Coaching for independence is about empowering people to find purpose and motivation to set their own goals, and supporting them in their plan for success. Coaching for independence requires coaches to help coachees recognise failure as a learning opportunity, and to reflect on their progress as they move towards achieving their goal. Independent learners can be developed through personalised learning which includes improved knowledge of how they learn best, and personalised learning activities. Technology can help deliver personalised learning opportunities. The TEACHER Coaching Model can be used to coach independence.
TARGET: helping to recognise the importance of goal-setting and long and short term goals, and process and product goals, and helping to select their own goal or a co-created goal
ENLIGHTEN: helping to understanding their own learning, the importance of feedback and perspective, and having a positive relationship with failure
ACHIEVEMENTS: the importance of recognising and celebrating achievements, recognising marginal gains and the importance of delayed gratification
CHOICE: recognising how they learn best, real-world problem solving and personalised learning options
HELP: help with preparing a suitable environment, help with time-management and organisation, help with refining goals and making plans for achieving them, help with study skills, and help by scaffolding and modelling, and suggesting technology to support learning
ENCOURAGE: help with linking effort and learning activities to achievements, help in taking responsibility for own learning and identifying motivations, and help by providing encouragement and support
REFLECT: helping to reflect on goals, plans, progress including learning habits and accuracy of judgements, and reflecting on achievements
Do you want to lean more about independence? Read on below to learn about two reports, a skills based curriculum, and practical ideas for developing independence.
The Education Endowment Foundation published a guidance report in 2021 entitled ‘Metacognition and Self-regulation‘ which outlines seven recommendations for improving metacognition and self-regulation. Recommendation 6 states that we should ‘explicitly teach pupils how to organise, and effectively manage, their learning independently.’ The report suggests that timely feedback and guided practice are required in order to help pupils plan, monitor and evaluate their progress. The report discusses the work of Zimmerman and strategies for learning well independently, including goal-setting, monitoring progress, organisation and selection of appropriate environment, and attributing causes to effects in terms of results and success. There is also discussion of issues with accuracy of judgments on learning that people make including the time required, and also delayed gratification, and how pupils have to make choices and consider their short and long term goals.
In the report: Independent Learning: Literature Review (2008) by Bill Meyer, Naomi Haywood, Darshan Sachdev and Sally Faraday, definitions of independence are discussed and how coaching for independence is important, not for the sake of being independent, but because of the successes it can lead to. They also stress how being independent does not mean not being supported. They describe a continuum of learning where teachers and pupils’ share of the responsibility for learning shifts from one to the other. They also comment on the involvement of senior leaders and the necessity of a whole school approach, and how teachers need to teach pupils how to learn and to refine their role in order to develop more independent learners.
The Learning Skills Trust is an organisation that offers a skills based curriculum: the Pre-Senior Baccalaureate. They promote six core skills, one of which is independence. They detail independence in fourteen personal statements. These include referencing pupils who are self-motivated, can goal-set, who can work out effective ways of learning, who ask open and relevant questions, who respond positively to constructive criticism, and who can review their work.
How to develop Independent Learners: Practical ideas and strategies for creating a more independent learning environment’ by Mike Gershon (2014) discusses different strategies for promoting independence. These include praising effort and persistence. He also helps teachers understand how to make the shift in their pedagogy to support greater independence including talking less in the classroom, providing clear written instructions and checklists, asking open questions, and training pupils in thinking techniques like using de Bono’s thinking hats.
TEACHER Coaching 
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