The Coaching That Sticks Framework
Three conditions for coaching to become part of how a school works
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How I show up
Mindset is the internal stance a person brings to a conversation:
Self-awareness
Beliefs about the other person’s capability
How judgement and bias are managed
Intentional choice about the kind of support needed
When this stance is present, coaching becomes more than a set of techniques. When it isn’t, coaching tends to be displaced by default patterns of support in schools - patterns that are often rewarded because they feel efficient and competent. text goes here
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What I do
Skills are the behaviours that allow a coaching mindset to show up clearly and usefully in school conversations
Skills are not “coaching techniques” or a script to follow. They are the practical behaviours that express a coaching mindset in ordinary school interactions.
• Making sure the focus and outcome of the conversation are clear
• Ensuring enough structure to move forward without taking over
• Listening and noticing deeply, rather than moving quickly to solutions
• Asking the questions that shift perspective
• Doing this within the time that is actually available in schools
These are not instinctive skills. They need to be learned, practised, and refined in context.
Research helps explain why this gap persists. Joyce and Showers found that training alone leads to very low transfer into practice - sometimes as little as 10% of participants consistently applying what they learned.
The investment schools make in professional learning - courses, visiting speakers, external programmes - largely doesn’t translate without something to embed it afterwards. text goes here
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Whether it happens
Practical application is how coaching is integrated into the routines and interactions that make up school life.
Corridor and informal conversations
Make these everyday moments of reflection and clarification count.
Conversations with and between students
Support wellbeing and learning through dialogue that builds reflection, ownership and peer leadership.
PRD and professional learning conversations
Structure discussions to support reflection, ownership, and development.
Team meetings and collaborative groups
Use coaching structures to shift dialogue from information-sharing to collaborative thinking and problem-solving.
Follow-up to external courses
Ensure professional learning is applied and sustained, not lost.
Most approaches to coaching in schools address part of what is needed.
Mindset without skills stays at the level of intention. Skills without mindset become technique. Both without sustained application remain in the training room.
This framework addresses all three - and the relationship between them.
Coaching sticks when how people think, how they respond, and where those responses happen are aligned.
What the evidence says
There is strong evidence for this approach:
Collective teacher efficacy - identified by John Hattie as a major influence on student outcomes - is built through how staff think and work together, not through isolated initiatives.
Psychological safety, as described by Amy Edmondson, enables teams to speak openly, raise concerns early, and take productive risks. Coaching helps build this through consistent, everyday interactions.
Anthony Grant’s research shows that coaching improves goal attainment, resilience, and wellbeing, and that these effects increase as coaching becomes embedded.
Education-focused research by van Nieuwerburgh and Passmore highlights improvements in teacher confidence, self-efficacy, and willingness to try new approaches where coaching is part of school culture.