This week I read an article on the
internet that got me thinking about the gradual increase of responsibility in
coaching. The article was about – once
again, horse training. I could
practically take the article and paste it right here, I was making connections
to coaching all over the place! (The
link to the article is at the end of this post, so you can take a look at it
for yourself if you’d like.)
Horses are extremely fine and intelligent animals,
but I still don’t know that teachers would like the comparison. Nonetheless, I’d like to share some of the
insights I gained with you. Here’s a
direct quote to get us started:
Training horses really is quite
simple, because it involves not much more than the appropriate application of
pressure and the exquisite timing of the release. But those adjectives,
“appropriate” and “exquisite,” are where the real challenges lie, because these
are the very things that make the difference between a horse having trouble,
responding obediently, or responding with enthusiasm.
Let’s paraphrase that to apply to coaching and
teachers. Coaching, like horse training,
involves the appropriate application of pressure – if we take the definition of
pressure as “an influence that pushes or urges.” I’d like it better if the definition said,
“nudges or urges,” because as a coach I do feel like I am sometimes nudging and
often urging the teachers I am working with.
Nudging them to think differently, urging them to try something new.
According to the article, pressure is appropriate
when it is “applied with focus, care and intention for a specific outcome.” Translation:
Identify a focus for your coaching, a specific outcome. Since you are working with a teacher and not
a horse, this can be a joint enterprise!
Determining together the intention of your coaching work will ensure
that your urging feels like encouragement, not coercion.
When working with horses, pressure should be applied “very slowly and smoothly, progressing to the point at which it becomes effective and motivates the horse to try something.” In other words, just the amount of nudging needed to encourage – and no more. In horse training, how can you tell if the pressure was applied appropriately? “The horse responds calmly and becomes more responsive and more willing.” If urging from coaches is appropriate, teachers are willing and ready to take on more responsibility.
How Do You Know If Your Timing is Exquisite?
Knowing when to release – give the teacher more
responsibility – is all about timing. In
horse training, “If you release too early or too late, your horse won’t do what
you expected.” Letting go too soon means
lost opportunities for learning. Hanging
on too long means lost opportunities for interdependence and true collaboration,
learning together. If your timing is exquisite,
“the quality of response increases, and learning occurs “quickly with a minimum
of difficulty.” Conversely, you’ll know
your timing was ineffective if “the quality of the response decreases” and “it
takes longer to teach something.” More
support would have been beneficial. The
horseman uses the words “dull” and “heavy” to describe the sluggish response
when release comes too early. You’ve seen
this happen as a coach when something you’ve worked on with a teacher slips away
when you are no longer urging. Let the
Gradual Increase of Responsibility Model for Coaching guide you as you tune in
to how to release exquisitely.
As you learn when to nudge and when to stop
nudging, with appropriateness and exquisiteness, you’ll notice “how confidently
and calmly (the teacher) begins to respond.”
Urging appropriately and releasing exquisitely leads to learners who
respond “with enthusiasm”!
I must end this post with a note of caution that
has little to do with coaching but everything to do with schools and
change. The horse trainer notes that
inappropriate application of pressure is pressure that “comes on too fast and
too strong, with no time for mental processing.
It is applied with an expectation that the horse must react instantly. There is no teaching principle behind it: Do
it or else!” Sometimes mandates from
government agencies or district or school administration have these unfortunate
characteristics. If our teachers are put
in this situation, we as coaches have the responsibility to mediate that
pressure. I have seen coaches do just
that with powerful, positive results. I
hope that few of you are in that uncomfortable position, but if you are, I am
at least relieved to know that teachers have you as their ally for a more
appropriate improvement process.
This week,
you might want to take a look at:
The
whole article about pressure and release in horse training:
Plus
a little something for everyone from different academic areas:
A video
showing the engage-explore-explain-elaborate-evaluate learning cycle as
students learn about chemical vs. physical changes:
This
“BOOKMATCH” poster helps kids choose a just-right book:
A
Pinterest board for Social Studies Teaching Resources:
A video where
students turn-and-talk about patterns they see during choral skip counting:
Free
Word Work Activities (from Teachers pay Teachers):
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