My last post looked at the role of the administrator in Coaching Classroom Management. One of the roles of the administrator is to select coaches. They may also refer teachers to coaches. It is important that the relationship between the coach and the teacher is one of mutual interest and benefit, and that teachers don’t see coaching as punishment or obstacle.
Before beginning the cycle, coaches must be well versed in the intervention so that they can support teachers with simple, accurate information, examples and analogies. It also helps the coaching relationship if coaches are helpful, supportive and non-threatening with good communication and interpersonal skills. Chapter 3 presented seven components of the coaching cycle. I will review the main ideas here.
Enroll the teacher: Find teachers interested in improving their classroom management who would like to work with the coach.
Identify interventions: Use classroom observation and information from teachers and students to find out the current conditions in the classroom. Use this information to determine what to focus the coaching on.
Explain the process: The coach should clearly explain the best practice and the coaching process including data collection and feedback.
Model techniques: The use of modeling is important for showing what the intervention looks like. The teacher can use the same instrument that will be used in classroom observations to focus her attention on the behaviors relevant to improving classroom management.
Observe the teacher: Teacher observation is useful for identifying what intervention to implement, and to assess progress in changing classroom behavior. The coach and teacher should have clearly defined roles before, during and after the observation.
Explore the data: This is a non-evaluative component of the coaching process. The goal of exploring the data is for joint learning by the two parties to better plan and manage the success of the intervention.
Review results: An After Action Review (AAR) is useful feedback for the coaching to find out the relationship between the outcomes and the goals, with opportunities to modify the approach and learn from the experience. Reflection allows the opportunity to adjust coaching practice for better results in student learning.
The steps of modeling, observation and exploration of the data are part of a cycle of Revise, Review and Monitor.
Sprick, Knight, Reinke, & McKale, 2007 as cited in Knight, 2008, p. 104
This post is part of a larger series based on the book Coaching Approaches & Perspectives edited by Jim Knight. This post is based on sections of Chapter 5: Classroom Management. Visit the Coaching category for other related posts.