Focus Group Reflection
Timothy R. Jones
EDL/531 - Mentoring and Coaching
April 28, 2014
Dr. Janice Collins
Focus Group Reflection
Instructional Coaching (IC), described in Instructional Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction (Knight, 2007), provides intensive, differentiated support to teachers so that they are able to implement proven practices. The Conceptual Framework is centered on the educational professional and several themes that support the professional practice. This assignment will use the previous week’s focus group participant responses that summarized the expectations of characteristics and types of support offered by an effective coach or mentor within the teacher’s school. The information will relate the teacher’s responses to instructional Coaching components and Conceptual Framework themes from this course.
Reflection Overview
I had the opportunity to take the focus group participants responses on expectations of characteristics and types of support offered by a coach or mentor at ECPI in Newport News, Virginia. Both teachers I interviewed had similar expectations of a good mentor and the support that was expected when they started their instructor careers. The two areas I will reflect on are the teaching practices that the college coaches shared with the two teachers and the conceptual framework that guided the teachers throughout the mentoring partnership process. The teaching practice discussed was The Big Four and the Conceptual Framework consisted of the teacher’s experiences with valuing diversity, technology integration, and practicing professional ethics in the classroom.
The Big Four
If Instructional Coaches are going to share proven teaching practices with teachers, they wi...
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...practices and ethical conduct toward students, professional colleagues, and community members. I could tell they maintained the dignity of their profession, demonstrated integrity, and exemplified honesty.
Overall, I feel that my focus group discussion was a success. I was able to put together a reflection of the process that covered teaching practices and conceptual framework ideas that were used by their IC’s. The teaching practice discussed was The Big Four and the Conceptual Framework consisted of the teacher’s experiences with valuing diversity, technology integration, and practicing professional ethics in the classroom.
Reference
Knight, J. (2007). Instructional coaching: A partnership approach to improving instruction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Knight, J. (2009). The big four: A framework for instructional excellence. Manuscript in preparation.
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