With all the time, energy, and money devoted to teacher development these days, school leaders—and everybody concerned about education—want to be sure it’s actually paying off in the form of improved teaching and learning.
One way to maximize impact is to align coaching support both to teachers’ developmental goals and to their school's instructional priorities. That way, teachers focus on a combination of individual and school-wide goals that work synergistically to improve their teaching practice. Additionally, when leaders and coaches break goals down into bite-sized action steps, it's far more likely that teachers will attain them and be able to celebrate their progress along the way.
- Teachers, like all professionals, develop most quickly when they receive frequent feedback and opportunities to practice.
- We learn best when we can focus on one piece of feedback at a time. Giving less feedback, more often, maximizes development.
- It takes committment to building relationships and a culture of feedback at your school to shift from compliance to development.
- Consider what is needed for teachers to gain feedback openly: a trusted leader and the opportunity to learn from one-another.
We created this guide for school leaders and coaches to help deepen their understanding of how to support teachers as they work towards individual and school-wide goals through a developmental coaching cycle. Use this on your own or with your leadership team to practice and hone your skills around goal-setting, observation and feedback, and developmental support for your teachers.