Coaching in the Education System

These days, the term coaching is all the rage in education.  It has become synonymous with mentoring, feedback, performance management, and advice.  We hear of principals coaching teachers, teachers coaching students and colleagues coaching colleagues.  People are certainly recognizing that coaching skills can be powerful tools to achieve increased effectiveness, improved performance and the development of capacities such as leadership. 

Because coaching is so popular, and has many different definitions depending on who you talk to, it is important to clarify what someone means when they use the term.  For example, coaching, as I understand it, entails supporting an individual in making meaningful, lasting change by accessing their own strengths and resources.  In other words, coaching is not about telling someone what to do or even directing them down a certain path.  It is about leveraging their own motivation to change and working with them to develop a personalized strategy to achieve it. 

Another important distinction is between coaching skills and being a coach.  Anyone can use coaching skills, however, a professional coach, should be someone who has no vested interest in the outcome of the coachee’s choices.  These days there are life coaches, business coaches, executive coaches and many, many more.  The International Coaching Federation sets standards for how these coaches are certified, what code of ethics they must adhere to and the types of relationships that are and are not appropriate for coaching.  

Coaching skills, whether practiced by a professional coach or someone who uses coaching skills in their own professional capacity, can be used effectively to support the development of an individual or group.  The popularity of coaching in the education system today speaks to a recognition that we can each continuously improve and serve learners more effectively. 

As coaching is increasingly recognized as a powerful development tool in education, there are many excellent opportunities to develop one’s coaching skills.  For example, the Ontario Principals’ Council provides training for principals on both mentoring and coaching.  As we all strive to improve, the development of coaching skills will not only support the educators, learners and other stakeholders we serve but also help each of us to become better at what we do.

Amy Coupal