Coaching Discussion Archive
looking forward to edits/comments
Posted by Early Childhood Community at Jun 18, 2008
We look forward to your contributions to this definition. If you have any technical difficulties, please feel free to contact us at: community@mail.fpg.unc.edu Thanks!
Scope
Posted by George Jesien at Jun 28, 2008
Suggest that coaching not just be viewed in a one-to-one context which may be more appropriate for mentoring. Coaching can be done in a team context such as an interdisciplinary assessment or intervention team. Certainly done in athletics but also is small teams of interns, fellows or post docs in academic settings and clinical settings- just a thought to consider.
Purpose of Coaching
Posted by Deborah Adams at Jul 01, 2008
Consider the purpose of coaching as not only to enhance an individual's competency, but to also contribute to an individual's thinking about application of competencies across various situations. In effect, assisting adult learners to be more mindful of their practice by considering how their skills and knowledge translate into actions.
Reply to Purpose of Coaching
Posted by Virginia Buysse at Jul 08, 2008
Agree with the comment that the coaching definition (and that of other PD support models) should be broadened to include a focus on helping practitioners be more reflective and intentional, as opposed to simply becoming skilled technicians.
Coaching in early childhood
Posted by Barbara Hanft at Jul 15, 2008
The primary outcome of coaching in EC is to support family members, child care providers and early childhood practitioners in selecting and implementing meaningful strategies in daily activities in whatever settings are meaningful to the child and family. I've come to prefer to use the term "partner" versus "learner" because it emphasizes the two way sharing of knowledge and reflection between the partner(s) and coach. It also is more inclusive of peer coaching (see my comment below).
Responding to coaching in a group context
Posted by Virginia Buysse at Jul 08, 2008
Although coaching originally grew out of an athletics, in the broader field of education, the primary way in which it has been used (and is being used)is to provide individualized support to teachers to improve their instructional skills. However, the focus certainly could be broadened in early education/early intervention to focus on the performance or functioning of teams and other groups. Questioning to check learning and providing feedback on performance (typically a narrowly defined skill) are hallmarks of most coaching models. For more information on various coaching models and the differences between coaching and mentoring, see Facilitating Reflective Learning Through Mentoring and Coaching by Anne Brockbank and Ian McGill published in 2006 by Kogan Page.
Peer coaching
Posted by Barbara Hanft at Jul 15, 2008
It also can be engaged in by peers, and is then referred to as peer coaching- this can be reciprocal among a group of peers who coach one another via observation/action and reflection. In this situation, each colleague takes a turn at acting as the coach. Thus, the coach can be internal (not just external as defined above). This is explained in more detail in chapter 7 of Coaching families and colleagues in early childhood (Hanft, Rush and Shelden, 2004).
Examples of Coaching
Posted by Deborah Adams at Jul 01, 2008
A coach works as part of a state-funded professional development project in community and public school-based preschool classrooms. The coach observes and interviews staff to design a plan for support based on the information he/she gathers as part of a needs assessment. The coaching plan is developed in collaboration with the coach, the teaching team, and the management. The foundation of the plan is based on adult learning principles and idividualized.
difference between coaching and consultation
Posted by Pam Winton at Jul 10, 2008
One thing that has been difficult for me to figure out is the difference between coaching and consultation. I notice that the terms are sometimes used interchangably by those who are engaged in interventions that rely on individuals providing support to staff or teams on making improvements in practices. Have others noticed this? Or do others have a handle on the distinctions?
coaching and consultation
Posted by Barbara Hanft at Jul 15, 2008
People do tend to use these terms interchangeably! I always distinguish the expert model of consulting from collaborative consultation because the latter is much closer to coaching than the former. The focus of consulting (expert or medical model) is more diagnostic with sharing of content knowledge, collaborative consultation emphasizes sharing ideas and problem solving together, and coaching on supporting a partner's self discovery of what to do in specific contexts through prompts and reflection.
This can be further muddied by adding refective supervision which shares the self discovery and self assessment components with coaching. However, supervision, and particularly evaluation of job performance is not voluntary and that is a primary characteristic of coaching.
Now, anyone want to comment on mentoring and coaching?
Coaching/Consultation/Mentoring
Posted by Allison B Landy at Aug 07, 2008
One difference I see between coaching and consultation is the intensity of the service, which I believe fits in with what bhanft is saying above. A coach is more ongoing, provides more frequent feedback and uses a more formative approach than a consultant.
As for mentors and coaches, a key difference I see is that I choose my mentor. A coach may be provided to me - contracted through my program. But a mentor is someone I seek out to give me guidance in a personal as well as professional manner. With mentoring - there is more of a choice.
Coaching vs Technical Assistance
Posted by Constant Hine at Jul 17, 2008
My experience is that coaching is very often collapsed with Technical Assistance. Based on Cognitive Coaching and the model I use, the purpose of coaching is actually focused on the coachee increasing their ability to self reflect, analyze, self modify and change perceptions, thoughts, behaviors and actions. Not necessary just regarding devlopment of a specific skill but a more general learning to learn approach to become a reflective professional able to positively change their behaviors to get results they want. A coach is focused on the coachee's ability to reflect, think critically etc. Helping them become a problem solver regardless of the content using Listening, Paraphrasing, Questions and Reframing strategies. It has more an attitude of inquiry and following rather than answers, fixing or advice. Technical Assistance/Consulting is more often focused on helping the learner/coachee actually solve a specific problem by offering answers, advice, resources and may also certainly include listening and questions but with a different purpose than coaching. In other words the focus of a consultant/TA is on the problem or topic assisting in finding solutions, not so much focused on the learning process of the person.
coaching vs Mentoring
Posted by Constant Hine at Jul 17, 2008
My practice distinquishes the difference between a coach and a mentor being mainly one of purpose and expertise. A coach actually could support someone to increase their performance in an area they know nothing about...they do not need to be an expert in the area. The coach is focused on the learning reflecting process of coachee supporting them to find their own answers and solutions. A Mentor on the other hand is someone who has been there, done that and has experience, expertise and wisdom to share with someone less experienced. MEntors often model, give feedback, advise, and share their experiences. A coach would not lead in this way. I want to just make the point to help people develop professionally we need to use a variety of support strategies from Technical Assistance, Teaching/Training, Mentoring, Supervising and Coaching, like tools in a toolbox, we need them all. But each strategy is best implemented for different professional development situations, stages,needs, attitudes and behaviors of the learner.
Coaching Resources
Posted by Dathan Rush at Aug 28, 2008
A resource WIKI participants may be interested in is a web-based article that M'Lisa Shelden and I wrote following a comprehensive review of coaching research in the fields of education, special education, and early childhood. This document also includes an operational definition of coaching and the characteristics of the practice based on the available research. The document may be found at: http://www.fippcase.org/[…]/caseinpoint_vol1_no6.pdf
The operational definition that we developed and included in the above article is:
An adult learning strategy in which the
coach promotes the learner’s ability to
reflect on his or her actions as a means
to determine the effectiveness of an action
or practice and develop a plan for
refinement and use of the action in immediate
and future situations (Rush & Shelden, 2005).
We also developed a bibliography that includes some of the studies and other literature we reference relative to conceptualization, operationalization, outcomes, and benefits of coaching. The bibliography may be found at: http://www.fippcase.org/casemakers/casemakers_vol1_no9.pdf
Another resource that we developed and use is the Coaching Practice Rating Scale. This scale was designed to examine the extent to which a coach is using practice indicators developed from the research-based characteristics of coaching practices. The scale may be found at:
http://www.fippcase.org/casetools/casetools_vol2_no2.pdf
Validation of the Coaching Practice Rating Scale is described in a separate article at:
http://www.fippcase.org/[…]/caseinpoint_vol2_no3.pdf
Hope these resources will be helpful to others.
Definition of Coaching
Posted by Constant Hine at Oct 17, 2008
This was very helpful and thank you for the resources.
Purpose of Coaching
Posted by M'Lisa Shelden at Aug 28, 2008
One of the other major benefits of using a coaching approach is the desired end result of building the capacity of the person being coached in order to promote independent reflection and solution generation. The old sayings of... "working yourself out of a job," or "teaching others to fish instead of giving a person a fish" really do apply. You will note in the resources that Dathan Rush has shared that coaching is a predictable process of interaction that promotes awareness, analysis, consideration of alternatives, and action on the part of the learner (person being coached).
In our work with others, Dathan and I often hear the excitement from coaches when they share stories such as, "...when I arrived at the child's classroom for my scheduled visit, the teacher met me at the door and couldn't wait to show me what she'd been trying and to share the success she had experienced. Upon asking my first coaching question, the teacher replied, "Well, I knew you were going to ask me that so I've thought about it and tried..."
At that point, we often congratulate the coach on many levels, but particularly the evidence that the capacity of the teacher has been built to not only try new things on her own, but evaluate the merit/success of the idea and make modifications yielding enhanced confidence and competence!!!
Implementation tools
Posted by Pam Winton at Sep 05, 2008
Dathan, Thank you for sharing the information on coaching and implementation tools. This is a great way to hone in on the definition in concrete ways. It would be great to hear how you or others have used these in your work. Any examples to share?
