How instructional coaching shaped my teaching and my wellbeing - Poppy Nobes

There are plenty of blogs already written which go through the evidence base for instructional coaching. I am sure we have all heard Dr Sam Sims's research about it being our best bet form of professional development which has an impact on learning and outcomes[1]. Plus, the ever-present Dylan Wiliam quote about teachers getting better always because we all need to continue to develop across our careers[2].

However, when I first received a coach, I didn't know about the evidence base. I had no idea which book it came from and the justification for the model. When you are a brand-new teacher, the profession is so overwhelming that much of this is just white noise. All I knew was that coaching was a world away from what came before.

Flashback to the summer before I got my own classroom and timetable. I am fresh out of my English Literature degree, about to graduate and have taught the grand total of one lesson before. I'm visiting the school I'll be working in for the next two years and teaching a poetry lesson to the Head of Department's class. I spend hours planning this lesson, turn up late because I'm in a flap with the resources for a card sort and it all goes in a blur (I also mispronounce Degas. Who knew the 's' was silent.)

I sit down for feedback.

Head of Department - "So I would say that lesson was satisfactory with some good features...."

That's where my memory of that lesson and feedback ends. The moment I am reduced to an evaluative grade. Who knows what wisdom was imparted during that feedback and whether it had an impact on me. All I was taught at that moment was that there was a bar that I was very far away from reaching. (Which is retrospect, of course I was. It was my second-ever full lesson!)

I wish I could say that quality feedback on my teaching turned around from that moment. I am afraid not. Six weeks into my first term as a teacher, I'm given an individual grade by a real Ofsted inspector. Throughout my training, I'm given feedback like 'fix behaviour' and left alone to work out how. Years later at a different school, I am told my career wouldn't progress until I was getting outstanding in all my half-termly observations. Feedback was something to be feared, not valued.

In my third-year of teaching, enter coaching. With my instructional coach, I was getting granular feedback weekly. Someone was coming into my classroom who was rooting for me. They were focusing on something specific, not ready to pull apart every mistake. We were meeting, scripting, practising, planning my lesson together. I could rattle off a tonne of research about why my instructional coach had such an impact on my development at that moment in my career. However, surely the most important impact is that I was happier, I was progressing and my students were learning a lot more.

In recent years, I have been delighted to see instructional coaching surge into popularity after my first experience with it all those years ago. Our trainees and ECTs coming through will hopefully never experience feelings of never making the grade and feeling like a worthless teacher.

Unfortunately, we are always at risk when something gets popular that it suffers a lethal mutation and loses what makes it have an impact. This is when the narrative around something starts to turn critical - is this actually the fault of instructional coaching or are we seeing an implementation issue?

My top pieces of implementation advice to anyone hoping to adopt a coaching approach in your setting:

1) Make time for it. Protect this and do not allow it to be taken over by other priorities. Coaching  works when it is regular. Coaching works when it is privileged and not put to the bottom of the  list.

2) Give one granular action step. Overloading someone with everything they did wrong is not    only demotivating but will never lead to any change in their practice.

3) Address foundational skills before trying to address things which are harder to nail. Why are we coaching on group work when students are not silent during task instructions? Build up a    toolkit of strategies over time - implementation cannot be rushed.

4) Train your coaches! It is not as simple as following a model and box ticking. Leaving someone to  coach without proper training and guidance, and not just a one-off, is as bad as my experience    of being left in a classroom with no clue. Expertise comes from practice and support over time.

5) Be kind. Instructional coaching done well is not robotic and formulaic. It is responsive and  personal. A wellbeing check-in should not be a bolt-on but a routine part of our work developing others.

Whenever the Growing Together team train a group of new instructional coaches, I talk about my teacher training experience and how I felt left to work it out. I do not speak tokenistically - I have genuine passion for coaching since being trained as a coach myself in 2016 and have seen it really work for myself and countless others. Thousands of new teachers have just entered the profession; let’s not leave them to flounder.

In my current role, I am incredibly privileged to work with a team of people who are truly excellent coaches. It is a highlight of our job to upskill coaches in our Trust and beyond. If you want some new coaches trained or some support with finessing the implementation of what is already in place, drop us a line. We care about coaching and want to see it work well - it did for us!

Find out more : HERE.

 [1] https://samsims.education/2019/02/19/247/

 [2] https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/dylan-wiliam-teaching-not-research-based-profession