4.5b | Capacity Building

As a professional learning facilitator, the coach is expected to build the capacity of educators, leaders and instructional teams to put the ISTE Standards into practice by facilitating active learning and providing meaningful feedback.

Capacity Building for educators, leaders and instructional teams

I conducted an in-depth study on the topic of coaching on the DEL Program. I did a study on coaching effectiveness and  found that having a process to monitor progress and providing feedback is absolutely critical in the coaching process. Honest feedback should be given in a timely manner with the purpose of encouraging growth and improvement.

Learning how to communicate well is also an important skill especially when it comes to giving feedback during coaching. In my post titled “The Language of Coaching“, I recommended that coaches build in a segment for feedback to proactively seek feedback from the coachee. I also compiled a list of sentence stems that will be useful for coaches during coaching sessions.

Good feedback cannot happen without first learning how to listen well. In my post on “The Art of Listening“, I presented different barriers to effective listening so that coaches can become more aware when listening and can become more intentional in lowering those barriers to improve listening. Active listening is absolutely essential in coaching and in leadership. Active listening not only  helps coaches to understand their learning partner’s needs better but also enables them to provide more meaningful feedback.

I also wrote a post on “The Power of Effective Feedback” where I presented 4 levels that coaches can focus their feedback on, from the task level to the process, task-regulation, and self level. Coaches should also learn to master the timing of feedback. At times, there is merit in delaying feedback but other times, immediate feedback can have an impact on the effectiveness of the feedback. Coaches should also distinguish between feedback and advice. Without first giving descriptive feedback and launching straight into advice-giving mode, a coach may come across as being overbearing or annoying. A better approach would be to first ensure that they have permission to provide feedback, comprehended, and accepted the feedback before moving on to giving advice.

As I was working on this series of posts on coaching and feedback, I reflected upon how much this corresponds to the ISTE Educator standard 2 on Leader where educators are encouraged to seek out opportunities for leadership to support student empowerment and success and to improve teaching and learning. I realized just how important coaching is as a leadership skill. Good coaching not only has the ability to inspire educators but to also empower the educator to improve their teaching practices which in turn improves student learning.

 

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