coaching-word-highlighted-in-green-with-related-wordsWhy is helping adults so complicated? Coaches often find themselves working with colleagues and hitting many roadblocks. Can we avoid these roadblocks? Jim Knight says “Yes!”, and describes five components of coaching adults that can help coaches avoid roadblocks by understanding the ‘complexity of helping’.

In his book Instructional Coaching, Knight (2007) states that “for professional development to be effective, there needs to be professional learning”. To become learning partners with colleagues, coaches need to be aware of the following complexities inherent in the coaching relationship:

  1. Change: Are teachers aware they need to make a change?  Teachers may see their classrooms very differently than the coach does.
  2. Identity: Teaching is a personal craft and teachers can become defensive about their craft. Teaching is as personal as parenting.
  3. Thinking: Teachers need to be a part of the ‘thinking’ in coaching. If teachers are not a part of thinking, there is a threat to buy-in.
  4. Status: Teacher/Coach pairs may have the perception the coach has higher status than the teacher. Coaches need to flip this around, and convey that the teacher is in the ‘big chair’ with the coach in the ‘little chair’.
  5. Motivation: The coach and teacher need to start the relationship with the ‘Why’! Goals for the work should be established that are meaningful and motivating to the teacher.

How can you approach coaching, knowing these complexities are present?  What steps can be taken to address them?  Read Knight’s Instructional coaching: A partnership approach for improving instruction to explore these issues more fully.

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