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Ask more, tell less: How to structure learning conversations
By Jim Knight, John Campbell and Christian van Nieuwerburgh
Categories: Coaching, Leadership, Learning communitiesFebruary 2025
Learning conversations lie at the heart of leading and coaching in schools. At their best, conversations between teachers, coaches, and administrators can lead to greater effectiveness, self-efficacy, and student success. When they are ineffective, however, they can crush morale, diminish trust, and interfere with professional learning. Leaders and coaches are more effective when they learn how to share ideas in a way that doesn’t shut down teachers’ voices, ideas, and thinking. We refer to this type of conversation as a partnering conversation. We believe learning how to have partnering conversations is an essential skill for leaders and coaches. For clarity, we identify two categories of conversations: telling and partnering. Additionally, we identify two kinds of partnering conversation: dialogical and facilitative. Coaches and leaders need to
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Bungay Stanier, M. (2020). The advice trap: Be humble, stay curious & change the way you lead forever. Page Two.
Goodwin, B., Gibson, T., & Rouleau, K. (2020). Learning that sticks: A brain-based model for K-12 instructional design and delivery. ASCD.
Jackson, M. (2023). Uncertain: The wisdom and wonder of being unsure. Prometheus Books.
Schein, E.H. (2009). Helping: How to offer, give, and receive help. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Tavris, C. & Aronson, E. (2020). Mistakes were made (but not by me): Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts. Mariner Books.
Jim Knight, senior partner of Instructional Coaching Group, is a research associate at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. He has spent more than two decades studying instructional coaching, writing several books on the topic. Knight also leads the Intensive Instructional Coaching Institutes and the Teaching Learning Coaching annual conference. Knight has presented and consulted in more than 40 states, most Canadian provinces, and around the world. He has also won several university teaching, innovation, and service awards.
Christian van Nieuwerburgh (PhD) is an academic, author, consultant and executive coach. He is Professor of Coaching and Positive Psychology at the Centre for Positive Health Sciences at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences (Ireland) and Principal Fellow at the Centre for Wellbeing Science at the University of Melbourne. In his role as Consulting Professor, he supports the work of Growth Coaching International and the Instructional Coaching Group.
Categories: Coaching, Leadership, Learning communities
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