Confessions of an Instructional Coach

If someone was to ask you what an Instructional Coach was, what would you say?

I’m pretty sure that most of us might have broadly similar ideas. Something along the lines of working with another teacher to improve their practice and subsequently, student outcomes. I’m also pretty sure that our experiences of instructional coaching might mean that we also have some different ideas about what it means too.

I’m going to stick my head out here and say that instructional coaching as a concept is poorly defined. As a result, it can be poorly understood, poorly implemented, and have little positive impact on whatever we intend it to have a positive impact on… However, being poorly defined can also be its greatest strength. It gives us an opportunity to create, mould and adapt something special that works in its intended context.

“Everything works somewhere; nothing works everywhere” – Dylan William

**CONTEXT KLAXON SOUNDS**

Whilst I’ve spent most of my career working (and coaching) in the British state system, a lot of what I have written about below is about my experience of instructional coaching in an international context. Therefore, the remainder of this blog will explore the lessons I’ve learned from instructional coaching in international teaching, but also what international instructional coaching can learn from the excellent work being carried out by educators (and coaches) working in British state schools. So, in reference to the Wiliam quote above, I hope you find at least some of the ideas useful (and applicable) to your own practices and contexts!

I’ve been an ‘Instructional Coach’ for a while now. I’ve put the term in inverted commas because whilst this is true in verb form (i.e. I’ve been a member of SLT who is part of ‘coaching’ the whole teaching body or leading deliberate practice in CPD), it’s not really been true in noun form (as in, I’ve done some instructional coaching in some capacity as part of a wider teaching and learning role, but never as my sole responsibility). So, when the opportunity arose to be an Instructional Coach full time, in another country, I said yes please.

In all of my prior roles, instructional coaching followed broadly the same model with some contextual tweaks here and there. It usually involved observing a teacher once, meeting them after to discuss what want well and what could be improved, deciding an action step, discussing the success criteria, modelling what this might look like (sometimes), scripting (sometimes) and then discussing when to put this new action step into practice. I thought it would be very similar in my new school. So, I prepped my usual cycle, tweaked the questions I might ask, listened to a lot of great podcasts and read a lot of great books (see bibliography at the end!). as it turns out, I thought wrong.

It wasn’t really that similar at all. I’m a walking talking example of the Dunning Kruger effect. The learning curve has been steep because coaching in my new role isn’t what I thought it would be. And that’s been terrifying and liberating in equal parts.

Why?

•  I teach 7 lessons a week instead of 20… so I have more time to coach. So much more time…. Time to do many of the things I couldn’t in my previous roles. Time to have more in depth conversations, time to work with more teachers…
• Loads more teachers. My school is so large that I’m now working with 17 staff from multiple different departments and roles on all sorts of things: curriculum design, assessment, goal setting and motivation, managing attention, and how to have constructive conversations with parents to name but a few.
• Coaching has also been part of the school’s culture for longer. It’s a more established concept, yet with less defined boundaries and more scope for its use. This is because coaches are given more freedom by leaders to utilise coaching in the highest leverage ways. For example, I’m working with staff in non-teaching roles to develop their own expertise too. E.g., staff that work in learning support, university guidance, and outdoor education.
• As a result of more time, I have more space to reflect and prepare. I’ve learned so much in this brief period and it’s made me think more deeply about coaching than ever before.

Here are some of those reflections:

• Coaching is inherently about your own values, beliefs, and goals. How do my own values inform my own approaches as a coach? I’ve learned a lot from ‘The Art of Coaching’ by the brilliant Elena Aguilar. Meeting people where they are, being supportive, maintaining confidence, being student focussed, and coaching as an act of service that is aligned to my school mission are all ways in which I apply my own values to my approach. perhaps the biggest shift in this area for me has been moving from a teacher what I think they need to focus on to asking the teacher instead. It’s important to reflect on your own values and goals and a coach – what do you want to get out of coaching and why is it important to you? Of course, the context klaxon is ringing loudly here. this approach might be right in my context now, but there are schools I’ve worked in where this approach wouldn’t work!
• Cornerstone conversations are the bedrock of effective coaching relationships. This is a term Michael Bungay Stanier uses for the initial conversation a coach has when working with someone new. This is probably the most powerful adaptation I have made to my coaching since moving abroad. Essentially, it’s asking questions to your coachee to find out about them as a person, their history, aspirations and goals. For example, I might ask questions like:
• What motivates you?
• What are your career goals?
• What do you want to achieve from this coaching cycle and why does it matter to you?

Perhaps the most powerful questions have been about how the coaching relationship will work. For example: when you have worked with coaches or collaborated with someone for professional development before, what was successful? What wasn’t successful? What annoys you when working with others? What do you enjoy when working with others? When something goes wrong, how shall we approach fixing it?

Of course, the practical questions about goal setting, lessons to drop in on and feedback slots are all really important discussion points, but I have found that the questions above show your coachee that you are invested, interested and care about their development. I’d go as far as to say that this is the most important conversation in establishing a fertile and positive relationship for professional growth.

• Follow up the cornerstone conversation with a summary email. All conversations are transient. Show your coachee that you listened and that you care by sending a summary of your conversation. It’s also a great reference point to come back to because humans are forgetful. Furthermore, it’s a great reference point for reviewing your working relationship with your coachee every so often. Have the needs of your coachee changed? Do they need something different from you? Has their goal changed?
• Building trust takes more than one meeting. Whilst cornerstone conversations are important in forming the basis of trust, it still takes time. Don’t expect someone to buy into you and what you are saying initially.
• Aguiler’s optical refractor tool is helpful in giving your coaching conversations more purpose and focus. In her book, ‘The Art of Coaching’, Aguiler talks about the coaches’ optical refractor as a useful diagnostic tool. We can’t expect to see everything as coaches, so having a lens through which to explore a conversation gives it more purpose, clarity, and focus. For example, I’ve found it helpful to apply the lens of ‘systems thinking’ to my conversations with subject leaders to explore the potential barriers and opportunities for success in specific department initiatives.
• Listen more. Talk less. As someone that hates even momentary silences in a conversation, I’ve found Michael Bungay Stanier’s advice here helpful! Some people just need a sounding board and some scaffolded questions to crystalise their ideas and direction. You don’t need to have a solution or an idea for everything. You don’t need to respond immediately to maintain your credibility. In fact, sitting back and listening more has often led to a better solution or action step than if I’d have chimed in earlier with my ‘ideas’.
• Tell me more. this is another one of my favourites from Michael Bungay Stanier. It really helps get granular with a coachee on their particular issue/problem. The great thing about it is that you can continue to ask it until you get all the information you need.
• Be comfortable with being uncomfortable. It’s ok to not have all of the answers for your coachee. It’s the same as being asked a question by a student in the classroom! Tell them that it’s a great question and that you’ll go away, think about it, gather more information and come back with ideas next time.
• Get experts involved. Like I said above, we will never have all of the answers. We can’t be an expert in everything! I’ve loved getting others involved in my coaching cycles and watching my coachee flourish as a result of their input. For example, I’ve been working on curriculum design with one of our subject leaders. A key component of this at my school is concept-based teaching and learning. I wouldn’t consider myself an expert in this field, so enlisted the help of my fellow instructional coach who is. She has a much greater impact than I could have in this area.
• Most teachers know what they need to work on. When goal setting, teachers have a general idea of what they need to work on most of the time.  They just need help in shaping a goal: making it specific, actionable and achievable. Jim Knight’s guiding questions for goal setting in his book ‘The Impact Cycle’ are a brilliant tool for doing this effectively.
• It’s ok for a goal to change during a cycle. We talk a lot about adaptive teaching, coaching should be the same. Why pursue something for the sake of it when doing something else might be more effective?
• There is definitely a coaching continuum. This varies from the purely facilitative to the completely directive. This seems to be quite the controversial topic within the instructional coaching community. Can a facilitative conversation be deemed ‘instructional coaching’? my argument still remains… instructional coaching is hard to define, and educators have different needs. So, do we need to confine the concept into an arbitrary box? I think if we do this, then we reduce a coach’s reach and subsequent impact on teacher development on student outcomes. In my experience, some educators only need to be asked some probing questions to solve their problem, whilst others say to me “I’m stuck, please can you give me some ideas?”. This can vary within a coaching cycle too. Sometimes a coachee might need a more directive approach at the beginning, but later on in the cycle might only need a few probing questions to achieve success.
• Have I mentioned that context is everything? For example, scripting is an amazing component of the coaching cycle in some scenarios (e.g., a difficult conversation with a colleague or disgruntled parent) but not in others (e.g., re-sequencing a series of lessons).
• Always have the big picture in mind. What are the whole school systems that might be contributing to, or help to solve this issue? Who are the people that could help with this problem? Who are the experts in this area? If we press ahead with this solution, what impact is it likely to have on others?
• Know your school. Culture, systems, history and leadership all inform how coaching is viewed, implemented and received. Do some fact finding – does coaching at this school align with your own beliefs and values? If not, is there scope for change?
• Working with other coaches is a dream. I know I’m lucky to have a team of other coaches to work with, because it can be a lonely job sometimes! If you have other coaches in your school, or other teachers that offer coaching, speak to them! It’s been great having colleagues that help you to reflect and overcome barriers I’ve faced in some coaching cycles.

What hasn’t worked?

1. When the gap is too big. This can be between the observation and the feedback conversation, or even between two steps in a cycle. For me, this is more than two days between an observation and a feedback conversation, and more than two weeks between two steps in a cycle. It’s easy to get swept up in the tornado that is working in a school. If we are honest, one of the first sacrifices in the tornado tends to be coaching. Try to keep your coachee committed and be flexible with them. If the gap is too big then coaching loses its impact.
2. When the goal isn’t clear, and you can’t see an endpoint. It might seem obvious, but if you don’t set a clear goal in the beginning or push on with a goal that seems to have lost it’s relevant, then the coaching cycle can become frustrating for all parties and we all wonder what we are doing with our lives.
3. When a lower impact approach is accepted because its easier. For example, not being insistent/persuasive enough when a teacher would benefit from a lesson drop in, or some scripting and deliberate practice. This happens especially in situations where teachers are reluctant to step out of their comfort zone. Solving this issue is definitely a blog topic of its own. It’s ok to make suggestions, but don’t go the other way and push too far. It’s a difficult balance to maintain what you think is best vs what your coachee thinks is best vs keeping the your own integrity and that of your coaching relationship.
4. When your role lacks clarity because you want to help everyone. Be insistent on the boundaries of your coaching role. Don’t bite off more than you can chew by saying yes to everything and everyone.

What can the UK learn from an international approach?

1. Whole school coaching models: is the juice worth the squeeze? Before I say any more about this, I have been responsible for the implementation of a whole school coaching model. There is some great work being done in the UK on this by organisations like Ambition Institute and the Teacher Walkthrus team. It can be really effective, but it’s really hard to get right. I’m starting to think that our time and resources might be better utilised elsewhere. Here are two common models I see that illustrate my point

Model A: top down coaching – SLT/small group of teachers coach everyone. This isn’t really effective unless all of those doing the coaching are trained regularly and given time to coach. Lack of coaching expertise leads to a lack of confidence in those doing the coaching and those receiving it. Lack of time is also an issue. Teaching loads in the UK are high and if you have to fit coaching cycles into already crammed timetables, is coaching really having the impact it could have?

Model B: Everyone coaches each other. This sounds lovely on paper, doesn’t it? It sounds like the professional development dream – everyone receiving personalised feedback and everyone continuously improving. But how effective is this really? Yes, personalised CPD for all does sound amazing, but is it actually good quality, valuable and impactful? Or does a lack of training for coaches and time for everyone else mean it is seen as a compliance activity or something to tick off from the ever growing to do lists of teachers?

How motivated are teachers to take part in models A and B? personally, I think it would be far more effective, sustainable and impactful in the long run if schools redistribute the skills and expertise of coaches to work with those that actually want it. Grow systems organically. Yes, it takes more time and we work in a time poor profession; but if we want a system that works for everyone, its worth the time and investment.

• Coaching is not for performance management. Don’t use coaching as part of your staff ‘support’/capability programme. Don’t use coaching as part of your performance management model. Why not? Because it will undermine everything you are trying to achieve with your coaching programme. If coaching is used in this way, then you will never achieve the intrinsic motivation and subsequent growth and development you are looking for. Why not? Because staff will always be thinking “do my school think I’m struggling? Is this a support plan?”- even if it genuinely isn’t in 99% of cases. Sadly, I have seen this happen in numerous schools as a box ticking exercise to remove staff that leadership no longer deem as effective. It completely sets fire to the idea that coaching is about genuine professional growth.

What can international schools and contexts learn about coaching from the UK?

In short – a lot. Most of what I learned about instructional coaching came from the UK from outstanding professionals like Josh Goodrich (@Josh_CPD), Tom Sherrington (@teacherhead), Matt Stone (@MattTeachCoach) and many, many more!

1. UK schools are great at explaining the ‘why’ of Instructional Coaching. Check out the work of Ambition Institute and Dr Sam Sims on the mechanics of instructional coaching cycles and why it is the best bet for individual teacher development
2. Using instructional coaching as one mechanism to improve whole school teaching and learning. It can happen if done well – check out my suggestions below for people to follow from schools that do this really well.

Final thoughts…

Instructional coaching is ill defined but that gives is a huge opportunity to maximise it’s potential within out contexts. Here are an handful of examples (and I’m sure there are many more) where instructional coaching is being implemented and adapted to maximise the impact on student outcomes:

Steplab Coaching Hubs

Zach Groshell’s work as a sole instructional coach – check out his website here

Teaching Walkthrus’ work with individual schools to improve T&L through specific teaching practices.

“Instructional coaching is currently the best-evidenced form of professional development we have” Dr Sam Sims

* BUT only if we take the time to get it right in our own contexts. Consistent reflection on what it means, its implementation and its impact in my school is a crucial foundational step on the journey to success. I’m only just at the very beginning of this path… stay tuned for more reflections soon!

** Are you an instructional coach, teacher or educator that wants to know more about instructional coaching or coaching in an educational setting? Check out my recommendations below!

1. The most influential person on my early coaching was without a doubt, Josh Goodrich (of Steplab and Ambition Institute). He has a book coming out in January called ‘Responsive Coaching’, which will be amazing. In the meantime, I’d highly recommend his essays on instructional coaching which you can find here  

2. Josh also has 2 great podcast episodes on the ERRR podcast with Ollie Lovell – I think they are 74a and b. Super influential for my thinking. 

3. Jim Knight is the king of instructional coaching. Would highly recommend ‘The Impact Cycle’ and ‘The definitive guide to instructional coaching’ – they really helped me to form the list of questions I ask teachers in my conversations and how to navigate them successfully. You can also check out his podcast here

4. In terms of establishing working relationships and figuring out how best to support teachers from the start, ‘The coaching habit‘ by Michael Bungay Stanier has been really helpful for me. We have loads of these in the library because it was a books and burritos book

5. And lastly, the one I’m reading at the moment is ‘The Art of Coaching’ by Elena Agular – makes me think a lot about the whole coaching process and how I can be a better coach