Coaching In Education: Improving Instruction Through Questioning

When was the last time someone questioned your teaching?

Did that question cause a fast tinge of evaluation-day butterflies?  A slight protective cringe?  A thought along the lines of “Do not question me!  I know my classroom and my kids more than anyone!”
Three years ago, my principal asked me to video tape myself teaching.  And then I was questioned.  ”Why did you start talking before the children done their anticipatory set?” he asked.   “Why are the desks organized that way?  Why did you stop to talk to that child?  Why, why, why?

“Ummm…” I stammered, “Ahhh…”   The rapid-fire questions unnerved me. I began questioning my teaching.  Why did I lean over to talk to one child but squat down to talk to another? Did you notice that? Therefore I did what any person crazy enough to work with teenagers 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 students wouldn’t understand.  I have got the desks arranged in a circle because that way everybody can see everyone else, and everyone can see me. I stopped to talk to that child, as he pretty much never does what’s asked the first time.”
I just barely missed adding 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 is just drawing that reason to awareness.  Often we go on auto-pilot and do not think about why we are doing what we’re doing.”

Coaching in education aside from graduate courses online is the process of getting 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 start their class to choosing how to present their curriculum, instruction improves.  When instruction gets better, students get smarter.  And while a specialist educational coach offers a tool set of working with teachers, the most significant tool of all – questioning – is easily accessible to anyone willing to try it.

Think of 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 employed in your lesson? What was the best part of your lesson?  The poorest?

Why?

Did I make you think?  And I was not even in your classroom.  Imagine the type of questions I can ask if I could observe one of your lessons, then have an in-depth conversation about it.  Or if I could concentrate my findings on a specific topic that would most benefit you.
In the interest of developing instruction at my present school, we have selected to apply a expert coaching program.  Each K-12 teacher is paired with a colleague.  The pair then visit each other’s class rooms, observe one another’s teaching and discuss about the observations.  The only guidelines – ask questions, do not give suggestions and keep your belief out of it.  Now in our 3rd year of developing the program, I have seen firsthand what sincere, non-judgmental questioning can do for training.  Our teachers have modified all from their anticipatory sets to communication with parents.  The coaching work has been associated with book studies on formative assessment, technology, and literacy.  Our teachers are documenting their development on their evaluation rubrics and sharing their improved skills in professional development training courses.

That thought you had at the beginning of this article – it’s true.  As the classroom teacher, you really do know your kids the best.  And given time to process, you’ll come to design the greatest techniques for teaching your students.  Questioning allows the teacher to come to their own findings and then apply those conclusions 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 can see the board.  You have to enable students time to finish the anticipatory set before beginning classes.”  He would have skipped 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 suggestions, the children would have been cheated of good training.
What would you choose to improve if you had a coworker who worked with you over the course of a whole year to make you think?  How much better could you become?
When was the very last time you were lucky enough to have someone question your teaching?