Whole Staff Coaching

Toll, C. A. (2023). Empowering change through whole-staff coaching. Educational Leadership, 80(6), 45–50. https://discovery.ebsco.com/c/4ax45t/viewer/pdf/4dr2l4vqkn

The article by Toll (2023) discusses the concept of empowering change through whole-staff coaching in educational settings. Here's a summary of the key points and steps outlined in the article:

1. Challenges in School Changes:

   • School changes can be challenging due to the complexity of schools as adaptive systems.

   • Veteran staff members may be skeptical of change due to past failures, while new teachers may struggle to engage as they focus on their classrooms.

2. Whole-Staff Coaching Approach:

   • Whole-staff coaching involves putting teachers in charge of planning, implementing, and evaluating change initiatives, while leaders facilitate the process to ensure alignment with the school's mission and priorities.

   • The process occurs over several sessions, where school staff identify obstacles to school effectiveness, choose plans to address these obstacles, evaluate their efforts, and repeat the cycle.

3. Vision for Staff Coaching:

   • Coaching is built on a framework that emphasizes factors leading to greater teacher success, including attention to the school's mission and goals, strength and trust, focus on instruction, and peer interaction.

4. Key Steps in Whole-Staff Coaching:

   • Nine key steps are outlined, including identifying the school's purpose and strengths, identifying obstacles to success, selecting one obstacle to focus on, describing the obstacle in depth, planning and evaluating shifts, implementing shifts, and discussing results.

5. Facilitation and Professional Development:

   • Teachers do not need specific training for the coaching process but require skilled facilitation by the principal.

   • Principals should engage in their own professional development to effectively facilitate the coaching process using questioning, paraphrasing, and decision-making protocols.

6. Results and Impact:

   • Whole-staff coaching can lead to significant shifts in school culture and practices, such as breaking down silos between grade levels and promoting collaboration among educators.

   • Evaluation of shifts is essential, using methods such as team meeting minutes and pre-post surveys to assess changes in teacher understanding of student learning.

7. Leadership Role:

   • School leaders play a crucial role as facilitators in whole-staff coaching, listening skillfully, communicating clearly, providing insight, and identifying patterns and shifts together with teachers.

8. Normalization of Change:

   • School leaders should normalize constant change and continually interact with staff around priorities and obstacles, fostering a culture of adaptability and collaboration.

In summary, whole-staff coaching offers a collaborative approach to addressing challenges and driving change in educational settings, with school leaders serving as facilitators to empower teachers and promote collective success.