In this #coachbetter episode, Kim talks with Jordan Benedict, one of our Research Team members at AAICIS (Association for the Advancement of Instructional Coaching at International Schools) for the and Learning Coach at the International School of Kenya.

Jordan and Kim are both so excited to share the results of the first landscape study of instructional coaching in international schools, conducted by our AAICIS research team in March of 2024. There are so many interesting findings that we think will resonate with you, and we’d love to hear your thoughts after listening to the episode. Please leave a comment for us so we can hear what aligns with your thinking and experiences – or what diverges!

In this episode, they talk about the background of where the research started, how they conducted the study, the primary findings, the Reported Reasons for Establishing a Coaching Program, the reported outcomes – which will not surprise YOU as a listener of this podcast – plus what they think schools and coaches can do with this new research. This episode is a fantastic overview of all of the key findings from this study, so if you’re curious about the landscape of instructional coaching in international schools, this episode is for you!

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Show Notes

We did this landscape study because those of us that have been coaches, or been coached in multiple schools on multiple continents have felt that each of those experiences have been quite different. To be able to understand what is happening and what works in instructional coaching in the specific context of international schools is so important. 

We know there are role differences and responsibility differences. We know there are contextual differences between being overseas versus being a public school. And we know that there are cultural differences that can implicate how we act as coaches. We felt it was really important to do a separate, unique study on the landscape of instructional coaching in international schools that would probably yield different results than the North American studies.

We created a survey tool that we spread through social media channels and our partner networks. This dataset was very crowdsourced and we ended up with 60 international schools having some respondents send data to us. We think it’s a reliable study that gives us a great starting point to make strong recommendations to validate some of our intuition and what we’ve known and experienced ourselves.

In the responses of the 60 international schools, 40 of them reported that they have an established instructional coaching program. They’re more prevalent in nonprofit schools and they’re more prevalent in schools that are utilizing some sort of North American based curriculum

The most intended reason why people create instructional coaching programs was to support the training and professional development of individual teachers. The second most reported reason was to target specific school-wide goals and initiatives. The third most popular reason was that it was a personal initiative, like a leader who saw value in instructional coaching or had experience. The fourth reason for starting programs was to improve student learning outcomes.

The top reported outcome of instructional coaching programs was supporting the training and professional development of individual teachers as the observed benefit. Interestingly the second outcome was one of our biggest surprises, because it was barely a blip on the radar for the intention, but ended up being the second most reported benefit. The second reported benefit was impacting workplace culture. What this means is that people didn’t intend for coaching to have such a positive effect on school culture. But yet that was the second most observed benefit by our respondents.

I love that you highlighted the point that the second most positive outcome or most observed outcome was impacting workplace culture, because then what happens when we make that an intentional purpose behind developing a coaching program? I know you’ve heard me say a million times that coaching creates a sense of belonging or a sense of community builds, collective efficacy, all of these things. And that all leads to improving workplace culture. Like giving time and space for people respecting and valuing their opinion. Looking at our colleagues as if they have something to offer, you know, and really valuing their own professional growth. How can that not impact workplace culture in a positive way? 

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Show Notes continued…

If improved school culture was an unintended outcome, what if we intend for that to be the outcome? What if we bake that in as one of the key purposes of their program? I think that would have very powerful outcomes because the research shows it happens even without that intention. – Kim

I might even suggest if there are schools where teachers feel initiative fatigue or if they feel like workplace morale and culture is trending the wrong direction, instructional coaching programs from our respondents is something that turns it the other direction. 

One of my taglines is if schools hired me to create more initiatives and get more done, they would’ve called me a coordinator. But because they called me a coach, what they intended for me to do was to work side by side with the work that teachers already know they need to do. 

One of the ways that coaches can really impact workplace cultures is because a coach is not working to create more initiatives and get more done; instead they support the work that people have already identified and the coach works side by side with them to make it meaningful, attainable and sustainable.

One of the biggest challenges was measuring the impact of instructional coaching on student learning. it’s not that we don’t want coaching to improve student learning outcomes or that it doesn’t, it’s perhaps that we’re struggling to know how to measure it. So one of the things that I recommend to schools is that coaches should own learning or student learning data the same way a teacher does.

If schools are expecting to see the results of instructional coaching impacting student learning, this data shows us that actually it is not immediately apparent and somebody has to take ownership over that. And in this case, the only people that have the time and capacity to do that are the coaches themselves. – Kim

There’s a large group of respondents that felt that they didn’t know or they thought there were at least limited benefits to coaching. For the people who reported no benefits, limited benefits or unknown, they were far more likely to report that their coaching program was not well-defined. That group of people, almost every single one of them said, either disagree, strongly disagree, or I don’t have an opinion on whether it’s clearly defined or not. If we want people to observe the benefits they need to observe the purpose and the rationale of your coaching program.

We need to be designing for the benefits we want to see, and then measuring the benefits we want to see so we can observe the outcomes

We see right here that if there is a lack of clarity around the purpose of our program, we’re not communicating the purpose of our program, we’re not understanding the purpose of our program. It’s very hard to see results from something you don’t know why it’s happening or why you’re doing it or what it is.

I have been defining clarity with people around philosophy, definition (that core set of responsibilities and actions), and community engagement. You need role clarity, philosophy, clarity, and also that community clarity. If you want somebody else to observe the benefits of coaching that person needs to be clear on what your coaching does. 

We wondered if a longer established program would have more clarity just because it is more established.  However, we found that not to be the case, that the length of time a program existed did not lead to more clarity and did not lead to more observable benefits. As schools, we need to realize that longevity does not equal clarity. Instructional coaching requires a constant effort of keeping it clear and purposeful for my entire community. 

It emerged that the ratio of coach to teachers had a bigger impact on clarity than length of the program. We saw that the better the ratio is (the fewer teachers that coaches have to work with), the stronger the clarity is. Where people would strongly agree that their program is clear was about a ratio of 1:30 (one coach to 30 teachers).  Once the ratio got higher than 1:50, that’s when we had those people disagreeing with that statement around clarity and saying that there wasn’t clarity in their coaching program.

Related Resources

• AAICIS 2024 Landscape Study of Instructional Coaching in International Schools White Paper
• Navigating the Complexities of Instructional Coaching in International Schools

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If you’re ready to dig deeper into what instructional coaching looks like in a school or organization – or if you’re new to instructional coaching and you’re curious about getting started, join us for one of our courses for coaches!

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If you’re just getting started as a coach, and you want to be successful in your early years, watch our New to Coaching Workshop, which highlights the key mindset and skill set shifts you’ll need when moving from the classroom to a coaching role. The workshop will also tell you all about our online course, Getting Started as a Coach. This course is specifically designed for classroom teachers who are moving into a coaching role so you’re prepared for the transition. It’s focused on exactly the skillset & mindset shifts you need to so you can be successful in your first years as an instructional coach. 

For Experienced Coaches

If you’re already a coach & you want to think about being more intentional & strategic in your practice, watch our workshop on the Thrive Model for Coaching Success which will help you evaluate your program and your practice to see where you may have room to grow. You’ll walk away with a clear picture of exactly what you need to focus on to build a thriving coaching culture – and help you decide if our year-long mentorship and certification program, The Coach, is right for you, right now. This program is designed for current coaches who are focused on building a coaching culture through intentional and strategic coaching work at all levels – with teachers and school leaders.

For Coaches Ready to Lead

For experienced coaches ready to look at the bigger picture of the school to see what might be supporting or hindering the sustainability of the coaching program, and you want to make sure your school has all of the systems and structures in place, watch our workshop: Scaling Your Impact as an Instructional Coach. You’ll get a bird’s eye view of what’s needed to make coaching sustainable for you as an individual coach and for your school. When you’re ready to put that learning into action, join us in our online course for coaches ready to lead: Coaches as Leaders and put it all into practice – with support from Kim and our global cohort! This course is designed for experienced coaches, ready to lead.

You can find all the workshops on our coachbetter website at coachbetter.tv/workshops

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