Coaching Cut #4 Probe purpose
Coaching cuts: bite-sized tips for better coaching
Today’s tip: Probe purpose to check that your coachee understands why something they have done benefits student learning.
Today’s cut: Coach Olly is working with coachee Katie on her use of faded worked examples. This is when students are first provided with a complete example, then a partially completed one and finally, an example with only a prompt at the start. This technique can be a really effective way to gradually remove scaffolding around a task.
Watch how coach Olly pushes coachee Katie to think about why using faded worked examples can be an effective learning strategy. In doing so, he’s also checking they have a shared mental model of learning.
Why might it be powerful to probe purpose?
Coaches need to help coachees lock in effective practice and to increase the likelihood of it recurring in future teaching. If a technique is a part of the teacher’s model of great teaching and they understand where it fits into that, they are significantly more likely to continue to use the practice and the right time and for the right reason
If a teacher knows that a technique can be effective but doesn’t understand why, they might use the technique again but this time, at the wrong time or for the wrong reason.
Checking that coach and coachee have a shared understanding of what makes a technique effective can show the degree to which they have a shared mental model of effective teaching more broadly. Where this is the case, it enables the conversation to move forward with confidence.
When would and wouldn’t you probe purpose?
Probe purpose when you want to check the teacher knows why a technique might be effective and when to use it. Alternatively, use it to draw their attention to a specific aspect of their mental model of effective teaching.
Don’t probe for long if your coachee doesn’t have a well-developed mental model of effective teaching. It is absolutely fine to tell a coachee why a technique, done in a certain way, at a certain time, is effective. You can always check that this understanding has been locked in later on.
Don’t use them without first establishing that you believe that the technique has been used effectively in the lesson you watched. ‘I thought the way you used live modelling was incredibly effective. Talk to me about why you think it is such a powerful technique to use for learning’, is very different to: ‘Tell me why you think live modelling is an effective technique for learning’. In the second example, the coachee may feel unsure whether or not they have done something that you think is effective or not.
Now try probing purpose in your next coaching session!
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