The Impact Cycle

-

Impacting Education

    Educators nationwide are looking for ways to improve their practice and make the most significant impact on their students. One way districts are aiding teacher improvement is through the implementation of academic coaches. The district where I have the opportunity to teach has a reading coach, math coach, and technology coach. While this is not necessarily the norm, these coaches make an incredible impact on educators; therefore, the impacts trickle down to students, too. The goal of these coaches is to teach educators new strategies to implement to increase student content understanding.

    Jim Knight, an expert on instructional coaching, outlines the "impact cycle" in his book, The Impact Cycle. This cycle involves three components: identify, learn, and improve. Coaches are encouraged to identify the learning goal with the educator. Coaches then come alongside the educator to teach and learn how to best meet the goal. Lastly, the educator will implement the learned strategies to improve their practice (Knight, 2018, p. 9). When this cycle is combined with good practices, instructional coaches can transform how educators engage their students.


    Nugent et al. (2023) recently researched the characteristics of an effective instructional coach. The research concluded that "(a) the coach–teacher relationship quality predicted the level of teacher engagement in coaching and their instructional reflection and (b) the quality of coaching strategies predicted the overall quality of the classroom instruction" (para. 2). With coaching strategies having a significant influence on the success of the coaching cycle, let's discuss one strategy that instructional coaches can implement into their coaching cycles.


    Using the strategy of modeling can increase the success of coaching cycles. Knight (2018) discusses the importance of coaches modeling teaching strategies for students. He states, "teachers told us that it was not enough to hear about strategies; they also needed to see them in action" (p. 116). There are several ways instructional coaches can use modeling with their educator, as seen in the graphic below. This graphic describes various ways to model because modeling is not a "one size fits all" approach. Some educators prefer to partner with their instructional coach through co-teaching models, while others prefer to sit back and watch the instructional coach teach in their classroom. The use of various model strategies emphasizes the importance of instructional coaches knowing their educators and having clear communication with them to determine which modeling strategy will best fit the educator's needs and preferences.

Model by Meredith Barker


    The video below, created by SMART Technologies, describes how technology enables instructional strategies. Interestingly, SMART Technologies describes how technology like the SMART board or projector can quickly transform the classroom to allow students to be the teachers. When students become the teacher, they become models of the academic content. As concluded in the research from Nugent et al. (2023), when students are able to model strategies and ideas, it enforces their own understanding and the understanding of those around them.





Are you looking for more resources for instructional coaching strategies? Check out this article for ten strategies you can implement in your coaching cycles!




References


Knight, J. (2018). The Impact Cycle: What instructional coaches should do to foster powerful improvements in teaching. Corwin Press.


Nugent, G., Houston, J., Kunz, G., & Chen, D. (2023). Analysis of instructional coaching: what, why and how. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 12(4), 402–423. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmce-08-2022-0066


SMART Technologies. (2016, February 8). How classroom technology enables instructional strategies [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EO3NYPwIqg

Comments

  1. Mr. BeardNovember 7, 2024 at 2:04 PM

    Hey Meredith! Currently, we do not have technology instructional coaches in my school district. I think it is fantastic that your district does. It shows that your board and administrators value their teachers and understand the importance of supporting teachers in every way possible. In The Impact Cycle, Jim Knight highlights the role of a coach in supporting teachers, noting that “Coaches partner with teachers to identify goals, implement strategies, and make adjustments, always focusing on what’s most effective for students” (Knight, 2017, p. 55). That goes for more than just Reading and Math. Technology coaching can benefit teachers in all subjects. I hope that more school districts see how tech coaching can impact teachers, students, and administrators. Thanks for your post!

    Reference:
    Knight, J. (2017). The impact cycle: What instruction coaches should do to foster powerful improvements in teaching. Corwin.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tomeka JonesNovember 7, 2024 at 6:30 PM

    Hi Meredith
    I believe there are benefits and challenges with co-teaching. Knight (2018) points out detailed planning is required to ensure it succeeds. Time to plan and strategize is important to ensure the flow of the lesson for students. Furthermore, co-teaching requires equal and shared responsibility according to Knight (2018). However, co-teaching allows teachers to address different learning needs in the classroom. This allows teachers to tailor instructions and meet the needs of their students. Co-teaching can transform how students learn and how educators collaborate but planning and flexibility is necessary for it to be successful.

    Knight, J. (2018). The Impact Cycle: What instructional coaches should do to foster powerful improvements in teaching. Corwin Press.

    Tomeka Jones

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Using Social Media Like An Expert

-
Image
          What is social media? According to a group of researchers, "social media are web-based tools that enable users to communicate using a digital strategy" (Mukminin et al., 2023 , para. 1).  Social media is a growing platform inundated with people, young and old. We use it frequently- sharing news articles, posting our favorite dinner, learning new information, and telling others about our latest vacation spot. Many platforms are categorized under the umbrella term of "social media". Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly known as Twitter) are just a few social media platforms we will focus on in this article. Should we use all social media platforms in the same way? Should we cater our approac h to the platform? Want to know how to post on social media like an expert? Check out the tips below!       Over half the population in the United States has a Facebook profile, making it the most-used social media platform (Lawrenc...
Read more

Persuasive Advertising

-
Design by Meredith Barker            Advertisements are all around us. From the moment we wake up, we are on our phones, encountering ads on social media platforms, emails, text messages, and notifications. Being exposed to advertisements does not stop when we put our phones down. We see ads on billboards, on the side of buses, hear them through the radio and television, and see them at our favorite restaurants and stores. We cannot escape the thousands of advertisements we are inundated with daily. However, we need to recognize the strategies advertisements use to persuade our thinking. Lawrence (2022) defines visual rhetoric as "the art of using visuals-- whether they are photographs, digital videos, holographic, projections, or other graphical media-- to persuade" (p. 105). Using visual rhetoric, advertisements are created to persuade their audience to buy a product or take a specific action. Let's learn more about these persuasion techniqu...
Read more

Learning Through Video

-
Image
Learning Through Video by Meredith Barker         Technology is all around us and constantly at our fingertips. Children love screens and engaging with technology from a young age- so much so that medical institutions such as Mayo Clinic release yearly screen time limit recommendations and provide screen safety tips. When children engage in media, it is strongly encouraged that programs are high-quality (Mayo Clinic, 2023). As an educator, I am constantly striving to engage my students in the best ways. Engagement through technology is my most successful tool in the classroom. From pre-schoolers to 5th graders, students get excited when we use technology (robotics, Chromebooks, videos, etc.) in school. The encouragement from Mayo Clinic has pushed me to reflect on my technology use to determine if it is high quality for my students.  High Quality Media in the Classroom      There are constantly more expectations placed on educa...
Read more