Conversational Courage

Do you really want to improve student learning?  In many situations, focusing on student work will help you get directly to the need. This is especially true if the conversation is with the student – the learner doing that work.

At other times, however, a conversation about instruction will be more effective.  This is often true if the conversation is with the teacher – the one doing that work.

Talking about teaching head-on might require conversational courage.  For coaches, conversational courage is a type of relationship courage: the courage to engage in meaningful conversations about the work.  

Here are some suggestions to lay the groundwork for courageous conversations: 

*Give ample time for the teacher to explain her ideas without judgment.

 *Speak less and listen more so that you can understand the teacher’s perspective.

*Ask open-ended questions (it helps to have a couple of those ready in advance).

These practices build a trusting, open atmosphere and enrich your understanding of the situation.  After a thoughtful pause (giving yourself time to synthesize this new information), you can speak honestly, providing recommendations that are more likely to hit the mark because of the perspective you’ve gained.  Interestingly, there’s some brain chemistry behind this.  Listening thoughtfully stimulates your prefrontal cortex, allowing you to access more sophisticated strategies.  You can then respond intelligently and creatively, offering recommendations that are likely to improve instruction. And, importantly, the teachers’ “mirror neurons” will reflect the empathy you’ve shown, and she’ll feel understood and more open to influence.

Having conversational courage, foregrounded with empathic listening, helps you talk about teaching with the one doing that work. It’s an indirect way to get at student learning, but it targets aspects of the work that the teacher has the most control over.  Although it may take conversational courage to make recommendations about instruction, specific suggestions are sometimes the shortest route to improved student learning.

As the Wizard of Oz taught, wisdom and courage should work together. So couple your recommendations with conversational courage.  Conversational courage is a coaching tool that can get you to the heart of effective instruction. 

 

This week, you might want to take a look at:

Commentary about working together for school improvement:

http://www.itemonline.com/news/everyone-is-working-together-to-make-mance-park-the-best/article_4276988c-62d4-11e4-a3fe-d75a26b714d2.html

 

The importance of trusts in PLCs:

http://www.teachingquality.org/content/blogs/kim-worth/building-plc-possibilities-four-tenets-trust

 

This video showing debrief circles in math:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/students-reflect-on-learning-exl?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=digest

 

A video with suggestions for talking about texts:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/analyzing-text-as-a-group

 

A podcast:  Why do inquiry:

http://www.literacyinlearningexchange.org/why-do-inquiry

 

That’s it for this week.  Happy coaching!