Coaching Partnership

Robertson’s (2008) article on The 3R’s For Coaching Learning Relationships provides an in-depth exploration of coaching partnership. In this partnership, each person contributes “to the creation of new knowledge and learning that subsequently takes place. The coach approaches this relationship as learner and not all-knower” (p.42). For effective adult professional learning to take place, Robertson identified the 3Rs that has to take place – reciprocity, relationship and reflection-on-reality. The 3Rs are developed from and contribute to “relational trust, respect for difference and reflexivity within practice –informed, committed action” (p.42).

Several things appealed to me as I read Robertson’s article. The first is that in Robertson’s coaching partnership model, the coach approaches the relationship as a learner and not as one who is all knowing. This therefore it makes it less intimidating to enter into a learning relationship with one’s colleagues. Like students, teachers also need to feel some sense of safety before they enter into a learning relationship. As this model allows the coach to sometimes be a teacher, sometimes a learner, sometimes a follower, sometimes an expert and sometimes a novice (Robertson, 2008), teachers are likely to reciprocate to another. Hence, not only will learning take place but their leadership capacity will be built up.

Secondly, like peer coaching that “provides educators with the opportunity to access the natural support at their school” (Little, 2005, p. 87), Robertson’s coaching partnership model also does likewise. From experience, I know that teachers, like their students, generally prefer to work in the comfort of their friends. This is only natural because they not only feel safe but there is also relational trust between them and the latter, according to Bryk and Schneider (2003), is core to school reform. Hence, pairing two teachers up to coach one another will help to bring about changes in their respective classroom as they will challenge each other and encourage each other to explore and enhance their own understanding about new concepts and teaching strategies used in their classrooms. This in turn will increase collegiality in the school and help the school to promote a learning culture. According to Pierce and Hunsaker (1996), having teachers explore new concepts and strategies in the comfort of friends is “an important factor when attempting new endeavors” (p.104).

Thirdly, Robertson’s coaching partnership model can also be extended for use in the classrooms. Personally, I see several benefits in adopting this model for use in the classroom. Other than developing leadership skills, this model can help to enhance the students’ critical and reflective thinking as well as peer assessment skills. As the students will be taught reflective questioning technique, they can use these questioning skills to help each other to develop critical perspectives about their work. As this model also entails the coaches to provide feedback, teachers can likewise get their students to provide feedback on their peers’ or partners’ work. Moreover, as the process also includes self-assessment and goal setting, this model will indeed enhance some of the strategies used in assessment for learning.

Fourthly, it is easy to implement as it only takes a pair to be engaged in a learning relationship. As there are only two teachers involved, it will probably be easier for them to meet on a regular basis. Unlike professional learning community (PLC) that is made of several people who meet on a monthly basis, I have found that through experience, it is not always easy to get the entire group members to meet on the designated or planned date and time. In Singapore, the teachers are so busy with co-curricular activities, external meetings and workshops that it is sometimes very difficult to have the entire PLC group come together even though the meeting time has been set aside by the school leaders. As a result, innovations may take a longer time to implement in the classrooms. In coaching partnership, as the pair is likely to be able to meet on a regular basis, they will perhaps accomplish their goals quicker than those in the PLC group will.

Unlike mentoring, coaching partnership is not featured in my school’s staff learning and development plan. It is an area I would like to explore as I see many benefits that can be derived from it. Personally, I see coaching partnership as an effective strategy for introducing changes in classroom practices as the partners are actively involved in confronting their own existing ways and concepts, exploring and trying new concepts, perspectives and methodologies and justifying the subsequent change of their existing practice in the light of reflection. For it to work effectively however, school leaders must equip the teachers with the necessary skills to facilitate this partnership. According to Robertson (2008), “communication and interpersonal skills are essential tools for working effectively with others and yet often overlooked in educators’ personal, professional and leadership development” (p.43). I wonder why this is so. Is it because teachers “have long been seen to be powerful talkers” (Cordingley, 2005, p.70) that they deemed it unnecessary to develop their communication and interpersonal skills? Yet, communication and interpersonal skills are necessary. Hence, school leaders will perhaps need to organize a school based workshop for the teachers to attend if they wish to implement coaching partnership in their schools and see it eventually cascade to the students in the classrooms.

To conclude, coaching partnership is a good strategy to introduce to effect changes in teaching and learning in the classrooms. The teachers should not only be the ones to use this strategy. They should also introduce this to their students as it will help the latter examine and think more deeply about their work. In schools that have PLCs, coaching partnership can be an offshoot. For schools that do not have PLCs, introducing coaching partnership can be a beginning step to take to building a professional learning culture in the school.