BONUS: Coaching Mistakes I've Made That Actually Improved My Teaching

Discover why learning through mistakes is the foundation of effective instructional coaching! In this bonus episode, I explore Jim Knight's seven essential success factors for instructional coaching and how they create conditions for both teachers and students to flourish.

Learn how vulnerability powers growth, why partnership principles transform coaching relationships, and how addressing power dynamics creates the psychological safety necessary for genuine improvement.

I share my own coaching journey mistakes and what they taught me about equality, choice, voice, reflection, and true partnership.

You'll discover practical strategies to create a culture where mistakes are welcomed as learning opportunities, empowering both coaches and teachers to experiment, reflect, and grow together.

Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction: The Value of Learning Through Mistakes
1:00 - Setting the Stage: Jim Knight's Seven Success Factors
2:00 - Personal Coaching Mistakes That Transformed My Practice
4:00 - Partnership as the Foundation of Effective Coaching
5:00 - Key Partnership Principles: Equality, Choice, Voice & Reflection
7:00 - Addressing Power Dynamics in Coaching Relationships
8:00 - Creating a Culture Where Mistakes Are Welcome

#InstructionalCoaching #PartnershipPrinciples #TeacherDevelopment #CoachingMistakes #ProfessionalGrowth #EducationalLeadership #JimKnight #PsychologicalSafety #SchoolCoaching #TeacherVoice

Make sure to listen to my full interview with Jim (Season 4, Episode 35) before diving into this bonus content! 

When coaches, teachers, administrators, and families work hand in hand, it fosters a school atmosphere where everyone is inspired, and every student is fully engaged in their learning journey.

New episodes are released every Monday, with a bonus solo episode on Fridays featuring research-backed coaching and teaching strategies you can apply right away to better serve the children in your care.

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When coaches, teachers, administrators, and families work hand in hand, it fosters a school atmosphere where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged in their learning journey.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hi there. I'm so glad you're here. Your time is precious, and because of that, I want to let you know right away what you'll gain by listening to the very last second of this episode. My conversation with Jim Knight focused on the seven essential success factors for instructional coaching. These factors create conditions for both teachers and students to flourish.

In this bonus episode, I highlight why learning through mistakes is the foundation of effective coaching with partnership principles, creating the psychological safety necessary for genuine growth. You'll learn why vulnerability powers growth, why partnership principles transform coaching, and why addressing power dynamics is essential.

Stay with me. I'm so happy to have you as a listener today. This is Schoolutions Coaching and Teaching Strategies, the podcast that extends education beyond the classroom. A show that offers educators and caregivers strategies to try right away and ensure every student receives the [00:01:00] inspiration and support they need to thrive.

I am Olivia Wahl, and this is a bonus episode. It's an accompaniment to my conversation with Jim Knight. If you haven't already listened to that episode, press pause and go back. Tune in. It will give you some background to where I'm going with this conversation. And you know, I really want to focus on the power of learning through mistakes.

One of the most profound moments when I was reading his book and then in conversation with him was the beautiful quote from his book, “This book documents the many mistakes we've made, and what we've learned from those mistakes as we've developed our understanding of instructional coaching.”

And what struck me was his willingness to be vulnerable about his own learning journey. And when Jim acknowledged that his published works are essentially a chronicle of mistakes and lessons learned, I felt an immediate sense of relief. Because as coaches, we often put so much pressure on ourselves to have all of the answers. [00:02:00] To be the experts who never, ever falter. But Jim reminds us that growth happens precisely because we try, we fail, we adjust, and then we try again.

In my own coaching journey, I've made countless mistakes that ultimately transform my practice. Early in my coaching career, I asked questions I already knew the answers to. I was overly focused on fixing teachers' problems rather than partnering with them. I would swoop in with solutions already in mind before I truly understood their perspective or honored their own expertise.

Early on, if I worked with teachers who seemed resistant to my coaching, instead of getting curious about what was underneath that resistance, what I should have done, I may have labeled them as difficult and missed an opportunity to build trust. There were definitely coaching cycles where I neglected to gather enough data about student outcomes and then it made it [00:03:00] impossible to know if our work together was truly making a difference. 

But each of these mistakes taught me something valuable; that no workshop, no book would've ever conveyed with the same impact. Because remember, as Eleanor Roosevelt wisely noted in the quote that Jim shared, “Learn from the mistakes of others, you can't live long enough to make them all yourself.”

And the most powerful insight from my conversation with Jim was his emphasis on partnership as the foundation of effective coaching. It was so helpful when he distinguished between facilitative, dialogical, and directive approaches because he wasn't just offering theoretical frameworks.

He was describing the core of what makes coaching transformative. And when I think about the partnership principles that Jim's championed throughout his career, several stand out as particularly transformative. The first being equality. That profound shift that [00:04:00] happens when we approach teachers as equal thinking partners rather than recipients of our expertise.

This doesn't mean we don't share our knowledge Jim reminded us, but rather that we share it dialogically, always leaving space for the teacher's agency and choice - just like we want teachers to do for their students. Another principle that resonates strongly is around choice. Jim's research showing that teachers were four and a half times more likely to implement ideas when they had choice rather than being directed, reveals something fundamental about human motivation. I've seen this play out countless times when teachers choose their own focus, their commitment deepens, immeasurably. 

And then voice. Honoring teacher voice means truly listening, not just to their words, but to their wisdom. When Jim talked about video recording coaching conversations, and watching the teacher as much as yourself, I remembered how transformative [00:05:00] this practice has been in my own coaching. And before AI came around, even creating transcripts from the videos and seeing how much balance there was between teacher talk and coach talk. 

And reflection. Creating space for genuine reflection rather than rushing to solutions has been one of my hardest earned lessons. As a coach, Jim's emphasis on getting a clear picture of reality before moving forward. It's such a good reminder that shortcuts in the coaching process ultimately lead to superficial change - they do not stick.

And one of the biggest mistakes I see in coaching is the mistake of power dynamics. I see it in coaching programs. I've made it myself. It's failing to address the power dynamics that can undermine true partnership. When Jim talked about how hierarchies mess with our ability to see the real person, I thought about how often this plays out in schools.

Teachers may see coaches as evaluators rather than [00:06:00] partners. I've even heard coaches called spies before. Coaches may feel pressure from administration to fix certain teachers. Administrators may expect immediate results without understanding the relational foundation required for coaching to work.

This is where Jim's insights about coaching up become so valuable. The same partnership principles apply when we're working with a peer or with someone in leadership. We still listen. We still honor their perspective, and we still approach the conversation with respect and authenticity. So then what's our next step?

Well, we have to create a culture where mistakes are welcome. If there's one thing I'm taking away from my conversation with Jim, it's the importance of creating coaching relationships and school cultures where mistakes are normalized as being part of the learning process. When Jim said, “getting better is a weird thing” and referenced the Buddhist quote about being perfect in everything you are, while still having [00:07:00] room to get better, he captured the paradox at heart of effective coaching.

As coaches, we need to model comfort with our own imperfections. When we share our mistakes and what we've learned from them, we create psychological safety for teachers to do the same. And when teachers feel safe to experiment, to fail, to reflect and adjust, they're more likely to create classrooms where students feel that same freedom.

And here's my invitation to you. As I continue to reflect on Jim's wisdom about mistakes in partnership, I'd love to hear from you. What mistake in your coaching practice has taught you the most? Which partnership principle resonates most deeply with you and why? How do you create conditions where both you and your teachers can learn from mistakes?

Email me at  schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com with your reflections. Let's keep learning together because as Jim reminded us, when we learn, so do our [00:08:00] students. Until next time, take care. I'll see you next week. 

Schoolutions Coaching and Teaching Strategies is created, produced, and edited by me. Olivia Wahl. Thank you to my older son, Benjamin, who created the music playing in the background. You can follow and listen to Schoolutions wherever you get to your podcasts or subscribe to never miss an episode and watch on YouTube. Now, I'd love to hear from you. Send me an email at schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com. Let me know how showing your vulnerability has powered your growth. Tune in every Monday for the best research-backed coaching and teaching strategies you can apply right away to better the lives of the children in your care.

And stay tuned for my bonus episodes every Friday where I'll reflect and share connections to what I learned from the guests that week. See you then.