Supporting a Peer Coaching
Program: The Need for a Coaching Coordinator
By Barry Sweeny, © 2008
The culture of schools, particularly secondary
schools, is characterized by teacher isolation, interactions which
are usually superficial, minimal sharing or collaborative work,
and a singular focus on student learning. A major reason that
many school systems are supporting peer coaching is that coaching
promotes a deeper analysis of teaching and learning, norms of
collaboration and sharing, and an appropriate focus on and support
for adult learning.
Indeed, coaching promotes development of many new skills precisely
because it takes place in a sub-culture which is NOT the traditional
school culture. For this reason, learning the new skills of collaboration
and sharing feedback will require some new structures for our
use of time, new roles for teachers, and support for the individuals
who participate in the coaching.
The well-researched work of Joyce and Showers on coaching shows
the critical role that peer coaching plays in the refinement of
skills and the transfer of training to the classroom. Ironically,
while many peer coaching programs are established to gain increased
transfer from the workshop to the workplace, many such programs
do not provide the required coaching for those who are trying
to learn the skills of peer coaching itself.
To develop mastery as a peer coach requires that we:
1. Hear about the theory and process of coaching
2. See demonstrations of coaching
3. Practice coaching and receive corrective feedback
4. Repeatedly practice the new skills in the classroom and receive
peer coaching on the practice and application of those skills,
support for problem solving, and have the sense of accountability
that comes from regularly scheduled work with another professional
educator.
What this means is that those who are developing skills as peer
coaches need to have a coach who has already mastered coaching and
who can help guide their practice and refinement of the skills.
Provision of a peer coaching coordinator is a very critical element
in planning for implementation of a peer coaching program. Such
a coordinator needs released time to organize several aspects of
the program so that it functions efficiently and effectively. That
released time is also needed to allow the coordinator to provide
the necessary coaching that the developing peer coaches require
as they master the new skills.
Coordinators typically need to facilitate
the smooth functioning of the program by:
1. Scheduling peer coaching periods or days between individuals
so that only a few individuals are out of the classroom and involved
in coaching on the same days.
2. Arranging for efficient use of substitutes for the classes
of those who are involved as coaches.
3. Planning and conducting training for peer coaches and for administrators
and parents who need to be informed about the program. Parents
particularly wonder why the teachers may be out of the class periodically,
and need to appreciate how teachers will become better at their
work through peer coaching.
4. Coaching of individuals who are participants in the peer coaching
program. The program coordinator needs to function as a coach
of the coaches.
5. Monitor the application of coaching skills and the implementation
of the coaching training in the classrooms of program participants,
and assess the need for additional training and support.
Until an individual has mastered the skills of peer coaching and
become used to a new form of collaborative work and sharing, the
individual will not have reached a self-sustaining level of expertise
as a coach. Without the critical support that a coordinator can
offer individuals trying to develop coaching mastery, and without
the peer coordinator's challenge to practice coaching skills and
set and pursue individual growth goals, peer coaching will not become
embedded in our work culture and many who will have tried will give
up.
Coaching is different, it takes time to get used to, it requires
new skills and new thinking about adult learning. That is why peer
coaching holds so much promise for making schools more collaborative
work places and for improving instruction. This is also why successful
peer coaching programs utilize peer program coordinators.
Given the necessary support, peer coaching can become an integral
part of what it means to be a teacher. When that happens the culture
of the school will have become much more collaborative and focused
on learning for all because adult learning will have become as common
as student learning.
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