Coaching Skills: Working with Colleagues

Toku reo toku ohoohoSpeak listen learn

References:Coaching for Schools – a practical guide to building leadership capacity, by Judith Tolhurst, Pearson Longman, 2006Coaching in Schools, by Mike Hughes, pub. Education Training and SupportCoaching Leadership, by Jan Robertson, NZCER Press, 2005Coaching and Reflecting, by Hook, Mc Phail and Vass, Teachers’ Pocketbooks, Curriculum Concepts, 2007Coaching for Performance, by John Whitmore, Nicholas Brealy, 2006 (3rd edition)National Council for School Leadership ncsl.org.ukCUREE curee.org.uk

What is Coaching?

A relationship where one person supports another to solve problems in their practice.

Dialogue is at the heart of coaching.

Awareness

and

Responsibility

Spectrum

affirming

directive

Non-directive

challenging

Ways of Working:

Pull (nondirective)Listening to understandReflectingParaphrasingSummarisingAsking questions that raise awarenessMaking suggestionsGiving feedbackOffering adviceInstructingTellingPush (directive) (from Downey)

CoachMentorInstructor

Doesn’t need knowledge of subject areaDoesn’t give advice

Uses a structured model

Specialised knowledgeHas credibility in the roleMay give advice as needed and can give quick fix ideasConversations may respond to immediate need

1-1 discussionsCentred on dialogueTrust relationshipDependent on skilled Questions and readingbeneath the surfaceLearn from each other

1-1 discussionsCentred on dialogueTrust relationshipDependent on skilled Questions and readingbeneath the surfaceLearn from each other

5 self actualisation coaching

4 self esteem coaching

3 esteem from others

2 belonging

1 survival

Maslow

1.Everyone has potentialawareness

responsibility

Why Coaching?

2. Success Breeds Success

5 for the sake of the students

4 because I see the value in it

3 because I want to look good to others

2 because I want to fit in

1 because I don’t want to lose my job

3. Change is Inevitable

4. We Learn best through Experience

ToldTold and shown

Told, shown and

experienced

Recall after 3 weeks

70% 72% 85%

Recall after 3 months

10% 32% 65%

Unconscious competence

Unconscious incompetence

Conscious incompetence

Conscious competence

Start

1

23

Finish

4

5. Everyone deserves to be heard

‘[PD needs to] encompass the multiple dimensions of a teacher’s development – social, emotional, moral / spiritual, conceptual – as well as professional expertise.’

‘There appears to be a relationship between knowledge of the need for personal development and having been on a journey of personal discovery and development.’Robertson

6. Power should be shared

Barriers

• isolation of practice

• stress and business of the day

• need for a colleague to dialogue with

• lack of skill

Robertson

Skills of Coaching

• Building Rapport

• Listening

• Questioning

• Giving Feedback

Building Rapport

Mirror the:• Words, tone and body language of Learning Style

– Visual– Auditory– kinaesthetic

Surface Listening

Active Listening• Directed listening

• Listening for learning

Listening

If you are trying too hard to interpret then you are not listening effectively. Energy is spent on framing the next question and using one’s own reference points to interpret rather than on a deep understanding of the issue. (from Tolhurst)

“When the time is free of any thought or judgement, it is still and acts like a mirror. Then and only then can we know things as they are.”

W Timothy Gallwey

GROW

Goals

Reality

Options

What Next

Goals

• Key points:o session and end pointo Positively statedo Personalisedo Specifico Stepping stones

GOALS

• Toolso Building Rapporto Listening for Learningo Reframing o Summarisingo Key questions: Where are you now? Where

would you like to be? How will you achieve this?

Realityleads to…Awareness

REALITY

• Tools

o Probing questionso Observational feed-backo Summarising and reframing and L for Lo Sliding scale

5 100

Options

Thinking Outside the Box

Toolso magic “if”o suggestions

What Next?• Key points

o what and when

o coach as encourager

• Toolso Commitment levels

Types of Questions

One suggestion of classifying questions is:

• open questions • descriptive questions• probing questions• challenging questions• clarifying questions• commitment questions

Mike Hughes

• Coaching is a belief system

• Take small steps

• Where to next?