Responsive Coaching: Evidence-informed instructional coaching that works for every teacher in your school

Great teachers make a huge difference to students' lives. Helping them to improve throughout their career is vital. But how can we best do this?

Multiple studies suggest that Instructional Coaching - a school-centred approach to developing teachers - is one of the best bets we have. However, to make the most of Instructional Coaching, we must be clear about what it means. Many writers disagree about this, proposing different definitions and methods.

In Responsive Coaching, Josh Goodrich examines contrasting Instructional Coaching models, combining research and practical experience to build an approach that adapts to meet the needs of individual teachers. This enables coaches to flex their style depending on where a teacher is on their journey towards expertise.

Josh distils his Responsive Coaching approach into five areas, unpacking essential research, providing concrete examples of great coaching in action, and, most importantly, a toolkit of practical responsive coaching strategies that you can use to support teachers to get better.

Combining robust research evidence from a wide range of fields with the practical wisdom of experienced teachers, leaders and coaches, the book is a toolkit for building an Instructional Coaching approach that works, for every teacher.

Josh Goodrich is the co-founder and CEO of Steplab, an organisation built by teachers and school leaders that supports schools to run high-quality professional development, powered by Instructional Coaching. A former English teacher, Josh has worked as a senior leader in a number of London schools, as well as leading T&L across a Multi-Academy Trust.

As part of his work building Steplab, Josh has read hundreds of research studies and worked with experts around the world, trying to better understand what school leaders and coaches can do to supercharge teacher development. He regularly works with leaders to develop their coaching programmes and, through Steplab, supports thousands of schools to develop coaching approaches that make a real difference to teaching quality.

Josh has spent over a decade leading professional development and has had the privilege of coaching hundreds of teachers during that time.