So far in this series, we have discussed the importance of developing teachers as Classroom Leaders, giving and receiving feedback effectively, creating strong professional intercultural relationships, and using the GROW method to manage the time and direction of a lesson. As lifelong learners ourselves, it is imperative to set a direction and goals around our own education as well as for our students. With high rates of teacher burnout leading to increasing rates of turnover, professional development amongst TEFL community can become stagnant. This article is intended to encourage effective goal setting and review professional success within the context of educator’s development.

The TEFL certificate, a bachelor’s degree, post graduate certificate, and home country teaching license are ultimately different destinations along the same journey. In coaching, choosing a particular destination along that journey and narrowing down the precise measures of success is what we call goal setting. While different countries and jobs have different requirements, the ultimate goal also reflects a certain commitment to the field of education or a teacher’s path in their professional life. We all have a desire to do well in our profession; the only real questions to be explored are how well, and also, how will we know when we have achieved this?

There is a degree of professionalism that exists around this conversation, and the idea of permanence is not always one that is considered when moving abroad. Many within the expat community have arrived seeking radical change in their lifestyles; it doesn’t get much more radical than living abroad. Over time I have observed that most people know that China is or isn’t the right place for them after 90 days. They either stick around in the same company or hop between a couple over the first few years. After that, expats in the TEFL community begin to shift in identity and question- is this really what I want to do with my life and in this location? It can be very difficult to set goals based on what is truly desired, as the identity of an individual is thrust into the whirlwind that is this lifestyle. However, that is precisely why the importance of goal setting is important.

Within a coaching relationship exists a variety of different goals that are discussed. We might begin with the client’s overall goal in a discovery session – why do they want to engage in a coaching agreement? If the client were a teacher for example, their goal might be to have more confidence in the classroom, to ask for a promotion at the end of the year or to formulate a career development strategy for the next 3-5 years. By partnering with a client, we can identify if they have a dream goal, an end goal, a performance goal or a process goal. And from here we can co-create a strategy that breaks down any goal into a smaller goal or series of goals and develop a plan that empowers them to take action.

SMART is a useful framework to consider when thinking about goal setting (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-framed). I see a lot of people setting goals that are specific, achievable and time-framed, however little thought is given to measurable and relevant. To make sure that we are actually successful in achieving our goal, we need to be able to measure it. This can be assessed very easily by asking of any goal – how will I know when I am successful? For a goal to be relevant, it must also be in alignment with what we actually desire. To set a goal of finishing typing up lesson plans by next Thursday is great, but it also needs to connect with your why. This reminds you that you need to get the plans done by Thursday because they are due on Friday.

Another key factor to success in goal setting is that it must be in our control. As Sir John Whitmore wrote in Coaching for Performance, “I have to is for you, I want to is for me”. When we create goals that rely on others, we begin to lose some of the control over the goal. The more control we lose over the goal, the less attached we are, and the least likely we are to achieve the results. Alternatively, by allowing someone else to drive the results while remaining highly attached, we can become highly stressed or anxious by the result, especially when they take the credit. One relatable comparison might be any teacher that has set the goal of becoming better at classroom management. A teacher that has tried to control the disruptive behaviour of their students, may have had some success. But the teacher who has controlled their response to the disruptive behaviour of their students is likely to have had a greater success.

Another critical component to setting achievable, efficient goals is that it remains positive. Any smoker who has tried to quit smoking rather than engage in smoke free lifestyle can attest to this. It doesn’t matter how much we remind them that smoking is bad for their health, it affects their appearance and their students tell them they smell like Grandpa. The negative reinforcement from quitting is part of what will always drive them back for another. I know this because I smoked for over 10 years. What helped me to finally make the decision to permanently put down the cigarettes was a psychological change. I had to take ownership of my goal, and I had to reframe it in a positive way. I wanted freedom from the addiction of smoking, I wanted to remove the weight of “smoker” as a label on my identity. That was almost a year ago and since then I have gone on to coach others through the very same process.

Effective goal setting for teachers is what defines success within the TEFL industry in China and beyond. That could be in the way classrooms are managed physically or virtually today, it could mean creating a professional development strategy over the course of the next school year, or it could be developing an exit strategy to transition out of teaching in the next 5 years. Whatever goals you are setting professionally, I encourage you to stay accountable to them by assessing them against these criteria.

If you would like help to set, achieve or review your goals, send me a message today!

Effective time management is a skill which many people list on their CV yet few actually understand and even less employ. It is a crucial skill for teachers to develop an awareness of, as they demonstrate this to their students on both a conscious and a subconscious level. The best lesson is one which activates learning, includes the sharing of information and elicits high student engagement. By using a clear structure within both the planning and classroom setting, teachers can provide a greater sense of stability within their classroom routines. This encourages clearer expectations and direction for all involved.

Lesson planning is the bane of many teachers’ existence. With so many varying critical factors to consider, it can be quite the challenge for a new teacher. Indeed, even an experienced teacher meeting a new class, grade or school for the first time can be a somewhat harrowing. There are several “right” ways to plan a lesson, and yet one critical factor often overlooked is the structure of a lesson. This article serves to introduce a simple model that can be used to consider the framework of a singular lesson, a series of lessons as part of a unit, or a series of units creating the curriculum.

The GROW model is an adaptable 4-step model that was first developed in the late ‘80s by Sir John Whitmore. It is a highly interactive technique which can be used to structure team discussions or overall classroom goals by looking at the purpose, measures of success, obstacles and ways to move forward. In coaching, I personally use the GROW model to structure the time and direction of individual sessions. For the purpose of this article, we will investigate the use of the GROW model within an individual lesson.

G – Goal. Several studies have concluded that there is a direct link between setting goals and achieving success in them. Within a coaching context, co-creating a clearly defined session agreement is critical to measuring success. This could be compared to a student’s learning objective in a classroom environment. However, in a classroom setting, the learning objective is often directed to the student from the teacher. By asking powerful questions, the teacher as a Classroom Leader can explore their student’s motivations behind learning. Involving students in the early stages of goal setting could have a greater impact and therefore help them to commit to achieving the goal of increased learning. With better understanding, the teacher as a Classroom Leader can plan activities to elicit higher student engagement and learning happens intuitively.

R – Reality. The reality is that not every student has the desire to learn every subject or possess the same level of ability within a class. This is especially true within the TEFL classroom. In fact, there are several barriers to student learning across the education industry. However, one key element of the coaching mindset is detachment from the outcome. Truly, there is no way to force any student to learn; it is a process they must take their own responsibility for. As teachers, all we can do is create an environment where they feel safe enough to take their own leaps of faith in learning and vulnerable enough to try. This can be done by assessing internal and external barriers to learning, and removing or minimising them as much as possible. It may also be of value to discuss some of the barriers to students. For example, discussing their internal feedback allows them to develop greater self-awareness. This, in turn, enables them to learn for themselves what motivates and what disempowers them. Ultimately, this leads to greater autonomy and responsibility for their own learning.

O – Options/ Obstacles. In assessing the reality of the situation, student’s and clients alike are probably going to feel a little disheartened. This is where the coach and the teacher as a Classroom Leader need to trust the method the most. Instead of slipping into the spiral of despair, this is the point in the model where we get to open up to greater possibility and inspiration. It can be easy to give in to the temptation to advise; instead, try challenging your student’s and really listening to their responses. Paraphrase their obstacles and return them with a question that requires them to think. Yes, it might be challenging, so what would make it easier? Yes, this might be boring for you, so how can you share your knowledge as a resource with your classmates? Yes, I acknowledge that you aren’t interested in practising this grammar point, so how can we make it more fun? Involving students in this process encourages participation in dialogue which allows them to feel heard and acknowledged.

W – Way/ Will forward. As long as students can come up with ideas and feel listened to, record their responses. Collect these as they may be highly valuable later when you want inspiration for the next lesson/ unit/ class. Show them you respect their ideas by incorporating some of the feedback you were given. Ask them how they would like to get started. How will they stay accountable? How will they show you they are successful in their goal? How committed do they feel to this goal now? How will they stay accountable? How do they want to improve on this in the future? This builds further on their autonomy, putting the responsibility back on them for their learning.

By following the GROW framework, teachers as Classroom Leaders could boost student engagement and autonomy. This creates the space to focus on the time, direction and completeness when delivering their lesson. There are multiple scenarios where this method could be effective from curriculum planning, team meetings or drafting a field trip Try using the GROW model, stay curious to what opportunities open up, and let me know how effective it was for you!

In our last post we opened up to the idea of developing teachers as Classroom Leaders. We began to see how shifting some of the responsibilities of the teacher creates an environment where students become more responsible for their own learning and development. As the 2019-2020 school year draws to a close locally in China, many teachers are receiving their end-of-year review and asked to provide feedback. This can create tension within working environments as beliefs and cultures can clash about what makes effective criteria for evaluation, and how this is given and received.

Today I want to introduce to a tool that will revolutionise the way you feel about feedback. It’s called FeedForward. This concept was introduced by Marshall Goldsmith, and it was originally created as a way to help businesses learn and grow. Like many tools, this is useful to adapt into education as it sets a much more positive tone in both the office and classroom environment. This is achieved by putting the responsibility back onto the learner, creating that same autonomy that the teacher as a Classroom Leader instils into their student.

In FeedForward there are two roles; Role One as The Learner, and Role Two as The Helper. You can assume that there are both smart and nice people in the room because it is possible that every human has the potential to be both of these things. If we can imagine this is true, we can suppose that you want to learn from the smart people and help the nice people. If you don’t believe me, just ask the smart/ nice people to raise their hands in your next meeting. So, if there are smart people we want to learn from and nice people we want to help, how can we do so? The answer is to focus on feeding forward.

There are only two rules with FeedForward. The first is NO feedback about the past. If it’s gone, done and can’t be changed, how does verbally repeating and berating mistakes serve to improve the teacher? It doesn’t. That is why it is always met with a silent or defensive stance that doesn’t actually help anyone. This type of feedback tears down their accomplishments, invalidates their efforts and chips away at the self-esteem. It also creates the idea that TEFL teachers are disposable, reinforcing the instability which leads to depression about the past and anxiety about the future. Over time this can create a vicious cycle, causing teacher burn-out and high staff turnover. No one wants that. So, the focus needs to remain on what is controllable- the future.

The second rule is that you can’t critique or judge ideas. It is easy to be critical; what is challenging is to allow the teacher to be in control of their own development and improvement. In order for FeedForward to be effective, there needs to be trust. The Seeker must be able to ask for input from the smart person and receive ideas from the nice person. The recommended philosophy is to treat the input like a gift. When it is received, regardless of what it is, the socially accepted response is to say thank you and accept it with gratitude. Even if it is an ugly Christmas sweater and you are never going to wear it except maybe at an ugly sweater competition. It’s okay to say thank you and let it go.

This method has been used in both small and large groups, with individuals or teams. It follows an effectivr simple, repeatable formula. A one-on-one conversation might look like this:

“Hi, my name is Pam and I’m looking for ways to improve my percentage of students completing homework.”

Then you give me two or three ideas that you might use, without past feedback or critical judgements.

I say “thank you”

And then you say “Hi my name is ABC and I’m looking for ways to improve my cross-cultural communication.”

Then I give you two or three ideas that you might use, without past feedback or critical judgements.

And you say “thank you”

And then we move on. Seems pretty simple right?

Here is where I challenge you Dear Reader, to take this exercise and implement it in your own life. Try it the next time someone wants to give you feedback, when you are asked for feedback, or even as a classroom activity.

And most importantly, don’t forget to FeedForward and tell me what you thought of this article by commenting, liking or sharing on social media!

A teacher’s role is to facilitate their students’ learning in coordination with their school’s best practices for education. In a foreign environment, with a language barrier, and without adequate support, this can be a real challenge that sinks many expats into a state of unhappiness. More often than not, this results in lacklustre classroom performance, a high turnover amongst teachers, and a jaded experience for those who remain. In this series, we will explore what can be done to reverse this current trend and elevate the level of the learning culture within education, specifically within the TEFL industry.

At first glance, many would consider the teacher as the head of the classroom. Indeed, there is a “student body”, however in TEFL there is also often an overworked and overlooked TA or Teaching Assistant. During my time spent in the classroom, I worked with several local TAs. I found that the chemistry established with them at the start of the year would determine how the rest of the year was going to go. 

Regardless of experience, age or gender, I found that the best relationships were built on mutual trust and understanding that whatever came up throughout the year, we would face together. This partnership meant sharing the credit, the workload, and the balance between “good cop/ bad cop” in our classroom discipline. It required constant open and honest communication, a willingness to give and receive feedback, and faith that we both had the best intentions. 
On the opposite end of the scale, I can reflect that those relationships that did not have the same chemistry from Day One led to ongoing problems both in and out of the classroom. By not being on the same page as my TA, our partnership was not as effective and our classes were never really in sync. This affected my personal life too. I would often go home at the end of the day carrying heavy emotion, reflecting that I could have performed better in my own role. As a teacher, I wished that I had been introduced to the idea of becoming a Classroom Leader, rather than a Classroom Manager before I had burned out of the industry. 

Within the context of education, we could say that a Classroom Manager would be responsible for managing student’s attention, assigning individual or group activities during class time, and checking homework. These actions fall under the “correct” components of a successful traditional lesson. However, they also operate under a strict regime that could quickly become boring. This leads to uninterested students who are easily distracted. These students go on to cause their own entertainment through whatever behavioural delights they are partial to employing. In contrast, a Classroom Leader provides just enough information to pique their student’s curiosity and then leaves them the clues to facilitate their own learning. This throws the door wide open to possibility, student autonomy and collaborative learning. 

The teacher who is a Classroom Leader surrenders much of the responsibility for their student’s learning, which was never actually in their control. This is something that many teachers struggle with. However, by partnering with TAs and students, this teacher is focused on inspiring rather than directing. This then creates freedom to provide additional learning support to those students who really need it, to establish a growth mindset amongst their classes, and to create better partnerships within their team and their school. 

One such technique that could be used to lead rather than manage a classroom, is the use of coaching. There are many aspects of coaching that can be used, but the simplest place to start is the definition. Coaching is about establishing partnerships that unlock a client’s potential; it is a learning intervention that aims to facilitate client growth, awareness and learning. This differs from the traditional view of teaching which focuses on the teacher having more knowledge, experience and wisdom than their student by putting both players at an equal starting point and asking, “how can we move forward with your understanding of a concept so that you can confidently achieve your goal?”. 

There are many strategies that can be used to explore how to develop the role of Coaching in Education, and we will uncover these over the course of this series.
For now, Dear Reader, I would be curious to know; where do you stand along the scale from Classroom Manager to Classroom Leader?