Coaching has become a widespread and valuable means for leaders in schools to help their staff improve their practice.

Coaching typically involves the coach helping the coachee to develop a goal (i.e., be clear on where they should focus their discretionary time and energy to improve student learning and outcomes) and the actions, or sequential steps needed to achieve that goal.Follow up sessions typically involve review of, and accountability for, action taken and what action will be taken next.

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If relationships are a key element of a vibrant education system, then that would imply that a major part of a middle leader’s role is to help teachers improve their relationships with each other and with their students.

We know what this entails. It means for the individual to extinguish their triggers so that they can respond to anyone (or any set of circumstance) with equanimity and freely choose their response.

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Well, 2021 has begun. I foresee a lot of hard work ahead.

Education is not a technical problem – science and technology will only get us so far – it is a problem of relationships.

The theory of Human Capital is thus deeply flawed, there is far more that a child needs to learn as they grow than simply the knowledge and skills to be used in the job market.This other learning comes from relationships with adults characterised by the child’s willingness to pay attention to what the adult is paying attention to, and that the necessary asymmetry in knowledge and power in the adult’s favour is applied in the best interests of the child.

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Rationality is the term used in cognitive science for our capacity to use our intelligence more effectively. The more rational we are the more we see through self-deception and into reality, that is, the wiser we become.

Measures of general intelligence (g) only have a 0.3 correlation with measures of rationality (gr). We need intelligence to be rational, but it is not sufficient.

Over the last two weeks (here and here) we looked at how we can improve our capacity for insight, a key component of rationality allowing us to reframe how we see things to get closer to the underlying reality.

The other two components of rationality are reasoning (or logic) and caring (i.e., feeling or showing care for others).

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