Coaching in Teacher Classroom Observation:
The
real role of a teacher supervisor
Last October (2012) at CCCN (San Pedro’s location),
Julie Harris –OUP Academic Consultant Coordinator for Central America- gave our
teacher supervisors a training session on mentoring and coaching teachers.
Harris’s idea behind her workshop was to have them reflect on the way they go
about their “teacher observation” sessions and to have them realize what kind
of role they were actually having when working with brand new instructors.
Although I am not a teacher supervisor (but a curricular
developer), the issue of teacher supervision has always called my attention for
various reasons. 1. Why
are we teachers observed? Traditionally,
supervisors periodically visit their supervisees to evaluate their teaching
class performance, but this role has usually been counterproductive emotionally
speaking. On the one hand, novice teachers are scared, confused, and
intimidated by a teacher supervisor. On the other hand, the role of the
supervisor is rather prescriptive and critical of what a teacher is or is not
doing in class. From a professional development point of view, and due to
difference in teaching beliefs between the teacher and the supervisor, not much
is bound to happen: no professional development and lots of doubts for the
novice or veteran teacher.
2. What’s the role of the
supervisor? Unfortunately, teacher supervisors have
become a “critic” rather than a “coach.” At CCCN we call supervisors mentor
teachers, and I still believe that, when I was a regular teacher and was
supervised by Ms. Pavanno[1],
no professional development was successfully triggered. As Harris pointed out
in her presentation, both my mentor teacher and I had different teaching
beliefs. She used to question my way of doing things in class because she was
framed in TBI, our now abandoned methodology. Ms. Pavanno did not see beyond
TBI although my students were learning. My usual question was, “what’s wrong if
learning is taking place?” “You’re not following the method,” said she.
3. What’s the role of a
mentor teacher? A
partner of ours at CCCN also participating in Ms. Harris’s training session,
Carlos Vargas, pointed out what a mentor is; then I realized that my supervisor
was not that person that Vargas described so accurately. “A mentor is someone I
want to be like; someone I feel is up there … and that I want to replicate
his/her way of doing things,” stated Vargas. I am afraid Ms. Pavanno was never
the person Vargas characterized and became an intruder in my class, who came to
criticize my lack of commitment towards TBLT. To sum up, a mentor teacher
should be a guide that could help you spot what seems to be wrong in one’s
teaching to correct and polish it, not a critic who is not realizing that a
given methodology is not always suitable for everything that needs to be done
and covered in class.
4. “Are your supervisors
mentors or coaches?, asked Harris. Based
on what was stated above, CCCN’s labeling of “mentor teachers” is not accurate,
and that is because our experiential learning philosophy is seeking for coaches
rather than mentors. A teacher coach can help regular instructors to really
work on their teacher/professional development. Since a coach is not coming to
your class to criticize why you do things in a given way, s/he is a collector
of information to help them reflect on what is happening in class. The coach is
not a prescriptive observer who has the panacea for all teaching ailments in
class. The coach become the “ears” and “eyes” in class to help us teachers
become better at we do and to try new things to solve “problems” we have.
5. What’s a
teaching coach? Harris,
as part of her presentation, confronted us with Dr. Jack C. Richards’ insight
on coaching. As part of our realization of how important is a coach for
teachers, we watched the following video and answered the reflective questions
provided below by Harris.
A
|
What is J. Richards’ view of “teacher development?”
Prescriptive? Reflective? Collaborative? Other?
|
B
|
What specific “actions” from the observee reflect this
perspective?
|
B
|
How does J. Richards’ perspective on observation
differ from your own observation practices? How is it the same?
|
D
|
What might an observer with J. Richards’ perspective
expect from an observee’s classroom teaching practices? Describe the observee’s
approach to teaching.
|
E
|
What roles do observer and observee play in this
context?
|
F
|
What aspects might you include in classroom
observation format (form) in this approach? Design it.
|
Julie Harris, OUP Academic Consultant Coordinator
Harris’s Final Reflection: What changes would you need to make in your current observation practices to promote autonomous teacher development? How can coaching strategies help you in the process? What are some learning tasks/strategies that you would need to set for yourself?
My personal conclusion: Teacher development is a need in
education. Finding the right symbiotic way to have teachers and supervisors
(coaches) work smoothly and successfully is a requirement to achieve this
long-awaited mature goal: true professional development. Redefining what is being
done is a need to accomplish a more mature stage in supervision where the
supervisor is not an intruder and critic of what is being done, but a coach who
can help teachers develop their potential to benefit students and attain a
well-balanced teacher development.
ETo
fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and
expand these areas:
1
|
Principles in teacher supervision
|
2
|
What teacher mentoring is and is not
|
3
|
Teacher coaching
|
4
|
Teacher observation tasks
|
5
|
Teacher development using observations
|
Jonathan Acuña
ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica
For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:
@jonacuso – Twitter
Other blogs I often write for my
students at the university are:
-
Harris, Julie (2012)
“Reflections on Classroom Observation for Teacher Development”
Sunday, November 04, 2012
This was great, but by pointing and dragging, students will eventually get bored and this is more of a way to introduce the rules but not to practice them.
classroom observation