Mentoring and Coaching Capacity Building Project

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Mentoring and Coaching Capacity Building Project

• Philippa Cordingley, Paul Crisp, Miranda Bell
• Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in
  Education

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• Promote reflection

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Headline similarities and differences

• Mentoring working with more experienced, senior
  colleague to make significant career transitions
• Coaching drilling deep into skills to polish
  practice or add new repertoire
• specialist to model and raise awareness
• peer to motivate, embed specialist input and
  sustain commitment

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Conceptualisation and Ownership Building

• A process of research and evidence informed
  policy making
• Iterative testing of evidence from field and
  literature with
• In all around 700 colleagues in schools, LEAs,
  HEIs and the national agencies

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Key elements

• 5 potential components of the framework
• a framework of principles
• definitions of core concepts (eg feedback, active
  listening)
• clarification of similarities and differences
• clarification of why, who, what, where, when
• identification of skills
• a glossary

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Interim Findings Key Messages

• Mentoring and coaching recognised as powerful
  forms of CPD
• New wave of activity - strong but nascent
  enthusiasm, aspirations and intentions
• Current descriptions are confused and overlap
• Providers and leading edge colleagues welcome
  definitions many practitioners not ready yet

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Key messages

• In England at present most models are hierachical
• Power and hierarchy affect the organisational
  context for mentoring and coaching
• A few use peer coaching to embed specialist input
  into day to day practice or sustain effort
• Many emphasise protocols to establish buffer
  zones between coaching accountability
• Little if any training needed for peer coaching

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Interim Findings Key Messages

• Some tensions between those who advocate for
  specialist knowledge and those who advocate for
  process expertise

process models depend on and fuel growing tacit
expertise of the coach/mentor and prior
diagnosis /or self awareness?
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Interim Findings Key Messages

• Significant pedagogic benefits for mentors and
  coaches not yet systematically recognised or
  harnessed
• Some accredited mentor training, but there is
  little evidence of ongoing support for the
  further development of mentoring and coaching

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Interim Findings Key Messages

• Peer-coaching some fear cosy recycling of weak
  practice but evidence suggests this offers the
  most profound experiences of learning through
  coaching
• Significant demand for protocols
• Existing resources expertise in developing
  skills and protocols not in the public domain
  behind plan, do, review

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Effective coaches professional learners engage
in

• professional dialogue, rooted in evidence and
  structured to make explicit existing beliefs and
  practices - a learning conversation
• building trust by agreeing and upholding ground
  rules to manage imbalances in power and
  accountability - a learning agreement
• combining access to specialist expertise to
  extend horizons and peer support to sustain
  commitment and relate specialist inputs to day to
  day experience specialist and peer support
• an evolving process in which control and
  leadership pass from the coach to the
  professional learner over time as skills,
  knowledge and self awareness increase learner
  agency
• choosing and refining goals that build on prior
  experience, knowledge and concerns and align
  school, individual and specialist priorities
  differentiation and ownership

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Effective coaches professional learners engage
in

• developing a repertoire of skills and strategies
  and a deep understanding of the theory that
  underpins them to enable adaptation in a range of
  contexts - transferability
• harnessing the privileged and effective learning
  opportunities that coaching creates for the
  school, the coach and for the professional
  learner - reciprocity
• observing new strategies at work to enable
  analysis, reflection and to refine action
  planning observation and modelling
• creating a safe-to-fail learning environment that
  supports risk-taking and innovation by committing
  to reciprocal learning or enquiry
  experimentation
• using time creatively between meetings for action
  and reflection prioritising learning

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CD ROM Resources
Short video clips of aspects of
mentoring/coaching with supporting activities
Observation schedules, learning agreements etc
Comparison of the various models and approaches
to mentoring coaching
6 schools detailed structured illustrating
practice in context
Summaries of key resources overview plus key
practical matreial eg EPPI, Joyce Showers,
Smith et al
Analysis and map of MC policies of key
agencies
Probing questions for schools to put to MC
providers
E.g. Mystery Game, odd one out, Diamond 9
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Project Outcomes Resources

• A CD Rom containing
• Video of specific aspects of mentoring and
  coaching in 3 schools with activities to draw
  colleagues in support interrogation
• Tools and resources (observation schedules,
  learning agreements etc)
• Probing questions to put to providers

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Project Outcomes Resources

• Description of mentoring coaching elements of
  national policies initiatives
• A map of the geographical distribution of
  mentoring and coaching drawn from the
  impressions database
• Resources setting out the evidence base for
  mentoring and coaching
• Summaries of 4 key texts
• A comparison of various different models and
  approaches to mentoring and coaching

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Project Outcomes Resources

• A CD Rom containing
• Activities that CPD co ordinators can use with
  groups in schools
• A Mentoring and coaching mystery to raise
  awareness of key issues and features of context
  that can affect the development of mentoring and
  coaching
• A Diamond 9 activity to explore the skills and
  experience necessary to be an effective mentor or
  coach

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Two systematic research reviews

• First review Collaborative CPD
• Evidence of links between specialist coaching
  and peer coaching, sustained over time, and
  positive teaching and learning outcomes.
• Second review Collaborative AND individually
  oriented CPD
• Findings supported and extended those of the
  first review

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Review findings

• Individual and Collaborative CPD
• fewer studies of individually oriented CPD
  overall and fewer still (only 3 compared with 31)
  met the pupil impact data criterion
• either evidence of impact is weak (eg teacher
  self report) or evidence of weak impact
• detailed comparisons of processes not meaningful
  
• do have more detailed data re nature of
  collaboration 1st steps to taxonomy.

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CPD Processes and Characteristics

• Built on the findings of the first review
• the use of external expertise linked to
  school-based activity
• observation reflection
• an emphasis on peer support
• scope for teacher participants to identify their
  own CPD focus
• processes to encourage, extend and structure
  professional dialogue
• processes for sustaining the CPD over time to
  embed practices own settings and
• recognition of individual teachers starting
  points.

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Nature of Collaboration

• Some evidence that
• within school, classroom-based CPD may be more
  effective than off-site CPD
• collaboration focused around active
  experimentation more effective than reflection
  and discussion alone
• collaboration may be an effective vehicle for
  securing teacher commitment and ownership where
  not possible for teachers to select focus
• paired or small group collaboration may have a
  greater impact than larger groups

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Fieldwork what are schools and agencies in the
UK doing?

• 17 country-wide seminars and group work with
  approximately 700 colleagues from the field.
• Mailshots of emerging principles and invitation
  to submit details of practice
• Website publicity
• Leads from national and regional agencies
• Scoping interviews
• In-depth site visits

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Mentoring and coaching growing

• Much enthusiasm emerging body of practice
  expertise
• Most established practice remarkably consistent
  with review
• Coaching practice mostly recent, mentoring (ITE)
  longer track record
• Sustained activity is building in a range of ways
  eg
• Blaise Primary - started with two coaching
  teachers.
• used EAZ membership to build skills for two
  teachers
• 2 core teachers rolled out peer coaching until
  all involved and school views coaching as
  integral to CPD.
• Newall Green piloted maths science with year 9
• evaluated pupil impact
• pilot impact convinced rest of school of
  potential and
• secured owndership for participation in
  Manchester Collaborative Coaching Network

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Linking external expertise to school-based
activity

• Three main types of external expertise
  exemplified in case study schools
• External consultants work with staff in their
  classrooms on developing subject teaching skills
  (Sweyne Park, Blaise)
• Senior mentor from the SCITT works with ITE
  students in school on professional skills eg
  behaviour management (Oakdale school)
• Expert trains teacher coaches. Teachers then
  coach each other in school (Newhall Green, Hayes
  Park)

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Research and Practice the use of observation

• Observation key to coaching for pedagogy
• Coaching for distributed leadership aimed at
  problem solving not pedagogy. In this context
  observation mainly used with NQTs
• Observation mainly separated from monitoring,
  performance management
• One school uses observation as part of integrated
  PM and line management complemented by separate
  peer coaching
• Observation used to model practice as well as
  develop practice

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Research and Practice peer support

• Organised peer support in all case study schools
• Models vary
• Ravenswood coaching triads
• Blaise coaching pairs
• Newhall coaching pairs and reflective group
• Oakdale more experienced/senior mentors
• Sweyne Park teacher subject experts plus
  reciprocal peer coaching
• Hayes Park staff train as coaches teachers
  request coaching

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Research and Practice teacher ownership

• All provide scope for teachers to identify own
  coaching focus separately from PM and monitoring
  systems.
• Leadersip (Hayes Park) examples include handling
  meetings, dealing with parents.
• Others teaching based questioning skills, peer
  assessment, literacy teaching
• Teachers, ITT trainees and managers all stress
  role of school culture in encouraging
  structuring professional dialogue risk taking
• Coaching helps build ownership of CPD other
  changes eg of coaching overcoming opposition to
  inclusion

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Research and practice the nature of collaboration

• All coaching school-based. Teachers describe as
  deeply professionally satisfying.
• All schools committed to sustaining coaching over
  time eg Newhall Green pilot 1 year
• regular structured opportunities for group
  reflection and discussion eg Newhall Green and
  Sweyne Park encourage active experimentation
• one uses a reflective group to share the
  results and experiences of paired coaching
• one has weekly staff development sessions where
  staff focus on a particular topic

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Contact us

• CUREE
• 4 Copthall HouseStation SquareCoventryCV1
  2FLTel 44 (024) 7652 4036E-mail
  info_at_curee.co.uk
• Website http//www.curee.co.uk