Principles for implementing peer coaching

So far, the literature review has discussed a number of key aspects of peer coaching such as the concept, process, and effects associated with peer coaching. This section reviews the principles for implementing peer coaching. It discusses the coaching principles viewed from a teaching perspective and from a leadership perspective.

2.5.1 Coaching principles viewed from a teaching perspective

Coaching appears to be a strengths-focused approach to facilitating the learning of others (Showers & Joyce, 1996). Three key principles of coaching, viewed from a teaching perspective, are argued by Showers and Joyce, and may foster this learning.

They are:

1. When teachers work with entire faculties, they all must agree to be members of peer coaching study teams. The teams must collectively agree to:

(a) practise or use whatever change that the faculty has decided to implement;

(b) support one another in the change process, such as sharing planning of instructional objectives and developing materials and lessons;

(c) collect data about the implementation process and the effects on students relative to the school’s goals” (Showers & Joyce, 1996, pp. 14-15).

2. Teachers should skip the stage of providing feedback for one another during the coaching process of planning and developing curriculum and instruction because any forms of feedback in the minds of the teachers tend to be more evaluation-oriented than critique-oriented. The study by Joyce and Showers

(1995, cited in Showers & Joyce, 1996) revealed that when teachers try to give each other feedback, collaborative activity tends to disintegrate. Showers and Joyce discovered the teachers slipped into “supervisory and evaluative comments” (p. 15) although they intend to avoid doing that. Therefore, omitting the feedback in the coaching process may not depress implementation or student growth.

In response to this second principle of the feedback-skipping strategy, Thomas and Smith (2009) developed four skills that can be used in a coaching practice (pp. 47-57). They are, namely, listening (i.e., reflexive listening and holding silence), reflecting, clarifying, and questioning. These four major skills may be useful in helping teachers follow the shared goal and learning teaching strategies that are designed for higher-achievement outcomes by thinking through the overarching and specific objectives leading to them.

3. The collaborative work of peer coaching teams has to be much broader than observations and conferences. Showers and Joyce (1996) claim that the essence of teacher learning to improve practice is not relative to the advice the teacher receives from observations but to learning from each other while planning instruction, developing support materials, watching one another work with students, and thinking collectively about the impact of their behaviour on their students’ learning.

These three key principles presented by Showers and Joyce (1996) would be central to effective collaboration and team empowerment as the nature of collaborative work among the peer coaching study teams lie on the reciprocal trust, teaching and learning by co-creating strategies and actions together.

2.5.2 Coaching principles viewed from a leadership perspective

In addition to coaching viewed from a teaching perspective, coaching viewed from a leadership perspective may also be relevant to the implementation of peer coaching between teachers. For example, Garmston (1987) suggests training in coaching is essential and is a critical way for how administrators can support peer coaching.

Garmston argues that a little training is not enough, and that “good training uses the best available information about adult learning; provides teachers with theory, information, and demonstrations; addresses teachers’ concerns about giving and receiving feedback; and helps teachers develop and refine specific coaching skills”

(p. 26). Her argument seems to back up the earlier discussion of the follow-up process in peer coaching. Follow-up workshops might help teachers refine and monitor coaching practices and solve problems that tend to arise. Collaborative coaching between teachers may be helpful for improving practice if coaching frequency reaches from 10 to 15 coaching practice sessions (Garmston, 1987).

Garmston and Robertson (2008) both stress that the key to teacher satisfaction and learning and to programme success is that teachers take ownership of the process.

Nine principles for effective coaching, viewed and developed from the perspective of leadership by Thomas and Smith (2009), may enable teachers to cooperate and to monitor and modify their teaching practice accordingly. These nine fundamental principles of coaching do not serve to change the ways teachers think, but they attempt to invite the teachers to explore and choose alternative strategies. Thomas and Smith warn that coaching is not about correcting unproductive thought patterns;

rather it is about enabling others to see choices that are available to them.

Above all, for peer coaching viewed from the perspective of leadership and that of teaching to be successful, Swafford (1998) concludes that an atmosphere of trust, respect, collegiality and confidentiality must be fostered in order to provide a safe environment where teachers are willing to take risks as they learn new ways of teaching. Teacher confidence and sense of professionalism may increase if the use of a peer coaching model taps the teachers’ existing observational and problem-solving skills (Donegan et al., 2000). Dialogue may be an effective process that helps teachers or practitioners to collaborate and share their experiences and perspectives about professional learning and change across the workplace (Bell, 2004; Burley &

Pomphrey, 2011; Robbins, 1991; Robertson, 2008).