Even under ideal conditions, teaching is tough work. Facing unrelenting pressure from administrators and parents and caught in a race against time to improve student outcomes, educators can easily become discouraged (or worse, burn out completely) without a robust coaching system in place to support them.
PrefaceThere is a degree of hubris, I admit, in choosing to call this book The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching. But that title has served as the northern point on a compass, guiding me as I write. I have tried to create a document that lives up to it, providing a concise yet comprehensive review of the beliefs, processes, knowledge, and skills that instructional coaches can use to guide their practice and administrators can employ to create a coaching program that has an unmistakably positive impact on students. Coaching is essential for the kind of growth we need to see in schools. Real learning occurs in real life, when people work hard to solve real-life challenges. Workshops, books, and webinars can provide us with an overview of ideas, but we only adopt and internalize these ideas when we apply them to our professional practice. That kind of real-life learning requires goals that matter deeply to us and to our students, both because they are based on a clear understanding of reality and because we have chosen them for ourselves. Coaches help with each aspect of this kind of learning by partnering with teachers to (1) establish a clear picture of reality; (2) set emotionally compelling, student-focused goals; and (3) learn, adapt, and integrate teaching practices that help teachers and students hit goals. That kind of comprehensive learning is next to impossible for busy educators to achieve without a coach. Coaching done well is an excellent investment in children's lives. Successful coaches need to be experts at instruction while at the same time honoring the expertise of the professionals with whom they collaborate. They need to understand the complexities of personal change and communicate in ways that provide the support others need to change. Coaches need to lead, listen, and partner with teachers to move through a coaching process. They also need to work in settings that are organized to give them the best chance to succeed. I address all these ideas and more in my discussion of the Success Factors that are the focus of this book. These factors are the product of more than 25 years of research on instructional coaching. I have summarized that research, conducted first at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning and now at the Instructional Coaching Group (ICG), in many books—including Coaching Classroom Management (2006), Instructional Coaching (2007), Unmistakable Impact (2011), High-Impact Instruction (2013), Focus on Teaching (2014), Better Conversations (2016), The Impact Cycle (2017), and The Instructional Playbook (2020)—and in many journal articles. This book collects the most vital ideas from all those publications in one volume. More important, however, it is intended to describe what we have learned about coaching since those materials were published. Over the years, my colleagues and I at ICG have interviewed hundreds of educators from across the world. I have also had the good fortune to work directly with many excellent coaches in various research studies I have led in Lawrence and Topeka, Kansas; Beaverton, Oregon; and Othello, Washington. Many of the strategies and skills you will read about here were developed by people who dedicate each day to having an unmistakably positive impact on students. This book also summarizes the work of researchers and authors who have influenced the way I understand change, conversations, psychology, instruction, organizational development, learning communities, and so forth. This research places coaching in the broader context of recent insights into professional learning. Perhaps most important, this book documents the many mistakes we have made and what we've learned from those mistakes as we've developed our understanding of instructional coaching. If you were to read everything I've ever written in order of publication, you would undeniably read a chronicle of mistakes and lessons learned. I share mistakes encountered along the way here so that you can avoid making them in your practice. As Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, "Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself." In that spirit, I hope this guide helps you to make your own mistakes and learn your own lessons. Let's keep the learning going, because when we learn, so do our students. Printed by for personal use only |
There is a degree of hubris, I admit, in choosing to call this book The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching. But that title has served as the northern point on a compass, guiding me as I write. I have tried to create a document that lives up to it, providing a concise yet comprehensive review of the beliefs, processes, knowledge, and skills that instructional coaches can use to guide their practice and administrators can employ to create a coaching program that has an unmistakably positive impact on students.
Coaching is essential for the kind of growth we need to see in schools. Real learning occurs in real life, when people work hard to solve real-life challenges. Workshops, books, and webinars can provide us with an overview of ideas, but we only adopt and internalize these ideas when we apply them to our professional practice. That kind of real-life learning requires goals that matter deeply to us and to our students, both because they are based on a clear understanding of reality and because we have chosen them for ourselves.
Coaches help with each aspect of this kind of learning by partnering with teachers to (1) establish a clear picture of reality; (2) set emotionally compelling, student-focused goals; and (3) learn, adapt, and integrate teaching practices that help teachers and students hit goals. That kind of comprehensive learning is next to impossible for busy educators to achieve without a coach.
Coaching done well is an excellent investment in children's lives. Successful coaches need to be experts at instruction while at the same time honoring the expertise of the professionals with whom they collaborate. They need to understand the complexities of personal change and communicate in ways that provide the support others need to change. Coaches need to lead, listen, and partner with teachers to move through a coaching process. They also need to work in settings that are organized to give them the best chance to succeed.
I address all these ideas and more in my discussion of the Success Factors that are the focus of this book. These factors are the product of more than 25 years of research on instructional coaching. I have summarized that research, conducted first at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning and now at the Instructional Coaching Group (ICG), in many books—including Coaching Classroom Management (2006), Instructional Coaching (2007), Unmistakable Impact (2011), High-Impact Instruction (2013), Focus on Teaching (2014), Better Conversations (2016), The Impact Cycle (2017), and The Instructional Playbook (2020)—and in many journal articles.
This book collects the most vital ideas from all those publications in one volume. More important, however, it is intended to describe what we have learned about coaching since those materials were published. Over the years, my colleagues and I at ICG have interviewed hundreds of educators from across the world. I have also had the good fortune to work directly with many excellent coaches in various research studies I have led in Lawrence and Topeka, Kansas; Beaverton, Oregon; and Othello, Washington. Many of the strategies and skills you will read about here were developed by people who dedicate each day to having an unmistakably positive impact on students.
This book also summarizes the work of researchers and authors who have influenced the way I understand change, conversations, psychology, instruction, organizational development, learning communities, and so forth. This research places coaching in the broader context of recent insights into professional learning.
Perhaps most important, this book documents the many mistakes we have made and what we've learned from those mistakes as we've developed our understanding of instructional coaching. If you were to read everything I've ever written in order of publication, you would undeniably read a chronicle of mistakes and lessons learned. I share mistakes encountered along the way here so that you can avoid making them in your practice. As Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, "Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself." In that spirit, I hope this guide helps you to make your own mistakes and learn your own lessons. Let's keep the learning going, because when we learn, so do our students.
