Why Increase Teachers’ Responsibility?

Friends, I am so excited that the release of Differentiated Mentoring and Coaching is just 13 days away!  If you’ve been with me for a while, you know that my work is based on my research-developed Gradual Increase of Responsibility (GIR) Model.  Someone suggested that the name of the GIR model was unfortunate because teachers already have too much on their plates. He asked, “Why would we want to increase teachers’ responsibility? I actually think this word shift is an important one.  Let me explain…
 
You are probably familiar with the Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) Model – it’s been around since 1983, when it was proposed by Pearson and Gallagher as a way for teaching reading comprehension, moving from explicit instruction through guided practice to independent strategy use.*  Like the GRR instructional model, the GIR model for coaching depicts a gradual change in responsibility. Pearson’s GRR model describes the shift from the instructor’s perspective, as he or she releases, or gives up, responsibility. The GIR coaching model also describes this shift, but from the perspective of the learner. From this view, there is an increase of responsibility: a shift to greater power on the part of the learner.
 
My use of the phrase “Gradual Increase of Responsibility” rather than “Gradual Release of Responsibility” is intentional. My hope is that this wording keeps our focus on the perspective of the learner (the teacher) throughout the coaching process. When coaches keep the teachers’ perspective firmly in view, it influences the support they provide. It influences how they provide that support. It influences how they position themselves and the teachers with whom they are working. This positioning impacts teachers’ feelings of agency and efficacy, both of which are important to their own and their students’ learning.
 
I believe (and my experience and research verify) that teachers want to be responsible for their own learning, and they want to be responsible for their teaching and their students’ learning. They want to take an agentive role, making decisions guided by their professional knowledge and their knowledge of their students. While it is true that the responsibilities teachers shoulder can be overwhelming at times, it is often the responsibilities for which they feel no agency that overwhelm them (testing practices, paperwork, extra duties, etc.).
 
When teachers have agency (power and choice) over pedagogy, they have more energy and grit for this important work. Cogitating over how to best support learning – using all they know about content, pedagogy, and their students – is demanding but empowering. It is life-giving work.  Increasing teachers’ responsibility, while positioning them as their own agents for change, acknowledges teachers’ professional status.
 
Coaches who work intentionally to position teachers as agentive will be more successful in their work.  When coaches purposefully increase teachers’ pedagogical decision-making by using coaching moves that shift responsibility to teachers, they are empowering teachers, rather than hanging onto a position of power for themselves. Choosing coaching moves that acknowledge and extend teachers’ capacity means constantly adjusting our approach as teachers’ needs change.  For example, effective coaches won’t make recommendations when they aren’t needed. They may, instead, ask questions that prompt teachers to use their pedagogical knowledge and their knowledge of their students to problem-solve or extend instruction.  They may simply offer affirmation when teachers need someone to bounce ideas off of.  I hope that changing one word (from release to increase) creates a focus that keeps coaches’ minds attuned to teachers’ need for increased agency.

* Pearson, P. D., & Gallagher, M. C. (1983). The instruction of reading comprehension. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8(3), 317-344.

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I’m so excited that my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner will be released this month! You can pre-order it now and it will show up on your doorstep as soon as it’s printed! Use the code: for free shipping. I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!

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This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
How to effectively coach new initiatives:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-step-coaching-model-instructional-innovation
 
 
This podcast about addressing the underlying causes of teacher burnout:
 
https://www.ascd.org/podcasts/chase-mielke-on-addressing-the-underlying-causes-of-teacher-burnout
 
 
Quotes about the value of discussion:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/discussion-quote-collection/
 
 
Coaching for student agency:
 
https://barkleypd.com/blog/coaching-teachers-for-increased-student-agency/
 
 
Books that foster resilience:
 
https://padlet.com/LiteracyDocent/rjkn4spgysey
 
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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