 |
Dora (13), Italia
TIPS
for Teachers-
Becoming
a Coach
- What is Coaching?
- Principles of Coaching
- Comparison Between Aspects of Lecturing & Coaching
- Additional Resource Information
What
Is Coaching?
As PBL teachers, you coach students’ thinking; their communication, including the gathering and sharing of information; their group process; and their problem-solving strategies.
Your role shifts from one of control of what and how students learn to one of mediation of student learning. This coaching role requires teachers to be as engaged in learning as their students and to develop a sense of flow in our teaching beliefs, actions, and decisions.
In PBL, coaching is a process of goal setting, modeling, guiding, facilitating, monitoring, and providing feedback to students to support their active and self-directed thinking and learning.
Teachers accomplish these goals by encouraging as much active learning as possible and by finding ways to make students’ thinking visible (Torp & Sage, 1998, p.66).
|
Teacher Roles In PBL |
Facilitator: |
Engages in negotiation, stimulates and monitors discussion and project work but does not control |
|
Guide: |
Helps students to construct their own meaning by modeling, mediating, explaining when needed, redirecting focus, providing options | |
|
Co-learner/co-investigator: |
Teacher considers self as learner; willing to take risks to explore areas outside his or her expertise; collaborates with other teachers and practicing professionals |
There are instructional principles that can guide the practice of teaching and the design of learning environments suggested by Savery & Duffy (1998):
- Anchor all learning activities to a larger task or problem- Learning must have a purpose beyond, "It is assigned."
- Support the learner in developing ownership for the overall problem or task.
- Design an authentic task.
- Design the task and the learning environment to reflect the complexity of the environment they should be able to function in at the end of learning.
- Give the learner ownership of the process used to develop a solution.
- Design the learning environment to support and challenge the learner’s thinking.
- Encourage testing ideas against alternative views and alternative contexts.
- Providing opportunity for and support reflection on both the content learned and the learning process.
Comparison
Between Aspects of Lecturing & Coaching
In traditional instructional methods based on the transmission of knowledge from an active teacher to a passive learner, a teacher identifies the facts and skills that a student needs to know and tells a student these facts and demonstrates how to carry out the skills (Williams, 1992).
However, the model of Problem or Project-Based Learning (PBL) is based on the premise that “learning occurs as people participate in shared endeavors with others, with all playing active but asymmetrical roles” (Polman, 2000, p. 209).
Making the transition from teacher as information-give to teacher as coach is challenging and requires learning new skills. Teachers need to learn in their roles as coach how to question students’ thinking and to challenge students to support their conclusions (Torp & Sage, 1998).
Torp & Sage (1998, pp.25-26) compare the different aspects of the lecture and the problem-based learning.
|
Type of Instruction
|
Lecture
|
Problem-Based
Learning
|
|
Role of the Teacher
|
As expert:
|
As coach:
|
|
Role of the Student |
As receiver:
|
As participant:
|
|
Cognitive Focus |
Students replicate received knowledge and apply in testing situation |
Students synthesize and construct knowledge to bring resolution to problems in a way that meets the conditions that they themselves set forth |
|
Metacognitive Focus |
None: Study skills are the responsibility of the student |
|
|
Role in the Problem |
As a student: Learning about things outside personal experience or “over there” (Heathcote and Herbert, 1980) | As a student: Learning about things outside personal experience or “over there” (Heathcote and Herbert, 1980) |
|
Problem |
|
|
|
Information |
Organized and presented by instructor |
Organized and presented by instructor |
©1996 Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Center for Problem-Based Learning, Aurora, Ill.
Additional
Resource Information
- Scaffolding for Success: Understanding how to scaffold student learning will help you in your role as coach. Author Jamie McKenzie discusses 8 characteristics of scaffolding and offers links for further examples.
- Tactical and Structural Recommendations: Ideas about coaching from the National Council for Critical Thinking.
- Teacher Topics: Problem-Based Learning: A description of problem-based learning and the teacher's role in instruction.
- The Tutor's (Teacher's) Role in Problem-Based Learning Curriculum: Explanations of different roles a teacher plays in problem-based learning.
- Why Should Educators Be Involved in Problem-Based Learning?: An article describing the background reasoning behind teacher as coach.
Becoming
a Coach
|Asking
Good Questions | Using
Journals in Project-Based Lessons
Assessing
Project-Based Learning|
Making & Mnaging Long Range Projects |
Using
Interactive Tools
|
The I Have a Dream program's sponsors The 'I Have a Dream' Program Homepage |
