Mentoring and Coaching as CPD
*UPDATE* CUREE's coaching and mentoring development activities can be delivered remotely to individuals and groups via phone or video-conferencing - or a combination of both.
Over many years CUREE has reviewed and analysed the evidence of what works in professional development for teachers. The conclusions that stands out are that a) professional development is much more likely to be successful when it involves collaboration between staff and b) that mentoring and coaching done well is one of the most effective methods.
The evidence shows that when teachers (and/or leaders) worked together on a sustained basis (over at least one term but more usually two or three terms), this collaborative and sustained CPD was linked to positive effects on:
- students' learning, motivation and outcomes
- teachers' commitment, beliefs, attitudes, self-esteem and confidence in making a difference to their students' learning
- teachers' repertoires of strategies and their ability to match their teaching approaches to students' different needs
- teachers' attitudes to their students, the curriculum and to learning, and
- teachers' commitment to CPD
- leaders ability to stay focussed on the strategic issues, reflect on practice and support each other
Coaching for School Improvement
Coaching can be used for personal development but it's much more common now to see it as a key component of a school improvement strategy,. That's what the more effective schools in our Gaining and Sustaining Momentum study did. We also see more and more local school improvement initiatives (for instance in Ipswich and in Blackpool Opportunity Areas) making coaching - and/or mentoring - a central pillar in their offer. It also fits well into (or can be a substitute for) leadership programmes which a growing number of leaders find too time consuming. We can offer both individual coaching or group coaching (via dyads or Action Learning Sets)
- Individual coaching can be fitted into a busy schedule. We offer any combination of face-to-face, by phone and via video-conferencing (e.g. Skype). This is the most personalised approach but is obviously more costly per person than
- group coaching can work well providing the members of the group have a reasonable level of trust of each other. An Action Learning Set is a particular form of joint problem solving via coaching which works very well but requires some logistical management
Getting Started
Time is precious and money is scarce. So we created the Effective Mentoring and Coaching (EMAC) Packs to help you make the most efficient use of both. Scores of schools have used the packs to start, revitalise or sustain an effect coaching culture. Many have found that the best way to get going is with a launch workshop run a CPD or twilight slot. Check out the options here
- Find out more about the EMAC Packs here
- Have a look at our Mentoring and Coaching Development programme
- Have a look at our Leading Learning CPD programme
- Have a look at our Train the Trainer programme
What factors in CPD are linked to positive benefits?
CPD that was linked to these positive benefits usually involved:
- peer support (in pairs or small groups) to encourage, extend and structure professional learning, dialogue and experimentation - in combination with
- specialist support, including modelling, workshops, observation, feedback, coaching, introducing a menu of research-based strategies for enhancing learning
- planned meetings for structured discussion -including exploring evidence from the teachers’ classrooms about their experiments with new approaches and of their beliefs about teaching, the subjects being explored and their learners
- processes for sustaining the CPD over time to enable teachers to embed the practices in their own classroom settings - including informal day-to-day discussions and observations between teachers, and using work they would have to do anyway (such as lesson planning and designing schemes of work or curriculum development) in workshops
- recognition and analysis of teachers' individual starting points and building on what they know and can do already
- developing teachers' ownership of their learning, by offering them scope to identify or refine their own learning focus (within a menu set by the programme or the school/college), and to take on a degree of leadership in their CPD, and
- a focus on pupil learning and student outcomes, often explicitly as a way to analyse starting points, structure development discussions and evaluate progress, both formatively and summatively.
The central role of peer support and specialist support was explored further in the creation of the National Framework for mentoring and coaching. A document regularly referred to across the system and underpinning the approaches of many professional development programmes, the Framework offers us a distillation of the principles, concepts and skills of coaching and mentoring.
To help schools/colleges to benefit from the evidence base in practical and engaging ways whilst developing their own approach to mentoring and coaching, CUREE produced a suite of materials that can be used as part of development programmes within individual schools, colleges or clusters called Effective Mentoring and Coaching. Consisting of six different packs which cover the areas of Specialist coaching, Co-coaching, Mentoring and Whole school development, the packs support CPD leaders to run development for mentors, coaches and professional learners and build on the evidence about what has a positive impact for students.
We have also brought together a range of resources relating to mentoring and coaching to help you understand the evidence underpinning these developments.
Click here to look at our articles on Mentoring and Coaching
To discuss mentoring and coaching further, please contact: bart.crisp@curee.co.uk