Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Instructional Coaching for Post-Secondary Educators in South East Asia

Mon, March 23, 11:45am to 1:15pm EDT (11:45am to 1:15pm EDT), Hyatt Regency Miami, Floor: 24, Petite Suite #4

Proposal

Post-secondary educators in South East Asia are hired because of their content knowledge and research background but are often never taught how to teach, let alone teach in a way that prepares young people for the world of work. It is crucial for instructors to attain the pedagogical skills that allow them to best equip graduates with what it takes to tackle challenges in the world of work. The USAID-LMI COMET project, which ran from 2014-2019 in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar, established a system that institutions could use to change this shortcoming. The project trained 1,093 instructors and administrators in dynamic teaching methods through face-to-face workshops, an online advanced professional development course, and instructional coaching. Knowing that short, one-off, trainings would never be enough to guide an instructor to use new methods in a system that has been using lecture for decades, the project provided instructors with an in-depth professional development program. Through blended training, USAID-LMI COMET created a professional development system that is flexible and gives instructors the depth of knowledge and skills to implement real-world projects in their classes, evaluate them appropriately, and be more responsive to real-time industry needs.

Through a process of testing various face-to-face and online instructional coaching approaches, the project refined its coaching approach into three levels: 1) Open classrooms where a trained instructor invites other trained instructors to their class to observe and share ideas; 2) Collaborative lesson design where master instructors help other instructors develop activities in a one-on-one or small group setting; and 3) Formal observations and feedback sessions using a protocol and tool.

While some of these methods could be introduced early in a project, others are predicated on the need for master instructors to first attain a certain level of competence; otherwise, sub-ideal practices could easily spread. Though the project developed three levels of coaching and attempted to standardize these, the fact is that coaching – because it is so highly personalized, individualized and differentiated – cannot be scaled. Coaching is necessary to invest in continuous improvement of a coach’s skills. The research very clearly shows that some coaching is better than a lot of training, though ONLY IF the coaching is of very high quality.

In post-secondary schools, people associate instructional coaching with evaluation and adherence to standards from a quality control perspective. Instructors are not used to being observed in a non-evaluative manner. Instructional coaching to improve skills and provide support is a new concept in post-secondary education in the Lower Mekong sub-region.

This presentation will share the coaching approach and tools, including lessons learned from the USAID-LMI COMET project around best practices in instructional coaching for post-secondary educators.

Author