Coaching Empowers Coachees to Think for Themselves
Most educators have grown up and worked in systems that value and reward the one-way transmission of directives. However, today’s students and direct reports, besieged by an overload of options, often reject such advice. This can leave educators frustrated at having led the horses to water only to watch them run off in search of questionable alternatives.
As described in this EdSurge article “The Science of Coaching Teachers,” coaching hands the responsibility of thinking – and with it, autonomy and power – to the coachee. As instructional coach Matt Gibson remarks of his own ‘aha’ moment working with teachers, “Just as I saw teachers do a lot of thinking for students, I realized I was doing a lot of thinking for teachers when I coached them.” He realized that by empowering teachers to think through questioning, teachers could in turn empower their students.
When a coach gives the coachee an opportunity to own information and generate ideas, it drives understanding and a motivation to act. As teacher Michael Murry discovered through his work with Gibson, “You can lead a student to the answer but they will only fully understand an idea when they think about and experience it for themselves.” Whether you coach students, direct reports, or peers, you can use targeted, open-ended questions to give your coachees the most effective opportunity to learn. Guide the horses to the water, and trust them to decide when, how, and whether to drink.
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