COACHING AND DEVELOPMENT

Teacher Coaching and Development Process

Lindsey S. Cooper

Grand Canyon University – College of Education

EAD-530: Improving Teacher Performance and Self-Efficacy

COACHING AND DEVELOPMENT

Teacher Coaching and Development Process

Within instructional coaching, there is a partnership between the teacher and coach or

administrator in which the coach can collaborate with the teacher to understand their teaching,

understand the teacher’s goals, look at the strategies the teacher will use to meet the goals, and

offer suggestions to help the teacher reach their goals (Coaching for Teachers: What School

Leaders Need to Consider, 2023). Most of the time, instructional coaching is a non-evaluative

process between an experienced teacher, coach, or administrator and a less-experienced teacher.

The purpose of coaching is to offer guidance and professional development in an informal way

(Main, 2022).

Observation Pre-Conference

Different Aspects of Pre-Conference Experience: In this video of a pre-conference, the

administrator and teacher are getting very deep into what the lesson will look like, down to the

students’ prior knowledge and exactly what the students will read about the lesson. In my

experience, administrators have looked over the lesson and have very basic and surface-level

questions about student knowledge and teacher goals throughout the lesson.

Questions from Coaches/Administrators during Pre-Conference: One question that an

administrator asks is about the objectives and expectations for the lesson. Getting the teacher’s

feedback about what is expected is helpful for the administrator in moving forward and

understanding the lesson plan more. Another question is what prior knowledge students have of

the instruction and lesson.

Teachers’ Level of Preparedness Based on Answers: When teachers are prepared for the

lesson and comfortable with what they will be teaching, their answers will be thorough and they

will be able to answer the question in full, without much thought.

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Classroom Observation

Components of a Lesson to Look for: During a lesson, administrators look for a few key

items. First, are the learning goals clearly stated and understood by the students? If students are

not actively working with the learning targets, it’s likely they won’t know what they are

supposed to be learning. Making sure that students are aware of what they are learning is one

way to engage them and help them focus on the lesson (Ostrowski, 2019). Another component

that principals are looking for is if students know what they should be doing or working on.

Having instructions or expectations visually available or students to refer to is key to keep

students on-task with the assignment or learning target (Ostrowski, 2019).

Types of Feedback to Provide: Feedback for teachers is essential for growth. If an

administrator notices that 70% of the class is off task during whole group instruction, it is

important for that information to be shared with the teacher because it will likely affect student

understanding during independent work. Other feedback coaches or administrators should

provide to teachers is the structure and pacing of the lesson. Coaches/administrators should focus

on these aspects because student growth ultimately depends on engagement and understanding of

the topic—both affected by pacing and attention.

Feedback or Support during an Observation: Administrators should observe without

providing immediate feedback because they are just a visitor in the classroom. Feedback should

be offered during the post-conference to allow the teacher to explain their reasoning or have a

chance to listen to feedback and take it in.

Observation Post-Conference

Opening Comments and Tone: The first thing that coach or administrator said to the

teachers in the videos was that they enjoyed the lesson. They started out in a positive way to put
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the teacher at ease and let them know that although some feedback is required, they did a good

job.

Specific Feedback and its Effect: The coach did give specific feedback during the post-

conference, based on the teacher’s reflections of the lesson. A lot of time was spent on the

warm-up and the coach had the teacher reflect on a more effective way that could work in the

future and had him think about what it could look like the next day to use his time more

effectively because he didn’t get through the entire lesson. The teacher began to think about

improvements that could have been made to make the pacing of his lesson go faster and made

him aware that when he is not prepared, it will affect student learning and understanding.

Coach’s Ability to Provide Positive Feedback: At no point in the post-conference did the

coach make the teacher feel less than. She continued to allow him reflection time on specific

areas that she brought up and made additional suggestions to make him successful. She

continued to encourage him and validate his new ideas and ways of thinking. The coach also

listed several ways that he met a goal that he had set at the beginning of the school year.

Constructive Feedback and Strategies: When the coach provided feedback in the form of

a question, she was looking to have the teacher reflect on the practice and think deeper about

what could have been done differently or to go deeper into teaching and the students’

understanding. The idea of reflective practice allows teachers to think back on an experience and

learn from any growth opportunities and to apply new knowledge and thinking. Building

knowledge is a constant process of questioning, application, trial and error, and moving forward

to reapplication to increase understanding in learning (Sanchez, 2023). This reflection and

feedback strategy caused the teacher to continue to thinking about how he could improve his

instruction and continue to help students reach their growth potential.

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References

Coaching for Teachers: What school leaders need to consider. (2023). Irisconnect.com.

https://blog.irisconnect.com/uk/coaching-for-teachers

‌Sanchez, L. (2023, February 27). Importance of Reflection as a Teacher. EWU.

https://online.ewu.edu/degrees/education/med/curriculum-and-instruction/importance-of-

reflection-as-teacher/

Main, P. (2022, March 14). Instructional Coaching: A Teacher’s Guide. Structural-

Learning.com; Structural Learning.

https://www.structural-learning.com/post/instructional-coaching-a-teachers-guide

‌Ostrowski, C. (2019, October 30). 3 Things Principals Should KNOW In Your Classroom

Observation - Teach Better. Teach Better - Created by Teachers. Fueled by Passion.

https://teachbetter.com/blog/3-things-a-principal-should-know-in-your-classroom-

observation/