My Coaches' Couch: DYI Coaching

What do you do when working with a teacher who is over-reliant on your recommendations?

There’s a tipping point in a coaching cycle when responsibility shifts from coach to teacher. In the GIR model,* that tipping point comes when the bang-for-your-buck coaching move shifts from making recommendations to asking questions. Even though there are times when modeling and recommending are appropriate coaching moves, we are coaching for interdependence, not dependence, so we can’t stick with recommending and be effective.

Have you worked with a teacher who was over-reliant on recommendations?

There are many reasons a teacher might take this stance. Has he been disempowered in the past by being told exactly what and how to teach? Has she faced blame when outcomes didn’t measure up? Is he burdened by student issues he feels are outside of his control? These experiences (and more) can lead a teacher to look outside herself for answers, even when she’s known what to do all along.

When a teacher comes to you requesting answers, it can be tempting to give them. After all, you were hired to be a coach because of your experience and expertise. But imparting your wisdom may not provide the most powerful learning opportunity for a teacher. Helping her draw from her own well of knowledge and experience encourages self-reliance and sustainable, self-directed learning and problem-solving.

Besides biting your tongue, what can you do when a knowledgeable teacher comes to you for answers?

Recently, I read the book, The Coaching Habit, by Michael Stanier. Although the book is written for business managers, I think his advice holds true for instructional coaches. When a colleague comes for an unneeded recommendation, Michael suggests you say, “That’s a great question! I’ve got some ideas, which I’ll share with you. But before I do, what are your first thoughts?”

After a surprised pause, the teacher may throw out a fledgling idea and then wait for your response. That’s your cue for Michael’s next question (a powerful one!): “What else could you do?” After the next idea and subsequent pause, prompt again: “And what else?”

After generating several possibilities, you can encourage the teacher to consider which of these ideas seem worth trying first. With this simple sequence of questions, you’ve promoted DIY coaching: the teacher generates options and chooses the best course. And all it took was a few good questions from you!

Even though I hadn’t read Michael’s book yet, I used this approach a few years ago when working with teachers in Haiti. A large room held 40 teachers seated at 8 tables, representing 8 nearby orphanage schools. With the assistance of a translator, I asked each table group to make a chart, listing persistent problems they were experiencing. Then I asked them to put a star by one problem that they really wanted a solution for.

After doing so, the teachers looked to me expectantly. I’d already noticed how these teachers turned respectfully to me for answers, but at this moment, I knew that was not my role. So, I told them: talk with your group and make a list of possible solutions to your problem.

They looked at me with surprise – no, shock! “We don’t know how to solve these problems,” they said. “We have already tried.”

I was the educational expert from America. Surely I would give them a solution! I was the one standing at the front of the room. I was the one who had come to offer support.

But I knew I didn’t have the real answers to their persistent problems. They knew their students and their situation in a way I never could. Besides that, I would be leaving in a few days and taking my answers with me. They needed confidence that they could find their own answers.

I moved from table to table, asking a few questions about the problem they’d identified and encouraging them to make a long list of possibilities before deciding how to move forward. Although one table (led by a vocal, experienced teacher) claimed they had already tried everything and there were no new ideas to list, teachers at the other seven tables brainstormed and then determined a course of action. There was energy in the room and fierce determination. These teachers felt empowered to solve their own problems.

Although these Haitian teacher initially felt reliant on me for solutions, when my questions encouraged thoughtfulness and persistence, their efficacy increased and they crafted potential solutions. Asking questions turns instructional coaching into a DIY project!