I had the insight of my students calling my college teachers Coaches instead of a teacher, master, mister, mistress or ‘uncle or aunty ‘.
We were using Master before but we have adopted’ Coach’.
Yes! ‘Coach’. You can call your teachers ‘ uncle’ right? Lol.
You see, I put up the question today, ‘if calling your secondary school teacher a Coach, will make a difference?
Emphatically yes! it will make a difference if the teacher truly plays the role of a Coach.
What is the difference between a Coach and a teacher?
You will not hear it from me!
I went online to Google some stuffs and this article poured down my thoughts.
If you are a lazy reader who loves skimming and skipping while reading, you won’t gain anything from it.
But put on your thinking cap, while you read, and you will understand better while your teachers should become coaches instead of just teacher in this 21st century.
It’s a 7 minutes read. Enjoy!
By Dr. Lisa
‘About a year ago or so, I read an article by Andrew Wicklander (2010) titled “The Differences Between Teaching and Coaching.”
In his article, Wicklander discusses the idea that a teacher primarily promotes his area of expertise or knowledge base by instructing others.
Once the instruction, or teaching, is completed, the teacher has done his or her job, regardless of whether masterful learning has taken place or not.
On the other hand, a coach demonstrates or models a specific skill or technique to others, then observes the student practice the still.
Then, most importantly, the coach follows-up by providing immediate and specific feedback to help the student improve his practice and eventual mastery of the skill.
Obviously, teaching is a much more efficient practice, as it can more easily be achieved even with 1000 students in the room or in an online classroom.
However, coaching is the preferred choice, as it prioritizes improvement and learning.
Wicklander’s purpose in writing the article was not to say that teachers should be doing more, but rather to point out the main differences between teaching and coaching and to encourage each of us to invest in coaching someone else when an opportunity presents itself.
When I first read this article, it resonated with me. During my 20 years as a public school educator and college professor in Texas, I have observed much more teaching than coaching taking place in the classroom.
I routinely see teachers teaching great lessons that are standards-based and part of the written curriculum.
In fact, I have observed teachers, both veteran and first-year, teaching their hearts out.
The problem is that the majority of students are not actually learning or progressing.
The majority of students are simply enduring the teachers while they teach their lessons.
This one-sided practice is centered around the teacher and not the students.
Like adults, students want to do well, but they need to someone to let them know how they are performing and what they can do to improve.
They want and need someone to invest in them and take the time.
Unfortunately, most of the lessons do not incorporate opportunities for students to practice, receive immediate and specific feedback, and to continue practicing until they master the skill or make sense of their new knowledge.
Too many teachers’ lesson plans appear to be driven by time constraints and compliance with grading policies.
I have observed few lessons that are designed with genuine student learning in mind.
Instead, it seems as though many teachers are just going through the motions.
Somehow, I believe some teachers, not to mention school and district leaders, have lost sight of the fact that there are smaller humans sitting in front of them, depending on and trusting their teachers to show up every day and actually do the right work.
Trust me, I know I sound cynical, but that’s what my experience has shown me.
It disappoints me, even angers me at times, as I have kids of my own in the school system and I know they’re being short-changed.
We are now educating students in a system of perpetual mediocrity, at best. Honestly, though, I do not understand how this can be the case.
Today more than ever, teachers have access to the best resources that can aid them in carrying out their often overwhelming mission of ensuring that each student is progressing and learning.
Real-time data that details how individual students are progressing is readily available.
There are a multitude of resources that can assist teachers with differentiating their lessons, activities, and assessments to better meet the needs of their students.
Teachers have more access to a wide-variety of professional development opportunities that can help them continue to build their knowledge, keep up with the latest research on teaching and learning, and train them on how to incorporate the most effective instructional strategies.
With teachers having more access today than ever before to resources that could help them accommodate for the different learning styles and needs of their students and offer their students with the specific and prompt feedback needed for continual improvement, why aren’t teachers working smarter and, in my opinion, more ethically, by doing less teaching and more coaching?
I would argue that this change will not occur until mindsets and expectations change.
There is a unique mindset that is often associated with being a teacher. I think we have made the shift to holding our students to a higher standard than we hold our teachers.
As long as teachers try their best and go about their jobs with the best of intentions, they are allowed to continue in their positions even if their students are not learning.
We have allowed excuses from the adults about why the students are not learning.
Although I am well aware that unfunded state and federal mandates and required assessments present great challenges, I refuse to accept them as excuses as to why we educators are not able to do the right work.
Terminating teachers, even reassigning them, is not popular and thus, not done often, or at least not as often as I believe it should be.
When an individual makes the choice to become a coach, particularly of a sport or a specific talent, he understands the expectations that come with the position.
The coach understands that he was hired to win and perform successfully.
Additionally, a coach understands that if there aren’t enough wins, he will no longer remain in that position.
Because of this level of accountability, a coach goes about his job with a sense of urgency every day.
He uses all the resources he has at his disposal to be able to quickly and effectively identify strengths and weaknesses in each player and partners with the players to design plans for improvement.
The coach constantly uses data to track progress toward goals and he never lets too much time go by before checking in with his players and providing them with the constant feedback they need to continuously improve.
A successful coach never says “I told them what to do so it’s their fault if they don’t perform.”
An effective coach invests in relationships that involve a cyclical process of honest communication and feedback.
By doing this, the players themselves start to take ownership of their progress, evaluate their own performance, and hold themselves and their teammates accountable for continual improvement.
Maybe the solution doesn’t have to be a massive overhaul of the educational system.
Maybe we can begin changing mindsets and expectations with a simple name change so that everyone has the same understanding. So my question is, how would education change if we changed the title from teacher to academic coach?
If schools only hired academic coaches and communicated the expectation that every student make forward progress each year, would these academic coaches go about their jobs with a greater sense of urgency?
Would they begin to utilize more of the available resources to help them identify the individual strengths and weaknesses of their students so they could provide them with more frequent and targeted feedback on their learning? I believe the answer to these questions is the affirmative.
There are certain characteristics that others associate with coaches. Coaches are results-driven and effective communicators.
They are good motivators and action-oriented. Coaches are high energy, forward thinking, and goal-focused.
They are adept (because their jobs depend on it) at sizing people up, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and building teams that work well together.
Coaches understand that they have to build successful relationships with each of their players, as they are the backbone of the team and the people that will actually get the job done…or not.
Only by developing relationships with players that are built on genuine and mutual understanding, trust, and respect, can coaches provide the specific honest feedback that is necessary for improvement.
Only by truly knowing the individual players and what makes them tick can coaches incorporate the right type of motivation that will keep the players giving their best effort at all times.
Aren’t these the very same qualities we would love for every teacher to possess?I am not saying teachers do not work hard. They do.
I believe they have adapted well to the system that we have created. However, to achieve different results when it comes to student learning, I believe we need to rethink the system.
I believe we need to raise our expectations of the adults and start requiring more “wins” from the educators.
This involves all the educators….the academic coaches and the school and district leaders who recruit and retain the academic coaches.
A clearly communicated system of shared accountability would serve our students better.
Everyone understands the accountability and responsibility that comes with being a coach.
Let’s have the courage to do something different and let’s begin with one small change.
If we believe that the qualities and practices of our most successful coaches produce the beneficial relationships that incorporate the specific and timely feedback necessary for continuous improvement, let’s do away with the title of teacher and let’s start supporting and holding our academic coaches accountable for consistent improve in our students and more wins. What have we got to lose…besides everything?
Copied
- 03 Aug
- 2022
