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Coaching is a highly sophisticated form of reflective practice. When done well, it can transform a person's professional, and often personal, life, and provides many benefits to the employer in sustaining high performance and morale. The question is, however, whether it's the coaching itself that produces the results, or if it's down to an enlightened management team, which believes in people's development and so encourages coaching, which in turn produces results. When coaching is done badly, though, it has the power to decimate a person's sense of professional worth for years into the future and to incur substantial cost while returning no benefits, or worse, significant professional damage. Leadership can become cynical about the coaching process.  Money is wasted.  Time and attention are frittered away.  Ineffective coaching is counterproductive and should be stopped as soon as it is recognized.

If we value coaching, and we do, the question then becomes: "what are the elements of effective coaching that we can train, support, measure, and improve" - especially those that have the highest leverage for shifting those being coached perspectives and practices. The more I come to understand the power of coaching the more I appreciate that the best leaders see their primary role within an organisation as an influencer and coaching as the structure behind the myriad of interactions. I think an enlightened management team would not only be encouraging coaches but utilizing coaching strategies themselves on a regular basis.

Student-Centered Coaching introduces a new way of looking at and delivering school-based coaching that puts the needs of students' front-and-center.  By focusing coaching on specific goals for student learning, rather than on changing or fixing teachers, a coach can navigate directly towards a measurable impact and increased student achievement.

"When I listen to my colleagues in this connected coaches course, I think one area we have in common is that we see the urgent need for change and we are impatient. I read the article "What can we do about teacher resistance" by Jim Knight. Teachers are unlikely to implement a new practice successfully, if they implement at all, if they have had only workshops without coaching or other forms of follow-up support."

Coaching blog by an Instructional coach.

These coaches understand that their peers need a colleague who provides a safety net, the kind of support that encourages innovation. Instead of playing the role of expert too often, successful coaches call on strategies that ensure that their peers develop the capacity to improve their practice.

Coaching Book to explore

A multitouch book created by Jeff Plaman, Louise Phinney, Keri-Lee Beasley, Clint Hamada & Andrew McCarthy about coaching for Digital Literacy.

Why more professions should use coaches.

Instructional Coaching Scale

Reading for our MOOC on instructional technology coaching.

"I love my job! Everyday I get to live out my passion for teaching and learning in a place that is dynamic and exciting to work. I am a wife, mother of four, literacy coach, author, teacher, presenter, and literacy consultant"

Oct. 3, 2011 edition -- article by Atul Gawande -- on the benefits of coaching in different areas of life

ISTE has helped transform teacher preparation programs through its standards to integrate technology into learning, teaching, and leading. The refreshed standards-Technology Coach, Technology Director, and Computer Science Educator-are pending NCATE approval. These build on the original Technology Facilitator, Technology Leader, and Secondary Computer Science Educator standards.