Anthonique Booker
3 min readOct 1, 2020

Coaching Research Vs. Coaching Action

Coaching is very important when it comes to transforming schools and teachers. I used the word transform because I love how Aguilar (2020) describes transformation through coaching. Trans means across, on the other side of, or walking into the unknown (Aguilar, 2020). Ultimately, when something undergoes a transformation it is unrecognizable from its previous form. I myself have become a teacher leader in my own craft, due to exemplary coaches and mentors who pushed me beyond what I could see. Research shows that coaching helps teachers to transfer their training in five ways, in which we will discuss throughout this blog (Roy, Hafflebower, & Warrick, 2013).

  • Coached teachers generally practiced new strategies more frequently

Teaching during the pandemic has been very difficult and different for some teachers. It was fairly easy for me since I have a masters in Instructional Technology but for some teachers it was a struggle. Our E- Team leader decided to start a turn around training group. Once we were trained, we were to turn around and model lessons for our peers. It definitely worked, because a lot of the teachers just weren’t practicing new technology strategies because they were unfamiliar with them.

  • Coached Teachers used Best Practices more Appropriately

It is not enough for a teacher to have professional development on best practices. The way a teacher uses the practices is important. A few years ago we started a new practice called MDC (Math Design Collaborative). Although I had training on it, I didn’t execute the collaborative discussions the correct way until a coach came out and actually modeled a lesson with me

  • Coached Teachers have better Knowledge Retention

Going through the coaching cycle helps teachers to remember HOW and WHY best practices were used. I say this all the time, college doesn’t prepare teachers for teaching. Yes, you learn content and some instructional strategies, but until you see real teaching modeled for you and are coached appropriately, you won’t see the true concept of teaching.

  • Coached Teachers are able to Explain the Why to Students

Without reflection, it is hard for teachers to understand exactly why each part of their instructional lesson is important. Once a teacher understands why, they can then relay that information to students which is very important. If a student doesn’t understand why, how do we make their learning relevant to real world situations.

So how exactly does research tie into actually coaching teachers? Roy, Hafflebower, & Warrick, (2013) states that there are 5 steps to coaching. Those five steps are:

  1. Preconference between coach and teacher
  2. Classroom observation by coach
  3. Analysis of observation results
  4. Post-conference between coach and teacher
  5. Evaluation and critique of the supervision process

One aspect I noted from Roy, Hafflebower, & Warrick (2013) was that, it is not enough to just move through the coaching process. It’s best to begin with the end in mind, remembering the process is to improve instructional practices.

References:

Aguilar, E. (2020). ART OF COACHING: Effective strategies for school transformation. S.l.: JOSSEY-BASS.

Hubbard, R. (2012, October 03). What is goal-based learning? Retrieved July 17, 2020, from https://robhubbard.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/what-is-goal-based-learning/

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