Coaching Delivers Excellence in Teaching and Learning

Read on here or read as part of our series of coaching articles on our website

Coaching delivers excellence in teaching and learning because the art of coaching is to give someone else the confidence and self-belief that allows them to find their own solutions. Coaching allows an individual to be creative with their goals, to be resilient and to know that the journey to success has many obstacles to overcome.

Where teachers learn how to coach, they begin to see how the skills they learn are similar to the ones they know create outstanding pedagogy that leads to pupils being more self-aware, more motivated, more curious and more reflective in their approach to feedback and support. Where pupils don’t know or need more help a coaching approach means they feel supported and never feel that they have failed.

In particular, the skills of listening actively and deep and rich questioning provide the teacher with the opportunity to be a facilitator in the classroom rather than the didactic and knowing sage that we are all hard wired to want to be. The space for speaking and listening as part of the planned curriculum in all subjects provides the perfect platform for a review of where effective coaching can make a significant difference to how pupils develop their oracy skills as part of the quest to deepen knowledge and strengthen understanding over time.

Talking about pedagogy, outcomes and learning

The first step is to ensure that subject leaders and teachers can work together to learn how to use coaching skills to support their own approaches to planning and delivering the curriculum and the pedagogical skills they are using to enhance the potential of their pupils. Creating a shared dialogue where teachers talk about the different pedagogical strategies they use can be exceptional CPD.

We raise awareness of the power of open, incisive and probing questioning through asking teaching teams to share and cascade their good practice. We look at the power of listening as a coaching skill and the essential knowledge that comes from focusing on the skills we need to learn in order to become deep and active in how we listen so that we can support others, colleagues or pupils to be creative with their learning, make changes where they are necessary and accept challenge.

Our digital download course ‘Coaching Towards Outstanding Teaching and Learning’ comes with a set of cards that provide the basis for subject leaders and teachers to share their good and best practice. We look in detail at 12 different pedagogies linked to independent, active and participative approaches to deep learning, these are,

·???????? Relating theory to practice

·???????? Formative assessment of learning

·???????? Embedding literacy and numeracy

·???????? Structured group learning

·???????? Modelling

·???????? Differentiation

·???????? Using E learning and ICT

·???????? Experiential learning

·???????? Multi-sensory learning

·???????? Structured play

·???????? Learning conversations

·???????? Recall, reflection and retrieval

The cards amplify the theory behind each of these approaches which are drawn from a piece of research I undertook as part of my work with LSIS and the Department of Education to create a potential resource for teacher education. This, of course, is not a definitive list but it does create a powerful starting point for some wonderful conversations about teaching and learning.

Teaching teams, curriculum and subject leaders can all work together to put into practice the coaching skills they have focused on by listening to colleagues share their pedagogical approaches and asking questions to try to tease out more, possibly adding to their own repertoire of teaching strategies as well as focusing on the impact different approaches have on learning.

Progression, inclusion and the sequencing of learning

The curriculum has, over several years now, been the watchword for quality in education. Ofsted have made the quality of education the heading in relation to the list of what they are judging in terms of curriculum planning and teaching and learning. Ofsted Handbook for Schools

“……… how well the subject curriculum is presented to ensure that pupils understand key concepts, and that they can transfer key knowledge to long-term memory and apply it fluently. This includes the use of assessment to check pupils’ understanding of what the curriculum intent says they should know, and to identify and correct misunderstandings and inform teaching. It also includes whether teachers either have expert knowledge of the subjects that they teach, or are supported to address gaps in their knowledge so that pupils are not disadvantaged by ineffective teaching.”

The question for senior leaders in the pursuance of ensuring high quality outcomes for all pupils is,

“What is the most effective way of ensuring all our subject leaders and their teaching teams can work together cohesively to ensure that curriculum planning, subject expertise, sequential and conceptual learning, assessment of the learning and exceptional pedagogy are of a high quality in every subject, every year group and across all key stages and ensure all pupils including those with SEND are part of the process.”

The answer, of course, is to create systems where professional learning conversations, a shared commitment to excellence and continuous improvement and the pursuance of a strategy where the benchmarks for high quality outcomes are an integral part of every element of school life. The most efficacious and cost-effective way to achieve this is to develop a coaching culture which is built on trust, partnership and the curriculum and subject expertise of the senior leadership and their teams of curriculum and subject specialists.

So, the second strand to developing a coaching culture linked to teaching and learning is to focus on how the pedagogical skills that we have encouraged teachers to share will lead to the outcomes that we want from pupils that they will,

• make measurable progress
• deepen their learning over time
• retain the imparted knowledge in their long-term memory
• be resilient when they don’t immediately succeed
• become more competent and confident in their use of a range of skills for learning

It is to the skills that are so pertinent to coaching that we can attribute success in any of the above.

• Coaching provides the teacher with the skills to ask questions that will enhance the learning potential of pupils
• Coaching questions help pupils to recall, reflect on and remember their learning
• Coaching helps teachers to be positive and ensure pupils know that they have not failed when they don’t immediately get it right
• Coaching will support pupils to use their skills in a variety of contexts and understand how they apply across a range of different subjects and contexts

Incremental steps where coaching skills enhance teaching and learning

Planning and delivering the curriculum across a school is complex and it is clear from the research and from Ofsted’s requirements in their handbook for schools that there is an absolute imperative to create cohesion and a collaborative approach to ensuring depth and breadth, inclusion, a sequence to the learning that leads to progression and successful outcomes at the end of particular points along the learning journey for all pupils.

Where subject specific learning is planned in silos, within specific departments or year groups or ad-hoc from topic-to-topic cohesion of content is unlikely to emerge and most certainly a collective understanding of what constitutes the highest quality in terms of pedagogy and learning is not going to happen.

What is required is a collective understanding of the whole school vision and how that is translated into subject specific and cross-curricular learning linked to carefully crafted quality assurance principles. Where every teacher knows the parameters within which they need to focus linked to the quality assurance principles cohesion is visible and tangible.

These parameters can be reinforced through teachers working together to focus on a set of incremental steps that will enhance their pedagogy and confirm their current strengths and align those to their potential to continually grow as facilitators of learning in the classroom and beyond.

Now is a great time to begin to focus on how coaching can deliver the quality of education that is consistent across the whole school. The summer term has such potential to provide time for collaboration and a shared focus on continuing professional development.

We have a course for middle and subject leaders that will enhance their potential to embed a coaching culture. Use the link to find out more Coaching for Middle and Subject Leaders – a digital download training course

Another place to start is to focus firstly on the development of a quality assurance system that embraces the potential of all staff across the school and looks to coaching as the essential means of embedding quality assurance principles as part of the pursuance of excellence and continuous improvement.

Use the link to find out more, Creating Quality Assurance Systems in Education

Ultimately and maybe in parallel the focus on teachers and the power of coaching to enhance their potential in the classroom and beyond cannot be underestimated. We recommend with absolute confidence that our? course,

Coaching Towards Outstanding Teaching and Learning will inspire all teachers to want to become coaches and to use coaching skills as an integral part of their practice in the classroom

The Learning Cultures’ philosophy

Learning Cultures has a philosophy that defines its success. It is that CPD must have an impact on whole school, team and individual performance. CPD must be cost-effective and have the potential to be cascaded to more individuals than those in receipt of the training. We have designed all our courses and programmes to provide a wealth of resources, materials and activities that can be used again and again to support the pursuance of professional learning.

The courses we have suggested above are now available as digital downloads where everything is available through narration and downloadable resources. They come with two free coaching sessions so that you still have the benefit of a face-to-face coach. They can also still be delivered as face-to-face courses, online or in school.

We also have a suite of coaching certification programmes for senior middle and subject leaders and we have a whole host of other courses linked to coaching, curriculum and well-being.

Have a look at our newly refreshed website here. If you want to find out more or talk about how we can help please do give me, Glynis a call on 07974 754241 or email me [email protected] .