Teach Smarter Podcast · Guest
Jim Knight
Founder of the Instructional Coaching Group · Author of The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching
About Jim
Jim Knight is the researcher who coined the term instructional coaching, the founder of the Instructional Coaching Group, and the author of The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching.
With more than 30 years of research behind him, Jim is widely considered the leading voice in the field. His work with schools and districts around the world focuses on partnership principles, video-based reflection, and coaching cycles built around clear, student-focused goals.
About This Episode
The Real Work of Instructional Coaching with Dr. Jim Knight
Instructional coaching is often set up to fail. Coaches are undertrained, overloaded, and expected to change instruction without a clear model or enough time to do the work.
Peter sits down with Jim Knight, the researcher who coined the term instructional coaching, to talk about why coaching fails before it even starts, what districts consistently get wrong, and what it actually looks like when coaching works the way it should.
They cover the seven factors that separate effective coaching from surface-level compliance, why student-focused goals should drive every coaching cycle, why partnership is the foundation of the work rather than an add-on, and where AI fits into coaching and where it falls short.