Put Me In, Coach!: Enhancing Teachers’ Competence and Confidence through Practice-Based Coaching
Anyone in education has likely experienced poorly designed professional development (PD) at one time or another. We are stuck in a meeting or lecture where the content does not apply to our work or the focus of the meeting is uninspiring (anyone want to spend a day learning how to fill out a form correctly?). Or the PD is engaging and interesting, but it is a one-off; we leave energized, but the next day the folder gets lost among mountains of paperwork, never to be seen again. Unsurprisingly, this type of PD does little to change teacher practices and has no effect on student outcomes.Fortunately, there is a solution: coaching! According to Joyce and Showers (2002), training alone only results in 0-5% of participants using their new skills in the classroom – yikes! -- but when training is accompanied by coaching a whopping 95% of participants use these skills in the classroom.
Mindfulness in Schools
Suddenly, everyone seems to be talking about mindfulness. I hear it talked about in my fitness classes, in classrooms, in professional meetings and in the line at the supermarket! It seemed like a good time to explore the practice, and learn a little more about its research base and application in schools.What is mindfulness? According to Hooker & Fodor (2008), mindfulness is a very cognizant, purposeful way to be entirely aware of what is happening within us as well as around us, without judgement. Another way of defining it, is “paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally, to the unfolding of experience moment to moment” (Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p. 145). Mindfulness is learned and practiced through meditation and breathing exercises, during which mental awareness and experiencing the present moment are stressed.