This pitfall shows up at the beginning of the conversation when the coach is telling the teacher what they thought was effective about the teaching they observed. It is a crucial part of the conversation because it’s an opportunity to get the conversation started on a positive note but it’s also an opportunity to lock in great practice and crucially, learn from it.
It can be tempting to give a cursory nod to one or more little things the teacher did well. We call this ‘pat on the back praise’: it’s praise that doesn’t dig deep into anything meaningful the teacher did and often sounds like a random checklist!
It’s an easy pitfall to fall into…
One issue that coaches face is time. This means that when we have time to spend on teacher development, it can feel far more important to focus on what the teacher could improve.
But, there’s actually loads of value to praise done well: it’s an opportunity to secure the success of the teacher. We do this when we dive deep into what they did well in relation to the previous target they were working on. This is meaningful because they’ve actually been trying to improve in this area and, focusing on one thing allows us to really reinforce their actions and decisions.
Let’s see the pitfall in action…
In the clip below, coach Adam provides an overall assessment of his experience in coachee Sarah’s lesson. He then lists off things he saw that he liked. These range from working walls to books to tidiness. What he never mentions, or pushes Sarah to think about, is her previous target and the impact on student learning.
Think about what this communicates to coachee Sarah: she hears that to keep her coach happy, she needs to keep these random things in order. Pedagogy isn’t what he’s focused on.
We focus praise on the previous step, and we get specific and detailed. Our coachee needs to think hard about what they did, why, and the impact it seemed to have on student learning.
We might also provide the space for our coachee to think about the limitations of the actions they took in other contexts. For example, we may ask ‘when wouldn’t you use this technique?’. This focuses the praise on the decision-making.
Let’s see it done better…
If you like what you see, you’ll love our upcoming book ‘Coaching for Adaptive Expertise’, co-written with Dr Haili Hughes, available for pre-order now!
Thanks to all our readers for your support! Please keep telling us your coaching experiences and we hope the cuts help you to keep getting better!
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