Dr. Katie Caprino, Assistant Professor of Education and Teaching & Learning Design Fellow
You can contact Dr. Caprino at caprinok@etown.edu. 

In my earlier blog posts “What is Coaching?” and “Connections between Design Thinking and Coaching,” I provided an introduction to coaching and some ideas about the links between design thinking and coaching.

In this blog post, I will share some questions, prompts, or moves that may help coaches and coachees as they engage in a coaching cycle informed by design thinking. I offer a few questions that align with each element of design thinking. (And even if you do not take a coaching cycle from start to finish, you may find these questions helpful when engaging in meaningful conversations around campus.)

Empathy. During the empathy stage, your goal is to learn about your partner. Your goals here are to build trust and get to know more about your partner as a human. This stage may take more than one session, as the relationship you build here will set the foundation for the work you and your partner do together.

Here are some questions, prompts, moves that may help you engage in empathy building:

• Meet for coffee, a walk, or a meal.
• Share your roles at the College.
• Ask about their hobbies, learn about their favorite books / shows / movies, and their dream vacation.
• Ask open-ended questions.
• Listen carefully.
• Inquiry about best communication methods (e.g., face-to-face, Zoom, text, email)
• Schedule a teaching observation (if it makes sense) or share artifacts that may be helpful during coaching cycle.

If you would like additional resources, this piece from EdTech Team has some great ideas about this trust-building stage. Researcher Brené Brown has a great digital short on the idea of empathy.

Define. In this stage, you want to set a coaching focus. Here are some questions, prompts, moves that may help you do this:

• Share why coaching cycle was attractive.
• Reflect on noticings and/or wonderings of teaching observation or other artifacts.
• Discuss the area of focus and goals or the coaching cycle. Avoid a deficit or correction-based perspective. Colleagues may want to further develop an effective practice, too.
• Frame focus in the form of a clear question.
• Consider timeframe of coaching cycle.

Iterate. You want to review resources during the iterate phase. Here are some questions, prompts, moves that may help you do this:

• Share resources (e.g., articles, websites, mentor texts) with one another.
• Discuss what stands out in these resources.

Prototype. This is the part of the coaching cycle in which you decide on a plan.  Here are some questions, prompts, moves that may help you do this:

Make a plan of action using the resources shared during the iterate stage. This could be co-designing a lesson with one another, drafting up a conference proposal, or role play an advising session.

Test. The plan is enacted in the test phase. Here are some questions, prompts, moves that may help you do this:

• Try out the teaching strategy.
• Submit a grant or conference proposal.
• Have the advising meeting.

Then …

• Reflect
• Commend what went well
• Set goals for further action
• Decide to continue coaching cycle or end here.

Please stay tuned for additional resources on the Studio’s webpage to help guide you through coaching conversations! A special thank you to Matt Skillen, who has helped my thinking on this project, and Christine Walsh, a fellow literacy teacher educator at Slippery Rock University, who was instrumental in helping me frame some of the shared questions and prompts.

Dr. Katie Caprino, Assistant Professor of Education and Teaching & Learning Design Fellow
You can contact Dr. Caprino at caprinok@etown.edu. 

Honestly, I had not heard of design thinking before I arrived at Elizabethtown College. I was introduced to the idea at a design challenge workshop during one of my first few years at the College. I must admit my team did not have the “winning” design, but the experience led me to think about design thinking and incorporate it into my work in a multitude of ways. I introduced the concept in my creativity methods course and did a SCARP project in which a student researcher and I thought about how design thinking functioned in contemporary picture books.

But as I was completing my instructional coaching endorsement, I began to find connections between design thinking and coaching.  I shared my ideas with a literacy colleague Dr. Christine Walsh at Slippery Rock University, and we had some intriguing conversations. In this blog post, I’ll share the results of these conversations and ways design thinking elements can help us as we think about a culture of coaching at Elizabethtown College.

Empathize. When designing, empathy is the starting point. Knowing the users for whom you are creating is key. The same is true with coaching. As we think about engaging in coaching relationships, we must build relationships with those we coach and those who coach us. Have a cup of coffee. Take a walk. Chat about your work at the College but also about yourselves as humans. Share hobbies, interests, and favorite restaurants. These relationships are central to coaching partnerships, which may flip (i.e., the coachee may become a coach in another cycle), and are a key component of what makes our campus community special.

Define. A problem-solving framework, design thinking looks to define the problem. We can think more broadly about this in terms of coaching on our campus. We can certainly work with our coach or coachee to articulate an area of growth in a myriad areas (e.g., advising, teaching, scholarship, conference presentations, work-life understandings, etc.), but we can also think about how to help one another intensify a strength or more deeply engage with an area of strength. Sometimes this is an area that is identifiable right from the beginning of the coaching cycle; other times an observation of teaching practice or analysis of other artifacts (e.g., conference proposals) may be helpful.

Ideate. This is the brainstorming component of design thinking. In this step, many ideas are thrown out and tossed around. This is The Sticky Note Part. The coach may bring in resources (e.g., teaching articles, videos, or book chapters; sample conference proposals; or a list of a few strategies). Time is then spent discussing the ideas and an area of focus is decided upon. It is important not to overwhelm the coachee with too many ideas. A narrow focus is key here. 

Prototype. This is where the models are created and analyzed in design thinking. When applying this step of design thinking to coaching, you can think about coming up with the plan for addressing the narrow focus from the last step. Here, you may plan for how the coachee will implement one of the agreed-upon strategies in their classroom. Sometimes, the coach may come to the coachee’s classroom and demonstrate a lesson strategy. If a coachee is receiving assistance on submitting to conferences, here is where the draft of the proposal may be composed and reviewed.

Test. This is where the test drive happens. The coachee may teach the lesson with the new strategy or submit a conference proposal for the first time. This is the step where all of the defining, ideating, and prototyping pays off.

Will it always be perfect? Of course not! Design thinking and coaching are recursive practices. Although demonstrated here in a linear process, there may be some messiness. You will, for example, focus on empathy throughout – not just at the beginning. And you may have to return to the defining stage as you move throughout your coaching-coachee relationship. And that is okay. You’re designing!

Stay tuned for the next post in the Culture of Coaching Blog Series: Questions to Post When Coaching.

A special thank you to my literacy colleague Dr. Christine Walsh at Slippery Rock University for engaging in meaningful conversations and writing with me about the connections between design thinking and coaching. 

Today we celebrate teachers around the globe, and acknowledge their contributions to improving the quality of life for learners everywhere. I am proud to be a teacher, and to help other teachers grow their skills to nurture the learning ecosystems we serve.

Introduced by UNESCO in 1994, World Teachers’ Day emphasizes not only the impact teachers make on the educational community, but also the issues affecting teachers as we endeavor to continue our good works.  The theme “Teachers at the Heart of Education Recovery” has been appropriately designated for this year’s observance; this theme focuses on the broad work we are doing to deliver quality learning experiences and to evolve teaching perspectives even through disruptive adversity.

With this idea in mind, the Etown Teaching and Learning Design Studio proudly announces the availability of a second in a series of fully online professional development courses designed to enrich your practice as a valued member of our faculty. Teaching Presence Across Modalities aims to help you feel more comfortable and confident in establishing your teaching presence across multiple modes of instructional delivery; designed by a learning scientist, this free course offers up-to-date practical knowledge and instructional techniques to utilize in your daily practice and gives you access to resources you can revisit and grow as you move forward in your teaching. This professional development experience will remain open through November 30; the first course in this series, Giving Feedback in the Online Environment, is still open for your participation until October 31.

Now is the perfect time to invest in yourself the way you invest in our students!

Happy World Teachers’ Day! Keep learning. ??❤️

Instructional design can be considered the building process of the learning experience, with designers working hand-in-hand with faculty throughout the development process. As architects of learning design, we know that the best construction requires planning, materials, and scaffolding to facilitate the building of an excellent course. Throughout this process, instructional designers provide guidance, feedback, and support that will ultimately enhance the student learning experience.

The Etown Teaching and Learning Design Studio is here to work with you in a collaborative way as you look to develop an engaging learning experience for your students.

Do you have a new course to develop, or would you like to revise an existing one? Would you like to request a course quality review? Do you need to incorporate microlearning into your course, or develop a special learning instance for a forum, workshop, or conference?

Please use this handy guide to get started on your course design project, and contact the Etown Teaching and Learning Design Studio at studio@etown.edu to set up a consultation!

Etown Teaching and Learning Design Studio Services PROJECT GUIDE

In everything we do at Etown we believe we are always improving. We invite students to find their best lives here, and we encourage everyone at Etown to invest in themselves to continually develop and improve their lives. Through every interaction with our students, in every period of inquiry, with each new opportunity to engage in our vibrant learning community, we are always in the process of improving.  

The Etown Teaching and Learning Design Studio launched at a significant time, in the context of a global pandemic, when our entire industry pivoted to 100% remote and online teaching and learning. Our work focused squarely on equipping and supporting professors and instructors in the creation of memorable and lasting learning experiences in online and hybrid formats. As we now set our sights on the next chapter, the Studio will continue to be an important site on our campus that promotes and supports a relationship- and learner-centered culture of instruction, advising and scholarship. 

Our emphasis on design remains intentional as we seek to create opportunities for research, theory, and practice to inform our methods to meet the needs of our students and achieve our institution’s mission. We invite you to join us in these efforts and the Studio team looks forward to working with you. 

Meet the team:

Matt Skillen, Studio Director
Sharon Birch, Assistant Director of Instructional Technology 
Crystal Donlan, Instructional Designer and Online Learning Specialist
Jill Kleis, Program Support Specialist & Administrative Assistant