Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Peer Coaching
Einstein said, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." A coach can help you shift your thinking into that new perspective.
An important professional technique that helps us to improve and gain more knowledge is applying peer coaching in our schools. English teachers in our school work as a team. We cooperate, exchange experiences, meet, share ideas and support each other to implement new strategies. We surf the net searching for new educational games. worksheets, we also open our classes for our colleagues especially the new ones because we believe that staff development will directly affect students learning.
From my own experience I can say that peer coaching has many advantages such as:
*improve students achievement
*enhance student progress.*
* stronger professional ties among colleagues.
* positive school environment.
I recommend applying peer coaching in our schools.
Fatima Ramadan
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with you , Fatima . However , I think some students or even teachers may refuse the idea
ReplyDeletebecause they either feel jealous or shy .
That's right for sts. it's easy to involve and encourage them to help each other.
ReplyDeleteFor teachers it's more difficult because some are shy to ask or to open their classes to their colleagues to watch them.I think the supervisor and the head teaher should have a role here as leaders to establish the environment which encourages professional learning.
for those who are shy ,why don't we have the first step and suggest helping them in a kind way.
ReplyDeletethe following is about coaching among students:I am not going to go into details about the benefits of peer coaching but I am going to handle the "How" issue.
ReplyDeleteAm really so sad to confess that almost two thirds of the students at our school are really weak at English, so peer coaching is a must at my school. But the question is this : how to convince the more competent students to help me without getting sick and tired after a short while?
What magnifies the problem is this: each competent student will have to be responsible for two or three students.
Well here is my plan to make things easier to handle:
In addition to reminding them of Allah's reward and of the necessity of spreading an atmosphere of sympathy and cooperation in the classroom, I try, in simple words, to explain the learning pyramid. I particularly emphasize that only teaching others/the immediate use of learning scores 90% of the average retention rate. Therefore, they as well as the low achievers will equally benefit from this experience.
To make sure that the low achievers are not learning wrong things, I check with "my little teachers" first. I of course warn them never to show off nor to judge their classmates since collaborating in a nonjudgmental way builds a safe and supportive rapport within peers. Some weak students will try to make excuses since they are not used to commit to learning, parents' interference is needed then.
Note: sometimes all of the above works for a relatively short while, so extrinsic motivation (small presents and marks) will be given to the trainees and coaches when needed.
Salam Saleh
I agree with you
ReplyDelete. Presents and even the colorful stickers have their magic effect on the sts. performance .They love them. You can also design a STARS poster for those who help ,write their names and reinforce them as they achieve good results.