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3 steps to great coaching

A simple but powerful instructional coaching cycle nets results

By Learning Forward
Categories: Coaching, Implementation
February 2015
Atul Gawande’s comment is often used to justify coaching. What people overlook in his comment, however, are the words “done well.” Coaching “done well” can and should dramatically improve human performance. However, coaching done poorly can be, and often is, ineffective, wasteful, and sometimes even destructive. What, then, is coaching done well? For the past five years, researchers at the Kansas Coaching Project at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning and at the Instructional Coaching Group in Lawrence, Kansas, have been trying to answer that question by studying what coaches do. The result of that research is an instructional coaching cycle that fosters the kind of improvement Gawande describes. One coach who uses the instructional coaching cycle is Jackie Jewell from Othello

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Authors

Jim Knight, Marti Elford, Michael Hock, Devona Dunekack, Barbara Bradley, Donald D. Deshler, and David Knight

Jim Knight (jim@instructionalcoaching.com) is director of the Kansas Coaching Project at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning and president of the Instructional Coaching Group. Marti Elford (mdeok@ku.edu) is a special education lecturer in the University of Kansas Department of Special Education. Michael Hock (mhock@ku.edu) is director and Devona Dunekack (ddunekac@ku.edu) is project coordinator at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. Barbara Bradley (barbarab@ku.edu) is associate professor of reading education at the University of Kansas. Donald D. Deshler (ddeshler@ku.edu) is former director of the Center for Research on Learning. David Knight (davidkni@usc.edu) is a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education.

“Coaching done well may be the most effective intervention designed for human performance.”

— Atul Gawande (2011)

The Instructional Coaching Cycle

3-steps-to-great-coaching3

References

Gawande, A. (2011, October 3). Personal best. The New Yorker. Available at www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/03/personal-best.

Knight, J. (2007). Instructional coaching: A partnership approach to improving instruction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Knight, J. (2011). Unmistakable impact: A partnership approach for dramatically improving instruction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Knight, J. (2013). High-impact instruction: A framework for great teaching. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Knight, J. (2014). Focus on teaching: Using video for high-impact instruction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

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Learning Forward is the only professional association devoted exclusively to those who work in educator professional development. We help our members plan, implement, and measure high-quality professional learning so they can achieve success with their systems, schools, and students.

Categories: Coaching, Implementation

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