Peer Coaching: Enhancing Teaching Practice

This online workshop supports you to strengthen your Teachers’ Professional Growth Cycles and use coaching and video to engage in rigorous, collaborative conversations to improve practice.

It is offered in conjunction with Growth Coaching International and the Instructional Coaching Group; two of the most successful and effective coaching organisations globally. Coaching is recognised as one of the most important and essential means for improving professional practice. This programme is suitable for leaders and classroom teachers who wish to work reciprocally and collaboratively to improve teaching practice.

Workshop Content:

The fact that coaching conversations involve reflecting on videos of teaching practice helps to ground goals in reality and keeps the process non-evaluative, rigorous and safe. The programme is designed to help teachers engage in rigorous, collaborative conversations that utilise the power of video The Video Peer Coaching programme is designed to:

• Provide a clear understanding of how peers can work in partnership to improve their teaching practice
• Build an appreciation of the power of video in gaining a clear picture of reality and as a tool for professional reflection and learning
• Develop coaching skills and processes to support quality learning conversations
• Provide a clear cycle for using video to improve professional practice and student outcomes with peers

Those attending will:

• Have a clear understanding of how peers can work in partnership to improve their teaching practice
• Have an appreciation of the power of video as a tool for reflection and learning
• Feel confident and competent using video as a tool for professional learning
• Develop coaching skills and a process to support quality learning conversations about teacher practice and student learning
• Understand how to enhance peer-peer collaboration

The Video Peer Coaching programme is delivered in three stages:

1. Day 1 Workshop (one day):

• Why video enhanced peer coaching?
• Introduction to the Partnership Principles
• Overview of the Growth Coaching Framework enhanced with video
• Practise using video and preparation for fieldwork

2. School-based fieldwork and practice to be completed between the first and second workshops

3. Day 2 Workshop (one day)

• Coaching skills to facilitate reflection and learning
• Identifying student centred goals
• Demonstration and practise of coaching cycle using video
• Develop next steps for taking coaching forward in your context

Pigeon Mountain Primary School has embraced this structure for improving their teachers' professional practice. See the article in GCI Insights Magazine.

Podcast by Ian Dickinson, Pigeon Mountain Primary School:

Podcast: Impact of Video Peer Coaching on Teaching Practice

Ian Dickinson, Principal Pigeon Mountain Primary School (PMPS), New Zealand, explains about the program and its impact.

Pigeon Mountain School in Auckland has 650 students and a strong team of teachers striving to develop their self-evaluative capacity. With an existing coaching program introduced by Principal and GCI Accredited coach Ian Dickinson, and classroom video already in place for gathering evidence of the professional growth and goalsetting, the school is now integrating the two into a Video Enhanced Peer Coaching Program (VEPC).

The school is using video-enhanced peer coaching as a means to deepen reflective practice and to meet the changing professional learning and certification requirements of the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand in an authentic way.