1. NIUSI-LeadScape Guide for Coaching Dialogues
Elaine Mulligan
July 15, 2009

2. Coaching for Inclusive Practices
Focused, cognitive coaching is an integral feature of the NIUSI-LeadScape community of inclusive schools.
We know that coaching is integral to effecting substantive, transformative change.
NIUSI-LeadScape coaching supports school leaders in their work to lead change, as well as serving as a model for school leaders to coach teachers and staff in implementing inclusive practices.

3. Why Guides for Dialogues?
Through NIUSI-LeadScape coaching, we are supporting systemic change.
School leaders often engage in coaching in order to respond to a problem or react to a specific incident.
These kinds of conversations are necessary to manage school operations, but they do not address the type of “deep change” necessary to transform school practices to be inclusive of all students1.
1Marzano, R. J., Walters, T. & McNulty, B.A. (2005). School Leadership that Works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

4. Why Guides for Dialogues (continued)?
The models and suggested dialogue prompts offered in the NIUSI-LeadScape Guide for Coaching Dialogues help coaches plan and structure coaching dialogues that support educators in challenging beliefs and practices so that substantive change can be implemented.
As in all continuous improvement work, reflection and planning are important components in maintaining focus on long-term goals. School leaders must respond to a variety of situations and crises on a daily basis; without an intentional process for reflecting on practice and supporting change, school transformation can get “stuck”.

5. Three ways of entering coaching discussions
Technical
Contextual
Critical
Coaching Relationship
Critical prompts guide the coachee to examine her own beliefs and practices in supporting inclusive education.
Contextual prompts reveal underlying beliefs and cultural practices of a school that can either support or resist inclusive practices.
Technical coaching conversations support coachees in solving problems of practice in their schools.
A coaching relationship is a supportive professional interaction that provides school leaders with opportunities for reflecting on school culture, policy, and daily practices in an intentional manner. NIUSI-LeadScape coaches work within a cognitive framework to help coachees learn to interrogate their own practices to do the kinds of critical, reflective work that is necessary to change schools.
Three ways of entering coaching discussions

6. Critical coaching process
Establish how progress will
be monitored
Identify critical issue
Critical dialogues examine:
Power and privilege
Who benefits from school practices
How to bring students who may have been marginalized into the “center” of school culture.
Plan moves/activi-ties to initiate change
Critical coaching process
Probe for deeper reflection
Identify coachee’s goal
Expand aware-ness
The coach’s role in this process is to facilitate deeper reflection, prompt for broadening awareness, then helping the coachee to identify a goal and work toward that goal.
Critical prompts guide the coachee to examine her own beliefs and practices in supporting inclusive education.

7. Example of Critical Prompts
Suggested prompts for critical approaches:
Who is benefitting from the ways you’re currently serving students?
Probe for deeper reflection
Focus
Leadership for change
How do you think your leadership style helps to move your team forward in the process of transforming inclusive practices?
Guiding prompts
What are some factors that might be influencing your team members’ attitude toward change?
Expand awareness
How would you hope to lead your team to move forward in transforming practices?
Identify goal
What are some steps you can take to guide your team members’ focus toward empowering marginalized students?
Plan moves
How will you know if the new approach is effective?
Evaluate progress
Here’s an example of a series of prompts challenging a teacher’s work in leading a collaborative team to implement inclusive practices. In order to facilitate an effective reflection on this topic, the coach would need to plan prompts for each step in the process of critical examination. You may not use these exact words and phrases, but having prompts planned before the coaching conversation is invaluable in keeping the discussion on track and focused on your goal. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll work all the way through the process to evaluation in one conversation, so you’ll want to keep notes and return to the critical dialogue in subsequent sessions.
The Guide for Coaching Dialogues provides a variety of examples of coaching prompts to help you get started.
He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will, therefore, never make any progress. – Anwar Sadat

8. Contextual coaching process
Establish how progress will
be monitored
Identify contextual factors
Contextual prompts:
Identify contextual factors
Look at historical patterns
Surface the values of the school or community
Work with the coachee to determine goals and actions.
Plan moves/activi-ties to initiate change
Contextual coaching process
Identify historical patterns
Identify coachee’s goal
Surface institutional values
In order to transform educational practices, one must be keenly aware of the context of the school. School cultures are complex environments, encompassing all of the experiences, beliefs, and behaviors of teachers, support staff, students, and administrators. These factors are strong influences in supporting or opposing inclusive practices.
Contextual prompts reveal the underlying beliefs and cultural practices of a school that can either support or resist inclusive practices.

9. Example of Contextual Prompts
Suggested prompts for contextual approaches:
Focus
Professional learning
 Identify goal for change
What kinds of topics would you hope the teacher leaders would choose?
Guiding prompts
How have team members participated in selecting topics for professional learning?
Identify patterns
What are some of the recurring topics that pop up each year?
Surface institutional values
What do the topic selections tell you about what’s important to your peers?
Plan moves
What are some strategic actions you could take to bring these topics up?
Evaluate progress
How will you know if you are influencing teacher leaders’ selections?
Here’s an example of a series of prompts examining the school’s culture around professional learning. In order to facilitate an effective reflection on this topic, the coach would need to plan prompts for each step in the process of contextual examination. You may not use these exact words and phrases, but having prompts planned before the coaching conversation is invaluable in keeping the discussion on track and focused on your goal. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll work all the way through the process to evaluation in one conversation, so you’ll want to keep notes and return to the contextual dialogue in subsequent sessions.
The Guide for Coaching Dialogues provides a variety of examples of coaching prompts to help you get started.
We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. – Anaïs Nin

10. Technical coaching process
Establish how progress will
be monitored
Identify current practices around the issue
The technical coaching conversations follow a pattern of:
Identifying practices related to the issue
Evaluating how those practices are working
Determining what needs to change
Identifying how the coachee will be involved in that change
Planning activities to make the change
Establishing how to know if the change is effective
Plan moves/activi-ties to initiate change
Technical coaching process
Evaluate effectiveness of current practices
Identify coachee’s role in initiating change
Determine what changes need to be made
These conversations will usually be coachee-initiated and focus on a problem that they are encountering in their school.
Technical coaching conversations support coachees in solving problems of practice in their schools.

11. Example of Technical Prompts
Suggested prompts for technical approaches:
Focus
Difficulty implementing co-teaching practices
Identify practices
In what ways have you ensured that your teaching team works together during shared planning time?
Evaluate effectiveness
How are your planning sessions helping with differentiating lessons for students?
Determine changes
What procedures need to be established to make these sessions more effective?
Identify role
What will your role be in establishing these procedures?
Plan moves
What actions are needed?
Evaluate progress
When and how will you determine if the new procedures are effective?
Here’s an example of a series of prompts examining a team’s implementation of co-teaching practices. In order to facilitate an effective reflection on this topic, the coach would need to plan prompts for each step in the process of problem solving. You may not use these exact words and phrases, but having prompts planned before the coaching conversation is invaluable in keeping the discussion on track and focused on the goal. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll work all the way through the process to evaluation in one conversation, so you’ll want to keep notes and return to the technical dialogue in subsequent sessions.
The Guide for Coaching Dialogues provides a variety of examples of coaching prompts to help you get started.
The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. – Albert Einstein

12. Critical, Contextual, or Technical?
How are divergent viewpoints typically received in your staff culture?
In what ways are your IEP meetings structured to encourage team discussion and sharing of ideas?
In what ways do you consciously infuse awareness of power and privilege in your team discussions?
Here are three different prompts to open a coaching conversation. Discuss each with the other people at your table to determine if they are entering a conversation from a critical, a contextual, or a technical perspective.

13. Coaching Notes Elaine Bob T. Gilbert Budget cuts 6/16/09
Date
Coachee
School
1. Items Discussed
2. Status/Progress
Next Steps
Hot Topic:
Focus topic:
Prompts Used: Access Points: (Critical, Contextual, Technical)
5. Summary of Issues: A place for your reflections on: 1) the development of inclusive practices in this class; 2) changes in the coachee’s understanding of inclusive practices, and 3) The relationships among the coachee and other team members.
6. Next Steps:
Elaine
6/16/09
Bob T.
Gilbert
Budget cuts
Bob concerned about losing paraprofessional support for inclusion.
Address in team planning week of 8/11/09.
Bob concerned that support sometimes looks like “doing for” rather than adapting for students with high needs.
Discuss shared expectations in team meeting, identify shared goal.
Supporting students with severe disabilities in Mathematics classes
In what ways do you and Ms. Fujino communicate to plan for support of your students with high needs?
Contextual, identify context
What types of support structures do you and Ms. Fujino generally plan for your students?
Contextual, identify patterns
What do your shared decisions indicate about what your team feels is important for your students to be able to do?
Contextual, surface values
The NIUSI-LeadScape Guide for Coaching Dialogue includes a form to record the main points of a coaching conversation. This may be adapted to fit your needs, and provides a structure for organizing the topics covered in a dialogue. You might also use this form to plan future conversations in order to stay on track to meet the goals of your coaching.
What priorities would you hope to communicate through your support plans?
Contextual, identify goal
Bob seems frustrated with Ms. Fujino’s approach, but hasn’t clearly communicated his own high expectations for students with disabilities. He’s more comfortable doing it all himself than spending the time to establish common ground with her.
Bob will initiate a conversation with Ms. Fujino during Friday’s planning time to express his own expectations and hopes for the students and elicit hers in order to establish a common goal.

14. If there is any great secret of success in life, it lies in the ability to put yourself in the other person’ s place and to see things from his point of view as well as your own. – Henry Ford
Coaching conversations may be entered at any of three access points: critical analysis, contextual examination, or technical need. The NIUSI-LeadScape Guide for Coaching Dialogues provides some suggested prompts for topics that may arise in the coaching relationship and ways in which to develop those conversations to support ongoing improvement of understanding and practice. These guiding prompts are not meant to be used as set scripts, but as tools to help you plan your coaching conversations to address critical, contextual, and technical factors of creating inclusive schools.