When I started teaching, it was a given that all new teachers would be advising a club and coaching at least one sports season. Many of us would coach three sports seasons. I would arrive at school around 6 am to run or weight train with athletes, teach all day, and then coach after school until practice ended around 5:30 pm. If we had an away game, I might not get home until 10 pm. It was a relentless and brutal schedule, and I don’t think it was a good way to enter the field. This is no longer as common as it once was, and that’s a good thing. However, this drop in teacher-coaches means there is a decline in the important insights that arise from the coaching paradigm. Before I forget what I learned from that period of my career, I’d like to share some things I observed highly-effective coaches do that are applicable in the classroom.
Build strong, positive relationships. Coach-student relationships are usually stronger because the coach and student share a common cause they are both voluntarily passionate about. The other key factor is downtime (ex: bus rides and waiting for competitions to start) to have conversations unrelated to the activity. This provides plenty of opportunities for Moments of Genuine Connection (MGCs). Conversations about family, pets, favorite foods, movies, health, nutrition, etc. Students feel heard and cared about as a result of having had those conversations. Teachers who intentionally build relationships show students they care, and students work harder in their classrooms and learn more.
Cultivate Intrinsic Motivation. Intrinsic motivation is the desire within a person to do the task. To cultivate intrinsic motivation, we must instill a sense of purpose, encourage students to believe they can achieve mastery, allow them the autonomy to practice until they achieve mastery, and then bestow recognition and respect when students ultimately demonstrate mastery.
Set SMART Goals. SMART is a goal-setting framework that stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. SMART goals are a best practice for setting goals because they help you create a roadmap to achieve a target. The SMART acronym stands for:
S = Specific -Include details about what you want to accomplish. For example, who, what, when, where, and why.
M = Measurable - Make sure you can track your progress and determine if you've achieved your goal.
A = Attainable - Set goals that are challenging but realistic.
R = Realistic. You should be able to reach your goal if you put in the time and effort and have the necessary resources.
T = Time-bound -Specify a time by which you want to accomplish your goal. Research shows that this can help you stay motivated.
Vague or overly ambitious goals can be overwhelming and make it difficult to know how to proceed. SMART goals help you create a clear path to follow and measurable targets to aim for.
In the words of Ted Lasso:
BELIEVE!
Teach skills multiple times in multiple ways. Using a variety of teaching methods and repetition ensures all learners can grasp a skill.
Plan Purposeful Practice. Practice is an essential part of learning because it helps people improve their skills, retain information, and build confidence. Coaches provide lots of opportunities to practice skills over and over again until they get it right. Then give continual feedback to enable the student to gain mastery through sheer will and perseverance. Coaches monitor student attempts, realizing that they often initially need to make different mistakes and repeatedly fail (sometimes spectacularly) in a variety of ways. Each time they fail they learn another wrong way to do something. This time and energy-consuming process enables students to not only ultimately learn the right way, but also to learn why the wrong ways don’t work. This is a deeper kind of understanding.
Give Passionate, Frequent, and Specific Feedback. The biggest thing I’ve taken from my coaching experience and applied to the classroom is giving real-time feedback with visible emotion that I care the task at hand is done right. Details matter. This shows the student that we care about both the student and that they achieve their potential.
Make Students Feel Valued. A team flourishes when each member feels connected and valued, and coaches intentionally strive to cultivate that unity because the success of the team depends upon it. Unfortunately, many classrooms lack this sense of interdependence, as students often pursue their academic success independently. However, learning experiences that involve group performances—where every student contributes and relies on one another—can create a powerful sense of connection. When students realize they’re in this together and have to depend on each other, it’s truly transformative.
Utilize public performances to inspire focus. Just as athletes refine their skills through practice and coaches adjust training based on performance, students could benefit from high-stakes public performances (in a safe and supportive context) that showcase their learning. Public performance creates just enough stress to focus effort and yields a sense of purpose and pride. This approach gives learning a clear purpose. Performance-based learning (yet another process represented by the acronym PBL) also enables teachers to provide ongoing feedback, similar to a coach who fine-tunes an athlete’s technique. While it can be challenging for teachers to gauge student understanding in real-time, projects that include practicing for performances create more opportunities for instant feedback. Student learning could improve if teachers incorporated more public performances into their instruction. Public performances include public speaking in class as well as community-facing performances. Structured academic controversy, presentations, and science fairs offer great opportunities for student performance.
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