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Instructional Coaches

Who are instructional coaches?         

Instructional coaches are former teachers or principals that have shown effectiveness in their work of teaching or leading and go through additional training to learn more about the technical skills needed to be an effective coach. Aguilar recommends that a coach “must have been an effective teacher for at least five years.” Though skills that were effective in the classroom are a must, the coach must also be confident in working with adults, bringing strong listening, communication, and data analysis skills to the coaching position.  Ultimately, an instructional coach is a former teacher who was successful in the classroom and is respected in the field, with the respect carrying over into this new position.

What is instructional coaching?

Coaches seek to work one-on-one with teachers or in a small group setting with teachers to build student achievement in the classroom based on data collected and discussed by both teacher or coach.  According to Mangin and Dunsmore, instructional coaching models may include: “cognitive coaching, clinical supervision, peer coaching and mentoring, formal literacy coaching, informal coaching, or a mixed model. Other researchers have described categories of coaching such as data-oriented, student-oriented, managerial, and coaches who work with individual teachers or with groups of teachers.” Ultimately, coaching roles are designed to increase teacher capacity and push teacher improvement through learning opportunities.  The practice of instructional coaching is embedded within the work of a teacher, not in isolation of their everyday teaching.  In other words, the coach works with the teacher throughout the school year and meets during the school day with the teacher regarding current lessons, planning, and the observations/data collected.  The discussions between the instructional coach and teacher are built upon mutual respect and a trusting relationship through confidentiality.  Overall, instructional coaching is meant to serve as professional development for the teacher(s).

A coach’s main responsibility in this way is to change practice and build knowledge on “new instructional materials, programs, and initiatives” with the teacher.   This professional development can come through discussion, but also can come in other forms.  Instructional coaches can model lessons and instructional strategies in the teachers’ classroom to show examples and have teachers feel more confident in using these strategies. Teacher observations is one of the most powerful ways that coaches can put data for change in front of teachers.  Coaches doing observations and collecting data to debrief with teachers helps paint a picture for teacher improvement.

Is coaching effective?

According to a three-year research study done by the Pennsylvania Institute for Instructional Coaching, there was increase in student success when instructional coaching was used in the classroom.  This, however, could not be viewed as solely “instructional coaching” in isolation of other factors. The coaching “model emphasize[d] the simultaneous use of four strategies: one-on-one teacher engagement; evidence-based literacy practices applied across the curriculum; data analytics; and reflection on practice.” Yet, teachers have shared that:

●      “Ninety-one percent of teachers coached regularly stated that coaches helped them understand and use new teaching strategies.

●      Seventy-nine percent of teachers coached regularly said that their coach played a significant role in improving their classroom instruction and practice.

●      Teachers who were regularly coached one-on-one reported that:

○       They made significant changes in their instructional practice.

○      Their students were more engaged in the classroom and enthusiastic about learning.

○      Attendance increased dramatically in their classes."

In addition to this, “the most effective professional development model is thought to involve follow-up activities, usually in the form of long-term support, coaching in teachers' classrooms, or ongoing interaction with colleagues.” In most cases, instructional coaching can provide this support and meet this definition of effective professional development.

Common Themes and Effective Strategies

Aguilar structures her book to be read during coaching and each chapter has a “read this when:” bullet point list to guide you through different chapters and topics when they are pertinent to your work as an instructional coach. The section “Which Beliefs Help a Coach Be More Effective” focuses more on the individual coach’s beliefs opposed to the act of coaching and the effective ways to make coaching work in a school. Aguilar uses the ladder of inference to allow oneself to evaluate their own thoughts, and ultimately use this ladder to help principals and teachers evaluate their own beliefs before jumping to assumptions.  Aguilar states that her “list of beliefs has changed over the years. You can change yours, too.  The point is to be mindful of the beliefs from which we’re working and to notice the effect of working from those beliefs.” Beliefs can change about approaches to teaching, classroom management, or even content knowledge.

Administrative Support

There should also be support from administration around the instructional coaching to align the work of the coach and teacher with the school’s mission or vision. Knight focuses on the partnership with the principal being at the core of successful coaching.  Knight explains that the principal and the instructional coach need to be aligned in their goals for the coaching occurring.  If they have differing desired outcomes for teaching, then the teacher will be receiving mixed messages and caught between improvement and a standstill.  Aguilar suggests that coaches continually ask about the school’s goals as well as action steps to meet these and bring into daily coaching.

Data-Driven Strategies

In conjunction with this partnership and observations, Knight’s belief of data usage is critical for teacher improvement during coaching sessions.  Knight shares how giving opinions and telling a teacher how to improve stops the learning for the teacher and instead creates a barrier between the coach and teacher and makes the teacher expect hand-holding.  Instead, the data needs to tell a story for the teacher to determine moves to try to improve.  This allows ownership for the teacher as well as understanding of their work in conjunction with the work.

Relationship Building

The relationships and trust between the coach and coachee are a critical component of coaching. A coach having specific content knowledge and respect in a teacher’s field of teaching would help build trust. Another way to build this trust is through confidentiality.  By keeping all conversations confidential and sticking to that, the coachee knows that your word is good.  In addition to relationship building, it is important to let the coachee feel comfortable talking to you about anything—there may need to be the time when a crisis they are facing trumps conversation about the lesson. Starting a coaching conversation about how life is going for a coachee is also important to relationship building. 

Content and Pedagogical Knowledge

According to Nelson and Sassi, “knowledge of pedagogical process and content knowledge must be fused” in both understanding teaching and observing teaching. For example, an instructional coach that is working with a math teacher should know “current mathematics education reform efforts are built on the notion that the ideas in a subject, and the ways in which students and teachers work with the ideas, matter.” It seems clear that a deep pedagogical knowledge as well as deep content specific knowledge are required for the teacher to have confidence in the coach and for the coach to be able to step in and assume the role of the teacher. 

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