1.4 Diffusion of Innovations & Change
Candidates research, recommend, and implement strategies for initiating and sustaining technology innovations and for managing the change process in schools. (PSC 1.4/ISTE 1d)
Artifact: Coaching Journal
Reflection:
The Coaching Journal was one of the culminating projects in ITEC 7460: Professional Learning and Technology Innovation. In this project, I was tasked with seeking out another teacher in my school who could benefit from technology coaching based on the partnership approach. The partnership approach is centered on the principles of equality, choice, voice, dialogue, reflection, praxis, and reciprocity (Knight, 2007, p. 37). My goal was to improve the teacher’s technology implementation skills as well as positively affect her attitude about technology implementation. Through using the partnership approach, I could assure that this change would be well received and sustainable.
Throughout the course of ITEC 7460, I was able to research effective instructional coaching strategies that were used throughout this coaching experience. Additionally, my coaching partner was a first grade teacher and thus taught content with which I was somewhat unfamiliar. Therefore, I also had to research and recommend specific technology tools and innovations that she could use with her students and in her content area in order to change/improve her skills. The instructional coaching methods proved to be very valuable for the management the process of changing her skills and attitudes, because she was able to place her trust in me and not feel intimidated as we were approaching each other as equals. The coaching journal also details the implementation of this coaching relationship. The coaching was implemented over a series of five sessions. Each session served to scaffold the teacher’s growth for the next session. For example, one session involved me modeling a lesson for her to demonstrate best practices for behavior management with technology implementation and other skills. She was then able to model a lesson for me using some of the skills she observed in the previous lesson. This scaffolding assured that the implementation of the recommended tools and innovations would be sustainable even after our coaching sessions were completed.
From completing the coaching journal, I was able to fully appreciate Knight’s (2007) partnership approach to instructional coaching. By experiencing a successful coaching relationship myself, I realized that the partnership approach is much more effective than any other professional development model I have experienced before. I was amazed by how this relationship helped this first grade teacher improve her skills and change her attitude about technology for the better. I myself also learned and improved through this process, not only about learning effective strategies for instructional coaching but also learning about her content area. If I were to complete the coaching journal again, I would consider including even more coaching sessions to help this teacher with learning about other technology innovations that she could use in her classroom in order to deepen her skills and attitude even further.
The work that went into creating the coaching journal had a direct impact on this one teacher in that she became much more skilled and comfortable with implementing technology as a result of the coaching relationship. This impact of the coaching relationship could be assessed through administrator’s anecdotal data from classroom observations, and increase of technology included in her lesson plans, and student surveys to show the increased rate of technology implementation in the class.
Knight, J. (2007). What is the partnership philosophy? In Instructional coaching: A partnership approach to improving instruction (pp. 37-51). Thousand Oaks, CA: NSDC.
The Coaching Journal was one of the culminating projects in ITEC 7460: Professional Learning and Technology Innovation. In this project, I was tasked with seeking out another teacher in my school who could benefit from technology coaching based on the partnership approach. The partnership approach is centered on the principles of equality, choice, voice, dialogue, reflection, praxis, and reciprocity (Knight, 2007, p. 37). My goal was to improve the teacher’s technology implementation skills as well as positively affect her attitude about technology implementation. Through using the partnership approach, I could assure that this change would be well received and sustainable.
Throughout the course of ITEC 7460, I was able to research effective instructional coaching strategies that were used throughout this coaching experience. Additionally, my coaching partner was a first grade teacher and thus taught content with which I was somewhat unfamiliar. Therefore, I also had to research and recommend specific technology tools and innovations that she could use with her students and in her content area in order to change/improve her skills. The instructional coaching methods proved to be very valuable for the management the process of changing her skills and attitudes, because she was able to place her trust in me and not feel intimidated as we were approaching each other as equals. The coaching journal also details the implementation of this coaching relationship. The coaching was implemented over a series of five sessions. Each session served to scaffold the teacher’s growth for the next session. For example, one session involved me modeling a lesson for her to demonstrate best practices for behavior management with technology implementation and other skills. She was then able to model a lesson for me using some of the skills she observed in the previous lesson. This scaffolding assured that the implementation of the recommended tools and innovations would be sustainable even after our coaching sessions were completed.
From completing the coaching journal, I was able to fully appreciate Knight’s (2007) partnership approach to instructional coaching. By experiencing a successful coaching relationship myself, I realized that the partnership approach is much more effective than any other professional development model I have experienced before. I was amazed by how this relationship helped this first grade teacher improve her skills and change her attitude about technology for the better. I myself also learned and improved through this process, not only about learning effective strategies for instructional coaching but also learning about her content area. If I were to complete the coaching journal again, I would consider including even more coaching sessions to help this teacher with learning about other technology innovations that she could use in her classroom in order to deepen her skills and attitude even further.
The work that went into creating the coaching journal had a direct impact on this one teacher in that she became much more skilled and comfortable with implementing technology as a result of the coaching relationship. This impact of the coaching relationship could be assessed through administrator’s anecdotal data from classroom observations, and increase of technology included in her lesson plans, and student surveys to show the increased rate of technology implementation in the class.
Knight, J. (2007). What is the partnership philosophy? In Instructional coaching: A partnership approach to improving instruction (pp. 37-51). Thousand Oaks, CA: NSDC.