Why it works
Most people who coach teachers default to a directive stance: the teacher brings a problem, the coach offers a solution. It feels helpful and efficient, and it quietly creates dependence, because the teacher learns to bring problems to the expert rather than to develop their own capacity to solve them. Cognitive Coaching, developed by Arthur Costa and Robert Garmston, is built on the opposite premise: that the coach's job is to develop the teacher's own thinking and self-directedness, not to transfer answers. The core tools are skilled questioning, nonjudgmental listening, paraphrasing, and pausing, used to help the teacher clarify their own goals, examine their own practice, surface their own reasoning, and generate their own next steps. The coach holds back the impulse to advise and instead asks questions that prompt the teacher to think more deeply than they would alone, mediating the teacher's thinking rather than replacing it. The aim is a teacher who becomes more self-monitoring, self-analyzing, and self-modifying over time, an autonomous professional rather than someone waiting to be told what to do. This is a genuinely hard shift for coaches, because offering a solution is faster and feels more useful in the moment, and because it requires real skill in questioning and the discipline to tolerate silence and resist fixing. But the payoff is teachers who grow their own judgment. The workshop introduces the stance and the core nondirective moves, has leaders practice asking thinking-provoking questions and holding back solutions, and helps them notice their own directive reflexes so they can coach the teacher's thinking rather than manage the teacher's problem.
The research: Cognitive Coaching (Costa and Garmston) and research on nondirective coaching.
The run-of-show
Choose your slot. The agenda, timings, and length update to match.
The core activity: coach thinking, not problems
The heart of the session is practicing the nondirective moves that develop a teacher's own thinking.
- Hold back the impulse to advise; the goal is to develop the teacher's thinking, not transfer your answer.
- Use skilled questions that prompt the teacher to think more deeply than they would alone.
- Use paraphrasing, pausing, and nonjudgmental listening to help the teacher clarify goals and surface their own reasoning.
- Aim for self-directedness over time, a teacher who becomes more self-monitoring, self-analyzing, and self-modifying.
Facilitator notes
- The directive reflex is strong because it feels helpful; naming it is the first step to resisting it.
- Tolerate silence; the pause after a good question is where the teacher's thinking happens.
- Self-directedness is the aim; measure success by the teacher needing you less, not more.
Adapt it
- New coaches: start by simply replacing one piece of advice per conversation with a question.
- Experienced leaders: watch for the expert reflex; your expertise makes the directive pull stronger.
- Any setting: some situations do need direct guidance; choose the stance deliberately rather than defaulting to advice.
Participant handout
One page for every teacher. Print it, or save it as a PDF.
Cognitive Coaching: ask, do not tell
Mediate thinking: hold back solutions, ask thinking-provoking questions, paraphrase and pause, and build self-directedness.
- A piece of advice reframed as a question:
- How I use paraphrasing and pausing:
- How I catch my own directive reflex:
- How I help the teacher generate their own next step:
- How I know they are growing self-directed:
Make it stick
Nondirective coaching is a practiced discipline. Close by setting the follow-up:
- Name a check-in: are teachers generating their own solutions more?
- Bring one question that unlocked a teacher's thinking.
- Keep resisting the fix; the pause is where growth happens.