Coaching: Approaches & Perspectives

by Jim Knight (Editor)

Practical guidelines for selecting the right type of coaching for your teachers and students! This resource brings together the voices of recognized experts in the field―including Joellen Killion, Cathy Toll, Jane Ellison, Randy Sprick, Jane Kise, Karla Reiss, Lucy West, and Jim Knight―to present unique approaches for coaching teachers and leaders. Chapters review the roles of coaches in schools, examine the research base on coaching, and provide in-depth discussions of specific models,

Genres: Education, Professional Development, Nonfiction, School

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Adrienne Michetti · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology of papers is a great foundation of pieces for anyone considering coaching in K-12 schools or who wants to know more about the function of coaching in a professional development plan. It looks at coaching in broad strokes, but provides enough examples and details to grab onto if you want to go deeper. The references alone in each chapter offer an abundance of options in a learning buffet! One could dip in and out for ages.

I particularly enjoyed the chapters on Content Coaching (not what I expected!) and Differentiated Coaching (totally aligned with my goals this year). I had already immersed myself in the content of the Coaches' Roles chapter, as I'm a huge Joellen Killion fan and have been using her work for nearly 10 years now. I also already live in the world of Cognitive Coaching, so this chapter also wasn't so relevant to me. I kind of breezed through the last chapter, on research, as I felt it was a bit out of date already. Its generalizatons, though, are still valid and affirming.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to give a rating to a textbook, but this one wasn't bad. My first grad school class, and I actually read just about every page of this book. I learned so much. It was very readable and well written.

[Beth Bonvie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of articles about coaching is good, and I may refer to it in the future, but it was just not for me, someone who is just getting started. Maybe I need to find the Instructional Coaching for Dummies book...

[Chris]

Some decent techniques for coaching, but majority is obvious or was discussed in other PD.