subject: Coaching And Education: Questioning How We Teach [print this page] Coaching And Education: Questioning How We Teach
When was the last time somebody questioned your teaching?
Did that question result in a quick tinge of evaluation-day butterflies? A slight defensive cringe? A thought like "Do not question me! I know my class room and my kids more than anyone!"
3 years ago, my principal asked me to video tape myself teaching. And then I was questioned. "Why did you begin talking before the [kids|children] finished their anticipatory set?" he asked. "Why are the desks arranged that way? Why did you stop to talk to that kid? Why, why, why?
"Ummm..." I stammered, "Ahhh..." The rapid-fire questions unnerved me. I started questioning my teaching. Why did I lean over to talk to one child but squat down to talk to another? Therefore I did what any normal person crazy enough to work with teens for a living would do. I dug in my heels.
"I was talking at the start of the anticipatory set because I knew there were words that the children wouldn't understand. I have got the desks organized in that way as that way everyone could see everybody else, and everybody can see me. I stopped to talk to that child, since he basically never does what is asked the first time."
I just barely missed including in a triumphant "so there!"
My principal leaned back and grinned. "You see," he said, "most of the people I have do this same excersize have a reason for doing what they do. It's simply drawing that reason to awareness. Sometimes we go on auto-pilot and don't consider why we are doing what we're doing."
Training in education (aside from graduate courses online) is the process of bringing that subconscious knowledge to the surface, to put it to use. If teachers have a well thought-out reason behind doing what they do - from selecting the words with which they begin their class to selecting how to display their programs, instruction improves. When instruction improves, students get smarter. And while a professional educational trainer possesses a tool set of working with teachers, the most significant tool of all - questioning - is easily accessible to anybody willing to try it.
Consider your first class yesterday.
How did you begin it? What were the very first words out of your mouth? "Sit down?" "Good morning?" "Thank you for being here?"
What was the very first activity you used in your lesson?
What was the greatest part of your lesson?
The weakest?
Why?
Did I make you think? And I wasn't even in your class. Imagine the kind of questions I can ask if I could notice one of your lessons, then have an in-depth conversation about it. Or if I could focus my observations on a specific topic that would most benefit you.
In the interest of developing instruction at my present school, we have selected to apply an expert coaching program. Each K-12 teacher is paired with a colleague. The pair then visit each other's classrooms, notice one another's teaching and discuss about the findings. The only rules - ask questions, don't give advice and keep your belief out of it. Now in our third year of building the program, I have seen firsthand what sincere, non-judgmental questioning can do for instruction. Our teachers have modified all from their anticipatory sets to communication with parents. The training work has been associated with book studies on formative evaluation, technology, and literacy. Our teachers are recording their progress on their evaluation rubrics and discussing their improved skills in professional development workshops.
That thought you had at the start of this article - it's correct. As the classroom teacher, you really do know your kids the best. And given time to process, you will come to design the greatest strategies for teaching your students. Questioning enables the teacher to come to their own findings and then apply those findings with purpose.
How different would my experience with my principal have been had he used mandates? "Your desks have to be facing forward therefore students could see the board. You have to allow students time to finish the anticipatory set before starting classes." He would have missed the solid instructional purposes I had for doing what I did. I never might have been provided the chance to think on my own subconscious guidelines. And had I followed his advice, the kids would have been cheated of good instruction.
What would you choose to improve if you had a colleague that worked with you over the course of a whole year to make you think? How much better could you become?
When was the last time you were lucky enough to have somebody question your teaching?
