Professional Development

Coaching to manage performance

Vivienne Porritt questions the whole basis of the current approach to performance management and shows how this can be transformed through developing a coaching culture which focuses on ultimate learning games for children.

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      string(4954) "…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7Practice and policyAutumn2005➜Training and development forschools – a ‘quiet revolution’?Ralph Tabberer, Chief Executive ofthe newly-formed Training andDevelopment Agency for Schools (TDA)answers questions posed by PDTeditors, Graham Handscomb and PeterEarley. He casts doubt on whethermuch CPD practice provides best valuefrom the investment made, describeshow he sees the future of CPD, andoutlines how the TDA will differ fromits predecessor, the Teacher TrainingAgency (TTA).Graham Handscomb: First of all, Ralph, thanks verymuch for agreeing to this interview for PDT. Wewonder if you could begin by reflecting on theconsiderable changes that have taken place to widenthe remit of the TDA, in comparison with itspredecessor. Can you say a little about howsignificant you think this will be for the wholeapproach to teacher training and development?Ralph Tabberer: I hope it will be very significant.Schools have a lot of instinctive skills and strengthsin training and development, yet there is much toimprove. If we are going to be good employers andgood at developing schools for the future, we needto make sure that the training and developmentapproach in every school is strong. That way we canbuild a more confident, a more competent and ahigher performing workforce. That way, we canpursue better staff morale, better work-life balanceand, hopefully, a better deal for the children. Wesee it as our job to bring all partners together toimprove training and development across the wholesector.GH: And the benefits of expanding the TDA’s remitto include training for all staff in institutions?RT: Yes, that’s even more significant. The TDA’sconcern is not just for teachers but for the wholestaff. For decades, we have had extensive debateabout the nature and quality of professionaldevelopment of teachers but have all but disregardedAutumn2005Training and development for schools – a ‘quiet revolution’? �����8……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………“Standards oftraining anddevelopment in ourschools are not upto the level theyshould be ”the rest of the workforce. In future, we shouldconsider all staff within schools equally. This isespecially important now that the workforce inschools is such a mixture: there are 430,000 teachersand at least as many support staff. Clearly the futureof schools, just like any other work environments,needs us to think about the whole team. The TDAwill endeavour to bring coherence to what is onoffer across the whole team.GH: So a real sense of a new thrust.How do you see the work of thenew TDA in terms of what has gonebefore? Do you see this as adevelopment or a seismic shift inour approach to continuingprofessional development?RT: I think it’s about very seriouschange and improvement for schools but, as ever, itis also about building on some real strengths. I havebeen fortunate to visit some schools where theythink very hard about the whole staff and the waythey manage performance and development. Theyhave individual plans for each member of staff. Iwould like to see that as a basic requirement forevery school and for every individual. They talk topeople about how they can contribute more to theschool, how they can build their skills, and how todevelop people’s careers. They follow that discussionup with opportunities for staff to explore what theyhave learnt and they offer support, coaching andmentoring, which builds a bridge with the school’sown change management programmes. Finally, theyevaluate the impact of the training, even thoughthat is usually the hardest part.Schools that are already working in this way willsee what the TDA will be promoting as a goodlegitimation of the ways they think and act. Forother schools, the shift we want to bring about intraining and development may feel seismic.Interestingly, I do not believe that anyone will pullagainst the direction we intend to set. So perhaps,this should be characterised as a ‘quiet revolution’.And we propose to stoke, fuel and support improvedpractice on the ground, rather than impose newsolutions.GH: So in terms of that relationship and continuity,how do you see the TDA’s role with regard to theDfES and the General Teaching Council (GTC)?RT: We will work in close partnership with themand with a lot of other organisations which have aninterest in training anddevelopment, ranging from theNational College for SchoolLeadership, the Specialist SchoolsTrust, the social partners,"
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1 Jan 2005

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Professional Development

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1 Nov 2006

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      string(5625) ", is theirsiblings, their peers, their parents, their teachers, theirbackground, their school, the distractions and theirenvironmen t! It isn’t. The solution lies with them. Theblame culture is inherently negative. I t has no benefitsor positive out comes since it is generally beyond thepower of the participant to eff ect change in any ofthese external factors. The only thing that falls withintheir power to change is themselves. Blaming othersfor underachie vement will get them nowhere.Student coachingStudent coachingStudent coachingStudent coachingStudent coachingManaging Schools Today June/July 200622FunI t is essential that studen ts find practical, usablestrategies for putting their own individual version of ‘fun’into learning. We find that it is worth spending time toidentify what individual participants regard as fun. Somefind experimenting fun; others may take pleasure fromimagination and extemporisation. The golden rule is thatever y student will find fun in some aspect of everysubject, if only someone takes the trouble to help themdiscover it. Fun is one of the cornerstones of a positiveattitude to learning.Another is self-belief. There are a number of ways inwhich self-belief and self-confidence can be built. The firstand most obvious is through positive feedback.Encouragement, praise and constructive dialogue are asfundamental to perceptions of self-worth as ridicule,contempt, criticism and indifference are to self-doubt.I t is impor tant to develop learning skills andcompetences too. It is never safe to assume that studentshave somehow happened upon them and know how towork on their own. There are numerous straightforwardtechniques that de velop positive self-talk and themanagement of one’s own emotional stat e. Again,students won’t just happen upon them. Learning tochange a negative thought into a positive one is centralto this area of development.A sense of panic can cause some students to abandonwork altogether. To reduce the feelings of pressure andoverload that can cause this reaction, it is helpful to buildtime and personal management frameworks for studentsto work within. They provide security and fo cus. Byplanning ahead they are taking control. If they are incontrol, they need not panic.Of course, there simply isn’t time within the rigours ofthe general curriculum for these aspects of the disciplinedlearning and self-help processes to be explored fully. Extrasessions, separate from normal timetabled lessons, will benec essary to pro vide time for reflec tion and anopportunity for students to personalise the ideas that arebeing presented. In some situations , mandat oryparticipation is indicated. In others, students may elect toparticipate quite happily.A key aspect of our work with learners is to get them torealise and believe that, although they cannot control theirenvironment, they can control how they respond to it andthat they always have a choice in how they respond. Thishelps to build positive emotions through a greater senseof responsibility and self-control. We use a whole rangeof enjoyable activities to engage students and help themrealise that there may be one reality but many differentways t o perceive it – that there is always another view thatmight be more useful to them.It may help learners to realise that there are noinherently stressful subjects, stressful classes or stressfulexams, for example. Stress is their own psychological (andoften physiological) response to the pressure they findthemselves under. They may or may not be able to changethe pressure – they may be in an overcrowded class; theexam will take place on the specified date – but they arealways in control of their response to it.The untutored stress response to, say, not having doneenough coursework might be habitual panic. There maybe a simple technique for dealing with this, such asdividing the workload int o more easily manageablec omponents or slightly increasing the number ofc omponents managed in each homework session. Analternative might be to number the components andmake a rigid practice of only dealing with one componentat onc e, in a queuing sy stem, rather than beingoverwhelmed by the prospect of trying to deal with themall at the same time.This is hardly ro cket science but it is a much morepositive and controlled response than panic – and, don’tforget, one that the student may not be familiar with.Panic responseOne of the problems with uncontrolled stress responsesis that they t end to have a cumulative negative effect.The studen t can be in the position wher e justcontemplating the number of subjects on their scheduleor thinking about the volume of work to be done causesa predictable panic response. This can become habitualand increasingly result in an avoidance of work. Lear ningto deal with the stress response may be the only way tobreak this vicious circle.In coaching students to manage their emotionalsta te , we successful ly  use music, talk  andStudents display almost infinite creativity when itcomes to apportioning to others the blame for theirpoor performanceJune/July 2006 Managing Schools TodayStudent coachingStudent coachingStudent coachingStudent coachingStudent coaching23hypnotherap y techniques such as ‘anchoring’. Theeffects of using anchoring with learners can be quitedramatic, esp ecially where there are limiting b eliefsabout abilities to cope in specific situations. We haveseen marked diff erences in pupils who panic in examsituations . Anchoring positive emotions can make ar eal  dif fer ence to ho w they manage stressfulsituations and"
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Leadership

Smile your way to better grades

1 Jan 2005

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      string(5690) "the lesson– to arrive on time, pay attention, do the tasks set, and betested on the outcomes. Would you be prepared to requirethe same of your staff – and test the learning of teachersafter their Inset lesson? Probably not!51January/February 2008    Managing Schools TodayProfessional development   Situational LeadershipYou will more likely answer that you would expect tosee teachers making use of the ideas and strategies intheir lessons. However, if you are to manage this aspect ofteachers’ performance, you will first need to be clear aboutwhat exactly you will be observing. Mostly what we find (andthe TDA is no exception) are somewhat vague expectationsof performance. Within the core skills about managing thelearning environment (C38), teachers should:“(a) manage learners’ behaviour constructively by establishingand maintaining a clear and positive framework fordiscipline, in line with the school’s behaviour policy.(b) use a range of behaviour management techniques andstrategies, adapting them as necessary to promote theself-control and independence of learners.”So for the observer the question is “What does thatactually look like in real practice?” What is it that thecore skills teacher will be doing; what are their teachingbehaviours at this stage? Just as we need to be clear-cutabout the behaviour we are teaching to our pupils, so toowe need to be explicit about the behaviours that teacherswill demonstrate in the classroom. We mostly need a muchhigher level of specificity about this. What we say about theclassroom – “fuzzy expectations lead to fuzzy behaviour”– will also be true for the staffroom.Developmental perspectiveSo this is not about putting in place a ‘policy’ and expectingeveryone to follow it, then despairing when they don’t.We have to take a developmental perspective, indeed atruly educational approach to teacher skills development– particularly in the area of behaviour management. Theseare difficult skills to learn and to apply. Those learning theskills don’t require traditional ‘management’ – after all,there is often little in place yet to ‘manage’; what they needis skilled leadership to take them on what can often provea long and difficult journey.Why so difficult? The point we have frequently stressedis that the children we face in today’s classrooms are notthe same as previous generations. We have witnessed atechno-cultural revolution in the last ten years which hascontributed to a rapid change in expectations and attitudesabout adults’ and children’s roles and relationships. Thisrapid cultural shift has, in may cases, created a ‘socialdisruption’ between teachers and pupils – requiring a moresophisticated set of skills to create the necessary socialmediation than were needed in the past with traditional‘discipline policies’.4When teachers are engaged in the acquisition ofsuch social mediation skills, they are taking part in adevelopmental process, and those who are leading thisenterprise are as much involved in a process of professionalChecklist of leadership skillsHow do you rate your present leadership skills in respect of the team that you lead i.e. your direct reports?I am able to translate the school improvement plan into clear goals and roles for team membersI am able to develop clear objectives for team membersI establish unambiguous team performance targetsI strive to reach agreements on specific individual performance targetsI know how to diagnose the development level of each team member for the different tasks they havebeen allocatedI understand how and when to provide the appropriate leadership style for each team member on eachtask:– how and when to direct team members– how and when to coach them in the skills– how and when to support them with their efforts– how and when to delegate tasks to them52Situational Leadership   Professional developmentManaging Schools Today    January/February 2008development as one of organisational change. Themethods that leaders then adopt are those that provide thenecessary and appropriate levels of support and directionfor each teacher. This sort of ‘performance management’task is transformational – more than a judge to determinesomeone’s pay scale, but more a leader at times coaching,at times supporting, at times directing, and eventuallydelegating. All the time the feedback on performance isformative rather than evaluative.In our own work on leading change in organisations wehave begun to train managers in our Situational LeadershipII programme,5 a method that we find entirely congruentwith our own approach to classroom managementusing the Assertive Discipline method. In consequencethe leadership shown by teachers in the classroom andthe leadership of senior managers shares a commonmethodology: being clear about what should be done,supporting it when it happens, and redirecting back oncourse when it doesn’t. Both approaches are also informedby a common philosophy. This is not something we areWorking on the ‘what’ question of performance managementSelect a particular category from the Teacher Professional Standardse.g. C38: Teachers will “use a range of behaviour management techniques and strategies, adapting them as necessary topromote the self-control and independence of learners.”Now begin to list some of the range of possible behaviour management techniques and strategies that your teachermay knowe.g. assertive discipline, circle time, restorative justice, solution-focused approachesSelecting one of these (e.g. “the Assertive"
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Leadership

Another wasted day

6 Mar 2008