While many educators around the world have embraced the need for developing teachers to achieve the required progress in societies, only narrow progress has been made on that level. One promising approach that tries to take part in solving this dilemma is Instructional Coaching (Heston, 2012:1). Since universities are not providing teachers with all the sufficient support that qualifies them to perform well in their profession, Knight has denoted instructional coaching as an efficient tool to improving instruction through rigorous and continuous support for teachers to empower them with best-verified practices and strategies (2007). According to Graça and Passos, no structural efforts exist by chance (2014). Therefore, this manuscript will investigate Instructional Coaching and explore its confines in order to get the ultimate benefits of its literature. Delving into the literature review of instructional coaching this project addresses the following three topics: 1- Critical Literature Review of Instructional Coaching 2- Personal Leadership Assessment 3- Action Plan
1- Critical Literature Review of Instructional Coaching The coach is a full time qualified expert who assists teachers to apply the best-proven methods and theories through practical ways (knight, 2014). Similar to life- coaches, instructional coaches should start their journey with building mutual rapport with teachers and the school community to avoid staff resistance and efforts deterioration (Devine, Houssemand and Meyers, 2013). Instructional Coaches need to build compassionate and confident relationships with teachers in order to create their momentums and maximize their potentials to do well inside their classrooms. Moreover, Rivera, Burley, and Sass, have denoted that coaching activities also include classroom visits, model lessons, meetings, conducting assessment and evaluation, and training programs (2004). Yet, Knight has stated seven mechanisms for instructional coaching. First, the coach enrolls teachers to create rapport and categorize teachers upon their experiences. Second, a collaborative planning is conducted by the coach and teachers to present the new instructional practices that will be implemented in the coaching cycle. Third, model lessons are to be presented by the coach to be as an example lessons for teachers. Fourth, the coach meets the teacher to discuss what has been presented by the coach during the model lesson. Fifth, the coach observes the teacher while applying the new practices in his or her classes. Sixth, the coach and the teacher explore the gathered data collected from the two mutual taught lessons to analyze and reflect on the teacher’s performance compared to the coach’s performance. Finally, the coach commits him or herself to continuous support to the teacher until he or she becomes skillful at implementing the new instructional practices (2007). This collaborative work between the coaches and their teachers requires high capacity of team leadership. As denoted by Stagl, Salas, & Burke, “achieving both affective and behaviorally team based results is conditional to the team leadership” (2007). In order to master Knight’ mechanisms, a coach should determine the suitable interventions, whether internally or externally. He/she should decide if the required improvements would address the skills of the teacher or the surrounding environment and conditions. Instructional coach works with teachers individually and in teams. Accordingly, he or she should take whatever required actions to
guarantee the team efficacy (Northouse, 2012:298) in the coaching cycle. In addition, the coach works with diversity of teachers, so he or she should possess a variety of skills to meet these differences effectively (Barge, 1996). Knight also has highlighted the important organizer of his coaching theory, which consists of the Big Four processes that teachers must be skillful at to guarantee their success in their professional careers. These Big Four comprise of 1) Knowledge or content area where teachers should be resourceful and skillful at their subject areas. 2) Assessment, as teachers need to use various types of assessments to validate and check the achievement of instructional goals. 3) Behavior or classroom management as an intrinsic tool for fostering positive behavior towards instruction amongst the student through verified technique called CHAMPs. 4) Instruction or teaching styles and methods through which teachers can use verified teaching techniques to improve their instructional practices. This systematic change must be led by transformational leaders, as they practice a fundamental role in advancing the change cycle (Northouse, 2012: 186). Instructional coaches are not transactional leaders. They push the change cycle in order to developing their teachers’ competencies and skills. According to Avolio, the main interest of transformational leader is to improve his followers and raise their potentials to the highest degree (1999). Besides, Knight and his colleagues have adopted seven principles that instructional coaching relies on. These principles are: a) Equality: coaches all the time stress the importance of building reciprocal relationship with teachers as professional associates. b) Choice: where content areas and instructional practices are to be identified by the teacher with assistance of the coach. c) Voice: according the mutual rapport, teachers are always commended to express their ideas, point of views and experiences related to the teaching strategies and content areas. d) Dialogue: depending on the partnership theory, there is no one correct idea. Both coaches and teachers are immersed in thorough and robust conversations in order to improve the coaching practices. e) Reflection: teachers are encouraged to reflect and think thoroughly about concepts before applying them. f) Praxis: to reach excellence, teachers are invited to practice the new ideas in their classrooms. g) Reciprocity: both coaches and teachers should realize that they improve their skills while elaborating on the targeted objectives together. Here comes the role of servant leadership as an intrinsic approach that should be grasped by instructional coaches. Coaches, as stated above, should do the job first so that teachers will emulate them. Coaches should have variety of exceptional communication skills and show ability to empathize, listen, build and foster a sense of trust (knight, 2007). As a whole, coaches foster their teachers’ needs and try to boost their career through mutual camaraderie. Eventually they are developing the community as whole. Despite of this well-structured design suggested by Knight and his colleagues in Kansas University, but it is still in the latitude of the main processes that any educational expert or skillful teacher can apply well inside the classrooms under no assistance from the instructional coach. Surely, they have exerted much effort in suggesting new ways of introducing the Big Four to teachers in order to help them feel comfortable and confident in front of students while teaching, but still these efforts, with respect to them all, do not elevate
this approach to be a new theory or a revolution in the existing educational philosophies. In addition, the passive role of teachers is another challenge that Instructional Coaching approach is fronting after this explanation. In Knight’s approach, coaches start with building the rapport in order to be able to feed teachers with the suitable interventions from the coach’s point of view with no regards to the teacher’s experience, especially the novice ones. It is true that, according to knight’s approach, there is a reflection stage where teachers should stop and reflect on their advancement through the coaching cycle, but that seems to be guided reflection embedded by the coach to direct the teachers to certain practiced interventions . Finally but the most important, although Knight and his colleagues tried to offer a framed work for instructional coaching, we cannot make sure that this is the only certified formula used by the instructional coaches as a whole. Elena Aguilar is one of the most significant instructional coaches who has played a transformational role in her society and then started to release her powerful practices to different parts of the world. She is building her coaching premises on five pillars: conducting a coaching vision, sharing trust, listening well, asking powerful questions, and developing an action plan (Aguilar. 2013). This reflects the individuality that threatens instructional coaching from being conceptualized as one theory or approach. These limitations may motivate researchers and scholars to find answers for the following questions: 1- Is there any correlation between instructional coaching and teachers’ Performance? 2- What is the relationship between instructional coaching and students’ achievement? 3- Is there any important processes in addition to the Big Four that should be mastered by the teachers? 4- Can Instructional coaches reach one framework for all these exerted efforts?
Personal Leadership Assessment Using Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Northouse, 2012:213) has deepen my understanding of the importance of implementing the four I’s in Instructional coaching in order to obtain high level of performance. Teachers need to feel that all these four I’s are represented and practiced effectively by instructional coach because teachers will not encourage their students to achieve highly nor nurture their talents unless they receive the same support from their coaches. Analyzing the scores, I have realized the existence of good indicators regarding the Idealized Influence and Individualized Consideration factors. I do care of my ethical approach while taking any single decision in my professional and personal life. I also strive to provide a supportive atmosphere to every staff member where he or she can express his or her needs and accordingly receive the needed assistance. In addition, I do live with a vision to change the actualities of my society and create the required momentum for this change. Consequently, I will review and renew our school vision statement. This short-term goal will create the sense of belonging to the organization and raise the selfefficiency (Shamir et al., 1993). The team members will feel that they are taking part in deciding the future path of their school and receiving the needed support to pave this path. Thus, they will exert their best to reach it. According to this new vision, we will have common long and short-term objectives to work on together. Regarding Inspirational Motivation and Intellectual Stimulation factors, the scores have shown a good capacity to maximize my staff potentials in order to reach our goals through encouraging them to take the risk and prioritize their tasks according to the strategic objectives of our school. Besides, energizing my staff with the most recent researches and updates is an important key factor that will give them the opportunity to try innovative solutions and creative ideas and hence elevate their self-appreciation. However, setting our performance expectations and defining the tools that help measure our progress and thus celebrate our success are vital elements to support and maintain the team success as well as foster the team spirit. One long-term goal that will precipitate achieving these issues, is building a new balanced scorecard (BSC) for our school that guarantees the effective execution of the school strategic plan. Working on these measures and key performance indicators will act as a benchmark for our performance in order to take the right decisions in the right times. As stated by Zaccaro, Heinen and Shuffler, “It is important to focus on and understand the necessary functions of leadership in teams” (2009). Using Team Excellence and Collaborative Team Leader Questionnaire (Northouse, 2012: 313), a good ability to define clear goals and focus on achieving them was revealed out of the scores. Moreover, I have a good ability to provide a collaborative climate through which every member can share his or her point of views and participate effectively to reach the defined shared goals. These skills have resulted in mutual trust with my team remembers. On the other hand, the scores have revealed the necessity for improving and nurturing standards of excellence so that team members will target the ultimate results (Northouse, 2012: 301). Such standards will help manage the team performance through setting clear goals, defining priorities and providing clear steps and a workflow for every single operation in the team. In addition, I have realized the need for developing a comprehensive monitoring and controlling system that secures
high level of implementation to the policies and procedures of the team. This short-term objective will assist in managing and improving the performance through focusing on the goals and providing prominent and immediate feedback to the team members as well as celebrating and recognizing any contributions done by any team members. It is commendable here to mention that the two above-mentioned goals are confining the consonance of Hill’s model, which depends on integrating monitoring skills with team efficiency (Northouse, 2012:290). Although Greenleaf himself did not embed a comprehensive definition for servant leadership, scholars have noticed that “motivation to serve others” (Russell & Stone, 2002) is the baseline for it. Barge has called for a strong theory construction for the Servant Leadership (2014). Spending a considerable period with Greenleaf, Spears succeeded in defining the ten characteristics of a servant leader (1995). Afterward, Liden, Wayne, et al. have developed the Servant Leadership Questionnaire (2008). Using the SLQ to assess my servant leadership capacity, I have noticed powerful practices in the side of considerations. I pay much attention to my staff’s emotional needs and always have time to help them overcome their personal problems (Northouse, 2012:222). According to Gutierrez, Parsons and Cox, empowerment helps achieve needed social change, personally and politically (1998:1). This is why delegation is one of my important strengths. I frequently give my staff the opportunity to handle some work tasks and take decisions according to a shared understanding of our strategic goals and job conditions. In addition, behaving through ethical frame is a paramount characteristic that confines all my daily work. It is unquestionable that elevating the standards of ethics amid team members is the responsibility of the leadership (Northouse, 2012: 186). This clarifies why so many scholars, after the economic crisis, have called for ethical leaders and managers as the only solution for such problems (Stahl and De Luque, 2014). This applies very strongly in the educational arena. It is our own responsibility, as educators, to cultivate these ethics and values in our teachers and consequently our students. In this way, we are building the whole society. Besides, my scores have shown an ability to clarify the job requirements for my staff in order to help them achieve their tasks effectively. According to Meuser et al., subordinates will fulfil their job requirements, if a servant leader led them effectively (2011). This urged me to settle a shortterm goal for developing a comprehensive job description for all the staff members in my department. It is undisputable that reaching a precise job description for the whole team members is an effective tool that will help them know exactly what they are expected to perform in their organization. On the other hand, I was always convinced that I have to give my main attention for monitoring the advancement of the organization goals with no regards to my followers needs and goals. Yet, Northouse has stated that providing followers with the needed support to develop and excel in their jobs is an intrinsic role for the servant leaders (2012:228). This led me to consider a long-term goal for building a tailored professional development plan for each team member according to his or her needs and in an alignment with the school strategic goals.
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