A teacher can leave a coaching conversation with plenty of advice and still have no clear idea what to try tomorrow.
It’s understandable how this happens. A session may move from questioning to assessment to participation and lesson objectives quickly and the coach will provide feedback and ideas on all these areas and more.
This is not the fault of the coach, but while listing a raft of insights and ideas may feel like help, it could definitely leave a colleague unsure of what to prioritise.
This is why whenever I deliver a coaching session I try to ensure that it ends with one agreed decision about classroom practice that the teacher can take forward with purpose. Other points of the conversation can still be noted and caught up on, but the focus remains on that single issue.
Teacher coaching: start with a single issue
For example, with one colleague pupil participation was a focus. We discussed how a lesson can look busy while some children actually contribute very little. That gave us a useful starting point: who is taking part and who is being missed?
From this I was able to suggest possible ideas: perhaps give pupils more thinking time and a partner discussion before inviting whole-class responses. This allows the teacher to then consider how they will do this: which question? At what point in the lesson? What changes am I seeking?
We made sure this was the only aspect of the change the teacher would focus on. Adding a new assessment tool and a different grouping system at the same time may be possible in theory - but it would make the teacher’s task larger and the follow-up harder to interpret.
The teacher must help decide, though, if this will work. A suggestion that looks manageable to a leader may be awkward in a particular classroom. Asking what support would make it workable can reveal a need for a model question, a brief demonstration or time to adapt the task.
When the coach meets again with the teacher they can then focus not just on whether the techniques discussed were used but what impact they had.
Did previously quiet pupils contribute? Could they explain their thinking? Did a partner conversation help them prepare an answer or did one child do all the talking?
A few observation notes or samples of pupils’ work can support that discussion. The evidence should answer the question that was agreed.
Return to the decision
This can help you to move forward with the idea.
You can agree to revisit the trial with great depth or refinement in future sessions, giving the teacher a clear commitment and the coach a responsibility to provide the promised support on whatever new idea is being developed.
At the next conversation, the choices are practical: keep the routine, adapt it or stop it. If it has not helped, a coach must seek to understand why before adding another suggestion. The task, timing or support may need changing.
Of course, coaching will always require broader conversations about teaching, and it’s fine to discuss many aspects within a session.
But for the sake of the teacher’s development, having a single, defined idea and a manageable trial ensures that they have a clear plan of action and gives the coach the assurance that future conversations can be development-focused, rather than just more talking for the sake of talking.
Ruzain Syukur Mansor is senior assistant for co-curricular activities at SK Taman Tun Dr Ismail Jaya in Shah Alam, Malaysia. He previously served as a Malaysian education attaché in the UK and Ireland
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