Coaching and mentoring: building deep learning and educational change

 

Dr Susanne Owen Teacher Registration Board & University of South Australia, South Australia, Australia

 

Scenario 1

In John's secondary school, the principal has created a strong team learning culture. John, as a very experienced English teacher, has been paired with another colleague for peer coaching, with his chosen goal being to develop more effective group work in his classroom. John is similarly a peer coach for his partner, Brian, whose goal is to help students become more socially aware. John and Brian have been observing in each others' classes, giving feedback and meeting regularly to provide challenge and to support the changes they are each introducing.

Scenario 2

After 15 years teaching, Ravi is struggling to keep motivated and up-to-date in his teaching He changes schools and. after parent complaints, some observations by his new principal and his own initial resistance, he begins to respond to the explicit areas being identified through the intensive mentoring. There are weekly meetings, where observations are discussed and feedback is given. Week by week. Ravi starts to try out new ideas. Gradually, student responses become more positive and Ravi begins to feel rejuvenated in his teaching role.

Scenario 3

Melanie has wanted to be a teacher for as long as she can remember. She's three months into her first teaching appointment. She did well in her course at university and the reports from her school practicums were very positive. Her shared transport teacher colleague has become a real mentor in their daily commuting, as Melanie grapples with behaviour management issues. Through support, and sometimes challenging and sharing her own strategies informally, Eve as mentor, helps Melanie to grapple with behaviour issues. Through this support, Melanie, in her own classroom practice, stays true to her own social justice background and explores issues widely beyond mere managerial and punitive responses.

Scenario 4

Jacqui in her first principal appointment wants more commitment towards whole school educational change but realises that the middle managers need considerable leadership development. Initially, her restructuring of staff and faculty meetings into professional learning teams based around the school change priorities, and gain staff support. However, with the middle managers being very administration-focused, she's not quite sure how to upskill them. There are only a few very experienced principals in the district network she feels comfortable talking to and she begins to seek advice in an informal manner from several of them.

Coaching and mentoring seem to be the latest ‘buzz' words in supporting individuals and groups of educators with professional learning and change. Research indicates that traditional professional development formats based on one-off conferences conducted by experts and using pre-packaged information only have about 10% long-term impact on teacher participants in terms of what happens in their classroom practices. Effectiveness increases to 90% when coaching and feedback are included (Joyce & Showers, 1988). Mentoring also seems effective with beginner teachers, new leaders and experienced teachers who are struggling (Feiman-Nemser, 2001; Black, 2001; Thomas, undated; Coalition of Essential Schools).

So, what happens in coaching and mentoring processes to support individuals in making changes in their practices? What is coaching and what is mentoring? Are they the same process? Sometimes the words seem to be used interchangeably but in general terms, mentoring usually involves people at different levels of experience and skills, with the mentor passing on wisdom as a result of experiences in similar situations. Coaching is based on a more equal partnership and may even involve a coach who has not actually worked in the particular situation. The Alberta Teachers Association (2002) explains mentoring as:

A nurturing process in which a more skilled or more experienced person serving as a role model, teaches, sponsors, encourages, counsels and befriends a less skilled or less experienced person for the purpose of promoting the latter's professional development.

In mentoring, the person concerned may be inexperienced or lack skills, so a more directive approach, demonstrations and training may be used.

This is indicated in Figure 1, which depicts various generalised stages for beginning teachers, from survival to disillusionment, reflection, rejuvenation and anticipation, with the mentoring process involving different actions and responsibilities for the mentor during various phrases. During survival and disillusionment, considerable support is required and the mentor and mentee partnership builds, with the mentor having significant responsibility and being involved in directing and explaining to the mentee. Generally over time, the mentee gradually becomes more confident and the relationship becomes more of a partnership involving sharing and reflection, with the responsibility in the mentoring process becoming one of delegation, with the mentor gradually withdrawing from that role.

Figure 1: Mentoring processes and partnership changes over time

While mentor cloning and stifling of individual identity represents the potential dark side of mentoring (Long, 1994), Achinstein and Barrett's (2004) research about beginning teachers and mentoring highlights the important role undertaken by mentors in supporting newcomers to the profession. A key mentor role involves challenging mentee paradigms from a managerial, human and political perspective. Achinstein and Barrett's research was especially focused on classroom management issues during the survival and disillusionment stages in which beginning teachers traditionally become focused on routines, time and student movement management. While the managerial perspective is important, the research highlights that some beginning teachers become locked into implementing more and more of the same type of approaches, without any positive impact on student responses. Skilled mentors can support beginning teachers in reframing their thinking towards reconsideration of other aspects, such as the humanistic or political perspectives. The humanistic approach highlights the individual psychological needs of children and using a wider range of instructional practices to cater for varying student needs, with the student and teacher relationship being renegotiated involving collaboration and a caring family classroom approach. Alternatively, mentors can challenge beginning teachers from a political perspective, with the teacher nurturing a democratic approach and critical thinking among students.

Looking more widely at teachers at all levels of responsibility, the key issue is that, in order to really transform classroom practices, a rethinking of deeply entrenched beliefs from childhood, as well as personal school experiences (Smith, 2005), is required. Coaching is also about deep learning to improve skills and knowledge and the formal coaching partnership involves the following types of processes:

In each meeting, the client chooses the focus of conversation, while the coach listens and contributes observations and questions. This interaction creates clarity and moves the client into action. Coaching accelerates the client's progress by providing greater focus and awareness of choice (Hoult, 22/5/03).

In coaching, the person concerned usually controls the process. The skills of the coach are about expert listening and paraphrasing, being a thinking partner who encourages the teacher to understand and explore his or her emotions and beliefs, and extend their limits. The coach supports the process of formulating long-term goals and plans of specific action. By reflecting on their achievements in collaboration with the coach, a deepening of learning occurs (Rooney, 2004).

This is indicated in Figure 2. The power of coaching is that it supports and sustains change, especially when there is a more complex situation involving considerable stress, with the coach role being one of supporting step-wise change over an extended timeframe, until new approaches have become embedded.

Figure 2: Coaching and sustaining change over time

Formal approaches to coaching and mentoring programs usually happen in allocated timeslots and using specific methodologies. However, in reality, educational leaders are involved in modelling coaching and mentoring with their staff on a regular basis and this happens in a relatively informal manner. In these informal situations, coaching and mentoring happen interchangeably in supporting a particular teacher. The key to being effective in using coaching and mentoring is to establish a whole-school culture that involves individuals and groups of teachers in working collaboratively and really supporting the learning of their colleagues using these processes.

Research indicates that coaching and mentoring are important aspects of building effective school-based teams and communities of practice, with teams involved in projects such as action research, year level or subject area foci. In these groups focused on a common topic or student group, teachers can engage in relevant practical activities, student programming and assessment tasks. Through coaching and mentoring each other and sharing ideas in a collegial manner and working through different perspectives, new educational ideas and improved skills emerge, with group members taking responsibility for the learning of colleagues. For example, one secondary school had IT as a school change priority, and teachers worked in faculty teams on a regular staff meeting cycle to mentor and coach each other, with more IT incorporated into the curriculum as an outcome (Owen, 2005).

Looking at some of the other scenarios introduced in the opening section of this paper, in terms of coaching and mentoring, for John in scenario 1, coaching was used in the faculty to support individual teachers to make specific changes. In scenario 2, rather than peer coaching for ongoing professional skill building, the principal, as the skilled leader, became a mentor using a directive or explanatory approach to overcome Ravi 's resistance. Ravi gradually achieved success and began to take more responsibility and leadership for deciding on courses of action for his own work in the classroom. Melanie's situation in scenario 3 is similar to that of many beginning teachers, as she was involved in an informal mentoring process that evolved through regular contact arising from daily transport arrangements. Jacqui, in scenario 4 as a new leader, used a range of informal extended contacts to get advice, sometimes seeking direction about how to build the skills of her middle managers.

In reality, while formal mentoring programs for beginning teachers or formal leadership coaching programs with funding and time provided are the ideal, most schools will be seeking to build a coaching and mentoring culture on a more informal basis. This means strong principal leadership to establish the culture, modelling coaching and mentoring in working with the middle managers and really building a community of teacher learners that values their professionalism and continually updating their expertise for the benefit of students.

References

Achinstein, B & Barrett, A (2004). (Re)Framing Classroom Contexts: How new teachers and mentors view diverse learners and challenges of practice. (online). URL: www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=11533. (Accessed 2/2/06).

Alberta Teachers' Association (2001). Mentorship Program: A Model Project. Research Monograph No. 39. Alberta: Alberta Teachers' Association.

Alberta Teachers' Association (2002). Professional Development Programs and Services Book. Alberta: Alberta Teachers' Association.

Black, S (2001). ‘A Lifeboat for New Teachers'. In American School Board Journal, September, pp. 146-48. (online). URL: www.asbj.com/2001/09/0901research.html (Accessed 26/4/03).

Coalitio n of Essential Schools. About Essential Schools. (online). URL: www.essentialschools.org/pub/ces_docs/about/about.html (Accessed 13/8/03).

Feiman-Nemser, S (2001). From Preparation to Practice: Designing a continuum to strengthen and sustain teaching. Teachers College Record, 103 (6), pp. 1013-1055.

Hoult, G (2003). Workshop Coaching Materials. Presented at Central South West Leaders Conference, Victor Harbour, 21 May.

Joyce, B & Showers, B (1988). Student Achievement through Staff Development (2 nd ed). New York: Longman.

Long, D (1994). The Dark Side of Mentoring. (online). URL: www.aare.edu.au/94/pap/longj94030.txt. (Accessed 14/3/05).

Owen, S (2005a). ‘The Power of Collegiality in School-based Professional Development'. In Australian Journal of Teacher Education. Vol. 30 (1). February.

Rooney, A & Associates and Zimmerman Consulting. (2004). Leader as Coach handouts.

Smith, L (2005). ‘The Impact of Early Life History on Teachers' Beliefs: In-school and out of school experiences as learners and knowers of science'. In Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice. Routledge. Vol. 11 (1). February.

Thomas, K Beginning Teacher Induction: The Roots of Success. (online). URL: http://teachersnetwork.org/TNPI/research/prep/Thomas/ (Accessed 11/7/03).

 

Dr Susanne Owen is currently a Project Officer in Professional Teaching Standards with the Teachers Registration Board of South Australia, in Australia. Dr Owen is also an educational researcher and consultant, and an Adjunct Researcher, at the University of South Australia.

For eight years she worked as a high school administrator responsible for personnel, including professional development, performance management and staffing issues and three years as the statewide manager of Performance Management for the state's education system. Prior to this, Susanne was involved in statewide training and development in the new senior school curriculum and in school development planning, with earlier experiences as a primary school teacher in various Australian states and other countries. Susanne completed her Doctor of Education studies at the University of South Australia: this focused on emerging trends in teacher professional development, including coaching, mentoring and school-based teams.

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