Long before joining the Steplab team, our own Claire Hill wrote Symbiosis: The Curriculum and the Classroom with Kat Howard and included a chapter on how instructional coaching, and namely the Steplab model (then Powerful Action Steps) can help move our curriculum from paper to practice. Several years later, Josh and Claire have now proudly written on this subject as part of the Chartered College of Teaching’s 20th Issue of their Impact journal.
How can coaching help close the curriculum what-how gap?
Our article highlights why we need to be as focused on how the curriculum will be delivered as we are about what it includes. As Mary Kennedy points out, unless we focus on how teachers will enact in their classrooms, we are left with ideas that do nothing to influence student learning (Kennedy, 2016). Closing this what-how gap is how we move from well-crafted documents detailing our intended curriculum to its effective enactment in the classroom.
The article explores the mechanisms synthesised in Steplab’s coaching model and how these help close the what-how gap. Drawing on our experience in leading curriculum and teaching, and combining our practical and theoretical knowledge of both, we outline a number of examples from the classroom to make these ideas more concrete.
We go on to explore the benefits of Steplab’s evidence-based training approach in creating stronger mental models for teachers, helping to develop subject knowledge, and supporting teachers to make better decisions, both in the classroom and for the curriculum. With the recent addition of our suite of subject specific steps, video models and insight modules, we’ve worked hard to provide all the content and tools needed for coaching to be responsive to the context of the school, students, teachers and subject.
If you’d like to learn more about how Steplab supports schools to ensure their curriculum makes a real difference in the classroom, drop us an email at [email protected]