Student agency and teacher’s responsiveness and adaptability are probably some of the most important components of an effective and inclusive classroom. In order to observe this effectiveness and modeling personalized learning with teachers, I am in favour of the cognitive coaching approach where the coachee and the coach first meet to determine what the goal is, and how data will be collected during the observation. This sets the basis of trust and objectivity for classroom observation. The teacher can decide to self-observe by videotaping her/himself or by asking a coach to observe. Data gathering can take the form of anecdotal notes, can be a record of student/teacher talk time ratio, can be a script of the questions the learners or teacher asked etc. Through this qualitative process, teachers can reflect by themselves on what they think they might want to focus on, to continuously catalyse learning and grow as professionals.

I have not moved into a supervision role in my capacity as a Coach but I have experimented with a walkthrough tool created by Highlander Institute that has allowed me to self-observe. This template includes different aspects: classroom culture, student agency, pacing and self-directedness.