The art of questioning …

25. Questioning Skills Leading Coaching in Schools www.ncsl.org.uk

26. Activity • In pairs, discuss and record alternative ways of working collaboratively • What issues might arise if both partners are experienced teachers?

27. Collaborative Planning • Teaching sessions will need to be planned in more detail than normal. • Experienced teachers should aim to give partners a detailed insight into their thinking and planning

28. This would entail explaining: • Purpose of activity • Justifying teaching strategies • Clarifying structure • Clarifying responsibilities

29. Teachers should have theoretical underpinnings for their pedagogical decisions. This will include: • subject knowledge • knowledge of educational aims, goals and purposes • knowledge of other content related to broader aims • general pedagogical knowledge • knowledge of learners and curricular knowledge

30. Collaborative analysis & reflection • Collaborative working enhances teaching by providing: • Opportunities to observe each other teaching • Reflect in practice (mini-discussions during teaching) • Reflect on practice by joint analysis and evaluation after the teaching session

31. Analysis & reflection within co-coaching • Opportunities to discuss the quality of (individual) children's learning • Opportunity to monitor the effectiveness of teaching in the light of pupil learning • Discussion of the teachers’ practice in order to deepen understanding of the teaching process. (Note collective practice)

32. Activity • Identify the advantages of collaborative working as a teaching and learning strategy for experienced teachers • Identify the potential ‘pitfalls’ of collaborative working with less experienced colleagues.

33. Advantages • Access to real teacher thinking and teacher knowledge • Non threatening context • Context for focussing on particular strategies / phases / skills • Gradual but flexible ‘scaffolding’ of trainee learning • Builds professional relationship

34. Pitfalls • Joint planning & evaluation can be time-consuming • Need to work with several different teachers. (Harder in smaller schools) • Needs to be a flexible balance between collaborative and independent working

35. Charm • “When people came to see Gladstone they departed believing he was the wisest person in the world” • “If you came to see Disraeli, such was his charm that you went away thinking that you were the wisest person in the world” • Gordon Brown quoted in Education Guardian 29th March 2005