Coaching in Practice

About me Completed my PGCE at Middlesex Mentoring for Middlesex for about 8 years. Completed a 2 day course on Coaching I experienced a mentor then a coach

When do we coach Mentoring/Coaching Scale We tend to mentor at the start, providing trainees with support, ideas, advice and judgement. As they build more confidence they should be more suited to coaching. Every trainee is different! SBT1 SBT2

Benefits of coaching How it benefits you: Saves time Decreases workload Helps to build strong rapport with your trainee Feels satisfying helping trainee's get their themselves. How it benefits your trainee: Puts them at the centre of learning It’s engaging and involving Gives the trainee more ownership

Mentoring vs Coaching Look at the following lesson observation. It’s written in a mentoring style. Thinking back on what you have learnt today, how could we adapt this observation so that it was written in a coaching style.

Feedback

Coaching style Observation Less judgemental comments Get the trainee to think of improvements or what went well Probe the trainee to think about what happened and reflect on the outcome Provides less feedback (and therefore less work for you!)

Feedback from trainee

Feedback from trainee

Coaching example Listen to the clip and identify the coaching question used How did the trainee respond?

Weekly meeting The weekly meeting is a good opportunity to discuss development with your trainee. The meeting should be about reflecting on the week.

Weekly meeting sound clip Ask your trainee to set themselves targets before the meeting and to fill out the weekly meeting record prior to the meeting. Listen to the following sound clip. What elements of GROW where used in our discussion. What could the coach have done better?

Prompting conversations At earlier stages, trainee's might find it hard to reflect on their practice. Using effective coaching questions, you can help prompt their responses. The Coaching Manual:  Julie Starr

Gathering general information Can you tell me more about what happened in your Year 8 lesson? What other thoughts have you had about this? What else is there to say about that?

Gathering specific information Specifically, what was it about Bob’s behaviour that you didn’t like? What did he say? What were his actions that upset you particularly

Helping your trainee to remember What else can you remember about that? What do you remember seeing/hearing?

Help someone appreciate another persons values Why was that important to Sally in this situation? What might be her reasons for behaving that way?

Linking together thoughts/situations How does the previous lesson relate to what happened in today’s lesson? How does this situation affect how you will approach this class next week?

Help your trainee to look from someone's else’s perspective What do you think her experience of the lesson was? What might she be feeling at this point? Why might he have said that?

Getting your trainee to come to a conclusion What are your thoughts about that now? What conclusion are you drawing from that?

Influence your trainees actions These are useful when setting GROW targets: What might stop you from doing that? (Reality) What can you do? What are your options? (Options) What needs to happen? (Options) When seems right to do that? (When)

Getting your trainee to think positively How have you benefited from this? What’s the positive side/upside of this? If you do resolve this, what will be different?

Getting your trainee to think about how their actions may effect others. Which students are affected by this? What are the potential risks associated with doing that activity How will this affect support staff/colleagues

Help your trainee learn from an event. How has talking this through affected your views on the situation? What have you learnt from this? If this happened again, how would you react differently?

Other Coaching Activities Video one of your trainee’s lessons. Let them watch it back, get them to reflect on what they have seen. Review their feedback during your weekly meeting.