|
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
While the concept of mentoring and coaching in education may not be new, strong Government backing and overt links to a new national continuing professional development (CPD) framework are ensuring that it is entering the mainstream for teachers.
But significant questions remain: for instance, what purpose does it serve? How should it be introduced? And what benefits can it bring to a school? Enter CUREE - the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education. In 2004, the DfES asked CUREE to devise a framework for mentoring and coaching that would offer
simple guidelines, share best practice and develop multi-media resources, such as CD ROMs and publications for schools. CUREE discovered rapidly that there was a huge demand for this work. A significant number of schools were exploring mentoring and coaching already, but needed the support and benchmarking that a new framework could offer. For CUREE’s founder and Chief Executive, Philippa Cordingley, the mentoring and coaching capacity building project is an idea whose time has come: "Mentoring and coaching is on everyone’s lips. It has a huge range of applications and there are many different ways to introduce it"
The strength of the new framework is that itis both realistic and practical. "The aim is to build on what people are doing already," says Philippa. "There is no one way to introduce mentoring and coaching. It's not like perfecting your golf swing. Rather it’s a set of principles to be interpreted, so that they fit to the culture of the school and the needs of the students."
In four years CUREE - as a registered group for systematic research on CPD - has reviewed more than 30,000 studies on professional learning and its outcomes. "Some people say that teaching has come very late to mentoring and coaching, but teaching is a complicated business, focusing not only on the teacher but the dynamic relationship with their students,'' says Philippa.
Professional development also has to find its place in the long line of ‘must-dos’ for schools and colleges. "It can be resource intensive in the early stages but when the benefits flow through, it increases efficiency and leads to savings," Philippa believes. Indeed experts agree that mentoring and coaching has potentially limitless benefits for schools as a whole, helping to develop a more professional culture where it is natural to share thinking and practice.
The relatively slow introduction of CPD reforms after the launch of the five-year strategy for education is partly the result of organisational changes, with the Training and Development Agency (TDA) evolving from the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) this September. With its aim of training the whole school team, the TDA has given
fresh emphasis to mentoring and coaching. For Philippa, the more gradual launch of CPD reform has been a positive: “Instead of a great publicity spotlight, there has
been time for all the major teaching agencies to embed CPD ideas, allowing schools to adjust.” One of the challenges is ensuring that the exact relationship between mentoring and coaching and assessment and performance management is clear from the outset. This varies greatly from school to school, as is aptly illustrated by a variety of case histories published on CUREE’s website. Some schools openly couple mentoring and performance management, while others make an emphatic distinction. Certainly if these relationships are left blurred it can seriously damage the confidentiality and trust needed for mentoring and coaching to succeed. As Philippa Cordingley stresses: “There must be a clear learning agreement and a buffer zone. Upholding ground rules - that is where the deal must be."
CUREE is launching electronic resources, including a CD ROM, to support its national framework. Produced in careful consultation, it includes video clips, interactive materials, checklists and case histories. Text-based materials will also be available. The materials are targeted at school leaders and teachers developing CPD programmes for their schools; LEA advisers; national strategy consultants and others. For further details visit CUREE’s website: www.curee.co.uk.
One of the first tasks for CUREE was to define mentoring and coaching. Mentoring goes back to the time of Homer’s Odyssey, when Odysseus, constantly far from home, entrusted the wise and experienced Mentor with the education and development of his son. Today’s school mentors are experienced colleagues who help professional learners to look at their learning goals, review and action plan, and share learning experiences. Mentors might also be assessing, appraising and accrediting practice. According to the framework’s definition, mentoring is a structured, sustained process for supporting professional learners through significant career transitions. The framework identifies coaching as having two forms: specialist coaching and collaborative (co-) coaching. Specialist coaching is used by schools and teachers to review and refine established practice. Specialist coaches are fellow professionals with particular areas of expertise. Coaches are usually chosen by professional learners themselves. CUREE defines specialist coaching as a structured, sustained process for enabling the development of a specific aspect of a professional learner’s practice. Co-coaching is based on professional learners taking turns to be coach and professional learner. Each person provides non-judgemental support to the other, based on evidence from their own practice. Specialist input is used to inform the coaching and this might be via a course or a third party. To be more than a ‘buddy’ scheme – a criticism from some quarters – careful development is needed, says CUREE. This ensures that it is a sustained process that enables two or more professional learners to embed new knowledge and skills from specialist sources in day-to-day practice.
At just four pages, the National framework for mentoring and coaching is a model of simplicity. Its one-page sections are:
The principles of mentoring and coaching
With a focus on 10 key principles, these recognise that styles of mentoring and coaching depend on the context and there is no ‘one size fits all’. The principles emphasise the ‘learning conversation’ nature of mentoring and coaching; that it
requires a learning agreement on boundaries; and that mentors and coaches gain greatly from the experience.
Mentoring and coaching: core concepts
Using the why, who, what, where, when formula, this section explains the use of mentoring, specialist coaching and collaborative coaching.
Skills for mentoring and coaching
Here, the particular skills needed by mentors, specialist and co-coaches are listed, and also the potential gains for their professional learner partners. For specialist coaches for example, it is important to facilitate growing independence for the professional learner from the outset, to listen actively, and establish a buffer zone between coaching and other formal relationships. For professional learners, the gains from specialist coaching can include understanding their own learning needs and observing, analysing and reflecting on their own and the coach’s practice.
Mentoring and coaching: a comparison
With the aid of a Venn diagram, the specific and the overlapping qualities of mentoring, specialist coaching and co-coaching are clearly illustrated, helping to avoid confusion.
"We provide training for all staff and are very keen to use the framework and support materials," says Pam J Price, who is deputy training school manager and professional tutor at Coundon Court school and community college in Coventry. A comprehensive in a large suburban neighbourhood some three miles from Coventry city centre, the school has 1,780 students, with 330 post-16 year-olds. Coundon Court gained technology college status in 1997 and was made a beacon school in 2000. “We plan to link whole faculty mentor training with the development of coaching skills,” explains Pam. "We will begin with one department and then extend the most successful elements to other staff." With years of experience as a mentor under her belt, she believes she has personally gained an enormous amount, as well as being able to help others. Of the new framework, she says: "I like the flexibility, as it recognises from the outset that every school is different."
Lord Silkin school in Telford has 800 pupils aged 11-16. "By summarising everything so well in four pages, the framework makes the differences between mentoring and coaching much clearer," says Julia Wrigglesworth, who is the school’s deputy head teacher. The school has a strong ethos of raising standards by developing varied approaches to teaching and learning. “We’re very interested in further developing the skills and expertise of our staff and are starting with a CPD session in the latter part of the autumn term," Julia explains "I hope that as a result of this, I shall have four volunteers in two pairs, who will work together on an aspect of assessment for learning - probably peer assessment."
*Martin Prestage is a freelance writer.
