Coaching for classroom change
Course code RG00320
Supervisor support notes
The purpose of these notes is to familiarise supervisors with the course and provide specific support
to facilitate optimal implementation with teachers in their professional setting.
About the course
To stay ahead as a teacher, simply understanding what constitutes quality classroom practice is not
enough. To be an exemplar in our constantly evolving profession, teachers need the skills to lead
change from within. And, those with strengths in coaching and managing change are best positioned
to lead this change effectively.
This course aims to put teachers into this position, by giving them the knowledge and skills to
implement change in their context, and implement it deeply. By undertaking it, they’ll develop core
competencies associated with professional learning, coaching and differentiation in adult learning.
As well, they’ll do practical tasks that will help them manage and plan for deep, lasting change. In as
little as 12 hours, teachers will develop a suite of practical capabilities that will help them affect
significant change and set them up to be an exemplar to our profession.
Throughout the course teachers will draw upon the theoretical findings of prominent research
including the work of Boyd, Darling-Hammond, Dinham, Fullan and Timperley amongst others.
There are four parts to this course. Various tasks require the teacher to apply what they have learnt
in their school context as part of the course.
Completing TSA – Coaching for classroom change will contribute 12 hours of NESA Registered
Professional Development addressing 6.2.3, 6.3.3 and 6.4.3 from the Australian Professional
Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Highly Accomplished Teacher Accreditation in NSW.
Understanding the role of the Supervisor
The term ‘supervisor’ is intended to be interpreted flexibly within TSA courses. For example a
‘supervisor’ may be a school executive, an expert teacher, a teacher mentor or any teacher with a
responsibility for leading the professional learning of others.
Your role as the ‘supervisor’ in the TSA courses is to meet with the teachers at the recommended
points in the course and support the teacher to make connections between the course content and
the context in which they work.
Degree of involvement
The TSA courses can be successfully completed with varying degrees of support from a supervisor. In
an ideal scenario the ‘supervisor’ will work closely with a group of teachers providing regular
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feedback and support about the application of course content to classroom practice and
differentiate delivery accordingly. It is understood however that in some circumstances it may only
be possible for supervisors to have minimal involvement.
Advice for implementation
The courses are designed with the characteristics of powerful professional development embedded
within their structure. To maximise the impact of these characteristics, strategic planning of how
best to enable teachers to embrace and embed the professional learning content into sustainable
teaching practices will be beneficial. Every context will benefit from different enablers and
supervisors are encouraged to think creatively and innovatively in how they implement the TSA
courses.
Course completion and recognition of NESA Registered Professional Development hours
Teachers maintaining their accreditation will have their professional development hours for this
course recognised as NESA Registered Professional Development.
A record of their course completion will be automatically transferred to their NESA online account
once course completion conditions are met. These course completion conditions are as follows:
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completion of all tasks and professional readings
participation in supervisor meetings
completion of all course evaluation questions in Part D: Reflection.
Before the professional development hours can appear in a teacher’s NESA Professional
Development Progress Report, teachers will need to complete a course evaluation in their NESA
online account.
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The discussion points the teacher will focus on for
each supervisor meeting are outlined below.
Part A meeting will focus on:
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the key features of coaching
the differences between mentoring and coaching
their definition of coaching
how they could use coaching
the connections that are emerging for them between coaching and the NSW Quality
Teaching model of pedagogy.
Part B meeting will focus on:
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their revised definition of coaching
their representation of how coaching and the NSW Quality Teaching model of pedagogy are
interconnected and support each other
their outline of how they will apply coaching to their particular context in the future.
Part C meeting will focus on:
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how they will work differently with experts, novices and experienced teachers
how they will work differently with teachers based on their learning about CBAM
how they will use and apply the NSW Quality Teaching model when coaching
their plan for coaching
how they will avoid the attempt, attack, abandon cycle
their list of ‘coaching heavy’ examples
whether they need to take the teachers they work with through any of the courses on
Teaching Standards in Action.
Part D meeting will focus on:
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how they plan to maintain a log of their coaching journey as they implement their plan for
coaching
how they plan to keep you, their supervisor, up to date regarding their coaching focuses as
they continue to work alongside their colleagues
how they might consider doing another Highly Accomplished professional learning course on
the Teaching Standards in Action platform
what their plan for ongoing professional learning is.
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Coaching for classroom change
Course code RG00320
Course outline
Part and content
Readings
Part A: Preparation
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Learn about different teacher needs
Develop a plan for coaching
Part D: Reflection
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1.5
3
2
5
2
4
5
2
0.5
Understand coaching as an effective
teacher learning strategy
Consider coaching in context
Part C: Coaching in action
Review what you have learned during
the course
Review the Standard Descriptors you
have demonstrated
Hours
2
Clarify the difference between
mentoring and coaching
Define coaching
Part B: Coaching
Tasks
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