THE TRAINING OF COACHING SKILLS - AN IMPLEMENTATION STUDY

In this study, the implementation effects of a programme for the train ing of coaching skills with Dutch school counsellors ave described. Th ese school counsellors are expected to provide help and support to pri mary school teachers. Coaching is a form of in-class support intended to provide teachers with feedback on their own functioning and thereby stimulate self-reflection and self-analysis in order to improve instr uctional effectiveness. To assist school counsellors in their attempts to coach teachers, a training programme was designed: 'The school cou nsellor as coach.' A quasi-experimental treatment-control group invest igation was then set up to test the effects of this programme. Based o n the pre- and post-training ratings of coaching conferences, a signif icant treatment effect was found for the coaching skills concerned wit h the development of autonomy (empowerment), feedback, and purposefuln ess. The pre- and posttraining ratings from coached teachers showed no significant treatment effects. This was because the teachers were not accustomed to in-class assistance and thus rated the coaching skills of the school counsellors quite favourably even at pre-test.