Chapter 3: Instructional Coaching ends with a presentation of seven factors that affect the success of coaching. They are time, the best practices presented, the professional development of the coach, the coaching relationship, the relationship between the principal and the coach, the skills and attributes of the coach, and the evaluation of the coach.
The key ideas in this section are of the importance of having the coach focus on working with teachers to apply best practices that will improve student learning. Care should be taken to provide professional development for the coach so that she learns both how to coach teachers and what teaching practices to coach teachers in. She needs to work closely with the principal to ensure that they have the same perspective on instructional coaching, and on the role of the coach. The evaluation of the coach provides an opportunity for professional learning; involving the coach in developing the process for evaluation can lead to greater buy-in.
I agree that professional development on the why and what of coaching is important. It would be great to share professional development on coaching with other coaches within the same school. I think that it would be useful to have the evaluation of the coach tied to the goals of the program, which is related to the job description, and use the evaluation to create a professional development plan for the coach. The International Society for Technology in Education has developed standards for technology coaches; I’ve used these standards for self evaluation in the past. I would love a process whereby my job description is directly linked with my evaluation and formal support for professional development from my supervisors.
This post is part of a larger series on Coaching based on the book cited here. Click on Coaching on the top to see all posts in this category, or choose the category or tag or interest to you in the sidebar of the blog.
Book Citation: Knight, J. (Ed.). (2008). Coaching: Approaches and perspectives. Corwin Press.