1. COACHING CONVERSATIONS
Ideas from the Ulearn Conference
for
COACHING CONVERSATIONS

2. “On one level conversations begin from a common place”
You both want solutions
You both want to be able to move forward
You both want to be teaching successfully
You both want successful outcomes for your students

3. Tawa Intermediate School Principal
Clearly conversations can go haywire
Coaching for Change
Carolyn Stuart
Tawa Intermediate School Principal
She was speaking from the point of view of shifting staff engagement
And finding ways of improving the learning outcomes of the students at the
school.
What I found useful was her ingredients for coaching conversations.

5. IF WE DON'T HELP EACH OTHER WHO WILL?
But
IF WE DON'T HELP EACH OTHER
WHO WILL?
Barbara Mandrell b 1948
We are all important in the learning community and we all need
Each other to succeed.
Without the human community one single human being
cannot survive.
The Dalai Lama b.1935.

6. How often did they build on a teacher's
So on with the job
A DIALOGUE
COVENANT -
An agreed set of speaking
and listening behaviours
For teachers and teachers
and teachers and parents
She drew attention to teachers
speaking to each other in meetings.
How often did they build on a teacher's
idea?
Or how often did they just interrupt each other?
Who never talks at all?
Who talks all the time?

7. Glasser Questions for coaching conversations
Source: Ksenija Napan
What do you want?
What are you doing? (about it to get there)
Is it working?
What kind of teacher person do you want to be? (qualities/abilities)
Make a plan

8. Active listening is cool and can lead to...
Shifting the level of thought up,
Down or sideways!
Expanding or simplifying
As a means of clarification
Summarising
and organising ideas
Acknowledging
and clarifying ideas

9. So you're concerned about ... You would like to see …
Acknowledging
Clarifying
THE MIRROR TECHNIQUE
Ways to start sentences which
capture the essence of a problem
or idea being shared with you
as a coach.
REFLECTING BACK
So you're concerned about ...
You would like to see …
You're feeling badly about …
Source: Bob Garmston

10. THE CASE FOR THE BASKET APPROACH
Summarising and organising
Thoughts and ideas
THE CASE FOR THE BASKET APPROACH
Ways to start sentences which tries to
capture the essence of key problems
or ideas being shared with you
as a coach.
You seem to have two main goals here …
On one hand you _______________
and
on the other hand you ________________.

11. THE PLACE FOR AN ELEVATOR RIDE
Shifting the direction of thought up for a birds-eye view of what is going on rather than being in it
down to simplify parts for clarification
or sideways to expand by imagining including factors.
THE PLACE FOR AN
ELEVATOR RIDE
Sentence starters:
So you value .....So your goal is .....
You believe that …
(Takes the teacher you are coaching/listening
to, to a higher place so that they get to see a
broader view of their problems or ideas)

12. The Solution-Focused School Counselor
Ideas for conversations adapted from
The Solution-Focused School Counselor
Deficit thinking conversations compared with constructive conversations
Focus is on the teacher's
perceived deficits, weaknesses,
Limitations and problem
Focuses on and reminds the teachers of their
competencies,strengths, possibilities, and
attempted solutions.
Teacher is “stuck”
Teacher is a problem
Talk is focused on:
The teacher's problems, past and
present. Stuck in the moment.
Talk is focused on:
possible solutions, visualising the teacher in the future
and change.
Talk is focused enduring traits
Causes for everything
Talk is focused on exceptions
and possible solutions
Solutions are outside the teacher
Solutions are within the teacher
Goals are set for the teacher
Goals are agreed jointly by the teacher and the
Coach. They are measurable, action-oriented,
Descriptive and form solutions to problems or
Actions for ideas.

13. Ideas for coaching conversations taken from Leading with Questions
The case for closed questions
Closed questions are useful at the beginning and end of conversations. As you start a conversation, asking a simple closed question makes it easy for people to answer and doesn't force them to reveal too much about themselves. :
eg “Is this a good time to talk?”.
Closed questions are good at the end of a conversation to help clarify or seek further understanding of the results of the discussion and reach closure on a decision or course of action. - setting that goal.

14. confuses the responder.
Unhelpful questions
Disempowering, leading or multiple questions that string heaps of
questions together to meet the need of the questioner but
confuses the responder.

15. their story”. They establish an understanding between
The case for open questions
Open-ended questions
invite others to “tell
their story”. They establish
an understanding between
teachers coaching teachers.
What do you think about ...?
What possibilities come to mind?
What might happen if ...?
What other options can we think of?
What is stopping you/us?
What happens if ...?

16. DIFFERENT QUESTIONS TYPES – for DIFFERENT PURPOSES
Explorative questions open up new avenues and insights and lead to new
explorations:
Have you explored or thought of?

17. Effective questions invite people to share feelings about an issue:
How do you feel about ...?

18. Reflective questions encourage more exploration and elaboration:
You think there are some difficulties with ...,
what do you think is causing these difficulties?

19. Probing Questions invite the person or group to go more deeply into a
particular issue.
This is useful, not only for getting more information,
but for getting people to be more open and expansive in their thinking.
Words like: describe, explain, clarify,
elaborate or expand get into more depth or breadth
on a topic.

20. Fresh questions challenge basic assumptions:
Why must it be that way?
What hasn't been
tried before?

21. Questions that create connections establish a wider perspective.
What are the consequences of these actions?
What would be the consequences of these actions?

22. Analytical questions examine causes and not just symptoms.
Why ...?

23. Clarifying questions help free us from ambiguity, but such questions are
sometimes difficult to ask.
When we hear a question, we tend to think we should know what the other
person means, and that it is some fault of ours that we are not able to understand.
Possible questions to ask:
What specifically did you mean by that?
How exactly could that be done?
Could you explain more about the situation?

24. “Words are not innocent”
LEARNING TALK BUILDS UNDERSTANDING
by Joan Dalton
The ways we talk together have a profound impact on:
1. Relationships.
2. The amount and quality of collaboration between teachers
3. The quality of the collective intelligence that emerges
4. And consequently on student learning improvement.

25. “The answers are in the room”
or within the teacher that you are having a
coaching conversation with.
Once the person you are coaching can explain their ideas for their
Future goals and actions – they own them.

26. So, cheese then?