About the Course
The Office of K-12 Outreach offers a fully online, self-paced learning opportunity for educators interested in extending their understanding of the fundamental knowledge, skills, and dispositions of effective coaching.
This course introduces a coaching process based on a mediational coaching model where coaches learn how to use specific skills and strategies for supporting educator development and improving practice through powerful coaching conversations. Effective coaching can help schools maintain lasting excellence.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course, the successful student will be able to:
- Explain the role of the mediational coach and identify the mindset of a mediational coach.
- Develop active listening skills as a fundamental coaching tool.
- Define and demonstrate how the Pause, Paraphrase, Pose-a-Question pattern (PPP) is used during the coaching conversation.
- Determine the appropriate types of questions to use during the coaching conversation.
- Develop relationship-building skills that will improve the coaching conversation.
- Provide useful feedback in a coaching situation to promote self-reflection.
- Integrate the appropriate coaching tools to promote coaching practice.
Course Details
This course in coaching fundamentals is intended as a foundational exploration for the following categories of individuals:
- Educators who are just beginning to think about coaching as a tool to improve teaching and wish to assess their readiness for further study.
- Experienced coaches who wish to review effective approaches to improving their skills in communication and mediating thinking.
- School or district-level administrators responsible for determining the appropriate skill sets and mindsets of individuals who seek to be hired as instructional and leadership coaches.
- School or district-level administrators who seek to standardize the practice of instructional and leadership coaches.
- Building relational trust and rapport
- Using active listening techniques
- Posing effective questions
- Knowing when and how to challenge assessments
- Giving effective feedback
There will be short quizzes at the end of each module. Quizzes are designed to assess your knowledge of the fundamental concepts covered in each module. Participants will need to achieve 100% before moving on to the next module. At the end of the course, there will be a final assessment. Participants must achieve at least 90% to receive a certificate of completion for participating in the course.
Participants will be awarded 7.5 State Continuing Education Clock Hours (SCECHs).
Participants will pay $100.00 to gain access to the online module series.
The Foundations of Coaching course will lead you through a series of four coaching modules. View a breakdown of each module, including the estimated time to complete each module.
Register here for access to the Foundations of Coaching Module. After you complete your registration, MSU will process your information and email you instructions on how to access the modules.
Our Legacy of Educational Coaching
The Office of K-12 Outreach has decades of statewide experience developing educational coaches with the competence and skills necessary to promote school improvement. In this Foundations of Educational Coaching course, participants will learn how to use specific skills and strategies for supporting educator development and improving practice through powerful coaching conversations. Research and our own practical experience confirm that effective coaching sustains lasting excellence for all educators in schools.
*Portions of this coaching model were designed through past Michigan State University programming funded by a grant from the Michigan Department of Education (MSU’s Coaching 101 program).