Mentees seeing mentors as a font of knowledge rather than a coach who will aid their thinking. I would work around this by starting with a point of what went well and why followed by what would be changed and how.
A positive that I have taken from the video about coaching is that the trainee will always be part of the decision making process and will therefore feel ownership of their own teaching. During discussions with the trainee, it will make me really think about the questions and prompts that I will use so that I don't impose my own practice onto them but allow them to feel their own way through the processes and problems to find their own solutions.
There may be an issue of low confidence with students who are on their first or an early placement in their course. They may look to their mentor for suggestions about how they could teach a lesson and what strategies would be best to use with the class they are working with. Although the dialogical approach does allow the student to discover what works through trial and error and encourage them to become more independent in developing their skills.
I think it will be difficult to get the trainee to ‘think for themselves’ initially with dialogical coaching. Questioning in a certain way will be the biggest challenge to ‘draw out’ how the trainee will get to their goal effectively and smartly. One model that could be used to help with this is the G.R.O.W model; G - Goal - what will be different as a result of working on this area? How can we make the goal measurable so we know when you’ve achieved it? R - Reality - What have you tried already? O - Options - What resources could you draw on to tackle this? What have you seen others do that might work for you? W - Will - Which option will you pursue? Are there any obstacles we need to address to make sure this step gets done?
I'm finding it harder to work with this model of coaching with a quieter trainee and finding myself filling the silences too much! Must work on questioning techniques I use.
The challenges for me with dialogic teaching would be that I would find it difficult not to persuade the trainee to do things my way. I would need to remind myself that there are different ways of doing things and to let the trainee try out their ideas.
My concerns and potential barriers have already been mentioned: I foresee there being difficulty with me not imposing my own experiences and practice on the trainee, and they in turn might find it jarring that I won't be there supplying them with "the answer" all the time. To overcome this, I will use more tentative phrasing and will encourage them to consider the different options available to overcome any issues, rather than just "what I would do" in feedback sessions.
As per all the other forum contributions, it will be difficult to change from giving direct live feedback as this is the way in which we address teaching and learning with all staff in school. However, during meetings we will have the time to reflect and allow analysis and evaluation to take place. I will have to be careful about not leading questions.
To reflect on evidence of teaching gives time for analysis and this allows for the time to identify and share strategies modelled or to be modelled in future scenarios. models can be planned and tested in lessons and learning from experience is a powerful and personal way to understand how to improve. Providing a framework for this to happen is essential and is the biggest responsibility of the personal mentor. The biggest obstacle is time. Mentor and teacher must have the time to engage in this cycle regularly.
I think initially it would be difficult to not to share my own experience with the trainee; however as I get to know them then discussing a wide range of options with them and allowing them to use or adapt what they think is right for them would become easier. In this way they will develop resilience as they will be problem solving themselves rather then being reliant on the mentor.
Reflecting on my mentoring experience with a previous trainee, I tried to take a "dialogical coaching" approach by offering different points of view and suggestions as to how to strengthen particular parts of lessons, but unless I was saying to him "you must make sure you do ____", he did not respond to feedback and did not improve. Therefore, from that experience, I think dialogical coaching is effective when working with a reflective practitioner with the confidence in their colleagues' advice. I think there needs to be a mixture of dialogical and directive coaching, in order to encourage the trainee to progress and become aware of the effectiveness of lessons.
I think dialogical coaching will be difficult to implement as i find it hard not to give instructions to trainees and will have to try and work to be more dialogical.
not to scaffold the trainees thoughts, allow them to determine the best strategies to overcome situations.
I am likely to find it difficult to avoid giving advice based on my own experience. I feel many trainees will lack the confidence to test out their strategies and problem solve in the early stages. Definitely a good idea for them to maintain observations of a range of teaching practices to avoid a narrow perspective.
I think it will be difficult not to give direct advice, especially to students who are having difficulties or who are on an early placement. I think it is important to encourage the trainees to be reflective about their practice from an early stage and I also think clear target setting with clear models is a good way to help them to develop.
I anticipate that early on it may be difficult for the teacher to identify specifically where their focus needs to be. I think this is where paired observations will be useful. I think I will initially find it difficult not to fall back on my own teaching styles and preferences. I think it could be difficult if the mentee identifies targets as a key focus if I feel that another target needs to take higher priority.
I am struggling not to give structured advice because one of my mentees requires a great deal of support. When I ask questions they find it very difficult to find the answers themselves and so I need to consider how I guide without telling them what to do!
I feel it may be difficult to not tell the trainee what I would have done in a certain situation and base it on my own classroom practise. Instead I will be asking what the trainee may feel they would have done differently, and what they would do next time.
I think the main challenge, as others have mentioned, is making sure that the trainee is given other points of view to consider when reflecting on their practice and making sure not to give them direct instruction or advice. They should be given a range of suggestions rather than just the ideas and direct feedback from the mentor alone.
It will be important to make sure that questioning is used to support the trainee to find the answers and develop their skills, allowing them to problem-solve. This can be facilitated by having a strong and open, constant dialogue between mentor and trainee so that the dialogical coaching style becomes embedded right from the start. Reflection time will be an important part of this strategy so that the trainee has time to think and process everything they have learned and can think about what they need to do next. This can then be supported by the mentor in the form of conversations and open-ended questions, empowering the trainee to be the decision-maker in the classroom based on their experiences and discussions.
