Running Head: TEACHER COACHING AND DEVELOPMENT PROCESS 1

Teacher Coaching and Development Process

Donna Meda

Grand Canyon University: EAD 530

June 9th, 2021

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Teacher Coaching and Development Process

The observation process must be executed in a timely manner ensuring that all teachers

get equal time invested in them, their performance, and improvements. Principals already have

many responsibilities on their shoulders, but indeed, observations are an effective way on

building teachers’ professional capacity. So, the principal’s time is invested and not wasted by

following the pre-conference, observation, and post-conference process with each teacher. “The

intervention itself was time-intensive for the principals, who were required to participate in

extensive training pre-intervention. Principals also had to rate teachers on the new evaluation

framework, and work with them in pre- and post-observation conferences to develop strategies to

improve their instructional practice. On average, CPS principals reported that they spend about

six hours per teacher during each formal observation cycle” (Steinberg & Sartain, 2015).

Types of these pre-conferences can differ depending on the principal and their leading

style. Based on my experience, my principals have never scheduled in-person pre-conferences.

We’ve always received a form (SSA-Peoria, 2019-2020) to fill out with similar questions to the

ones on the video from the in-person pre-conference or no pre-conference at all. (Khachikian,

2016) We have received a schedule where teachers can sign-up on a specific day and time for

administration to come observe in our classrooms. We can also pick the topic we’d like to teach.

Some questions I see from both forms of pre-conferencing that are significant to ask as a

principal would be 1) What are the objectives of your lesson? 2) What are you expecting from

your students with this lesson? 3) How will you assess for achievement? 4) How does this built

upon or relate to the overall curriculum? and 5) If there’s anything specifically that you want me

to observe? Depending on teachers’ responses, the principal will be able to know how prepared

they are for their lesson and if they need any help building their responses, principals are able to
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coach. The observation process shouldn’t be an opportunity to test the teacher, but it should be

an opportunity to coach them and build on their professional capacity.

Before the lesson begins, the coach or/and administrator/principal must be prepared to

observe the teacher. Most times during my lessons, my principals are not on time, and they miss

the beginning on how I start by sharing the objectives with my students and share the schedule of

the activities we will do. If the principal didn’t observe this part of the lesson, the observation

might not be reliable anymore unless the principal has been present during the beginning of a

lesson during walkthroughs. A few components a coach/administrator might look for is

classroom setup and how it is used, learning environment, student-teacher rapport, body-

language, staying on task/schedule and classroom management, lesson components/activities that

meet the objectives and standards, students engaged independently and with other students,

resources used, technology, assessments, and closure. For instance, if the teacher encounters a

situation where a student or a few students are misbehaving during their lesson observation, then

the principal can focus on how the teacher managed the problem and how she/he redirected the

students to continue to work. I don’t think the teacher should be marked as ineffective if they

failed to succeed when dealing with the situation, but this should be used to continue to coach on

classroom management. Coaches or administration can provide constructive feedback or

additional support during an observation. The coaching should happen before, during, after the

observation if the opportunity presents itself. “Observation allows the coach to collect data on

the teacher’s use of an evidence-based practice; or, it may provide opportunities for the coach to

model the use of that same evidence-based practice” (National Center for Systemic Improvement

at WestEd., 2019). This helps the school leaders and teachers work together for improvements.
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When starting any conference with the teacher during the observation process, it is

important to begin by telling the teacher to talk to the principal about their lesson and how it

went. Having the teachers do this will make it easier for them to share about their lesson instead

of just answering questions. It gives teachers more confidence when sharing details about their

lesson. This can serve the principal or coach on the teacher’s planning and preparation level. It is

important to give feedback and use specific evidence during the post-conference for teachers to

have specific ideas on how to improve and which areas to celebrate, strengths and weaknesses. A

great question to ask during the post-observation is 1) What would you do differently? This

allows for the teacher to reflect on their own areas of improvement based on how positive or

negative they did. But, the principal should also feel comfortable being able to tell their teachers

on their areas of improvements regardless of personal feelings without fearing teacher turnover.

This goes back to building relationships with teachers. Once a teacher knows that their principal

is there to help them makes the difference when accepting negative feedback, weaknesses, or

areas of concern/improvement opportunities. “Evaluators identified far more teachers as weak in

a confidential survey than they did on the formal district evaluations” (Loewus, 2017). If

principals are not being honest with their teachers, besides integrity, they’re failing as successful

coaches and keeping their teachers from working on improvement and building their professional

capacity. Overall, the students’ academic achievement is in jeopardy when the principal is not

honest when evaluating their teachers and providing feedback.

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References:
Khachikian, Rachel. (2016, January 13). Part 1: elementary pre-observation conference [Video].

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FacY1ScZ5r4

Khachikian, Rachel. (2016, January 13). Part 2: elementary ela classroom observation [Video].

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYbmTVr7q-8

Khachikian, Rachel. (2016, January 13). Part 3: elementary post-observation conference

[Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlfDPLNC3IE

Loewus, L. (2017). Principals Are Loath to Give Teachers Bad Ratings. Education Week, 36(37),

1–7.

National Center for Systemic Improvement at WestEd. (2019). Effective Coaching: Improving

Teacher Practice and Outcomes for All Learners. In National Center for Systemic

Improvement at WestEd. National Center for Systemic Improvement at WestEd.

SSA-Peoria. (2019-2020). Post-observation form. Teacher Observation Protocols.

Steinberg, M. P., & Sartain, L. (2015). Does Better Observation Make Better

Teachers? Education Next, 15(1), 70–76.