I'll give you an example. A Grade 1 teacher is teaching a Math lesson. He has a clear learning goal, good instructional strategies and has planned opportunities for students to practice the new skill. But by the end of the lesson, few students had achieved the lesson's objective because the learning environment was chaotic and the teacher had no classroom management strategies. Now the feedback was quite easy to give. There were lots of strengths to draw on, the problem was clear and it was easy to suggest some strategies that would change the situation. But the teacher did not want to hear it. The kids were simply naughty and incapable of concentrating and there was nothing to be done. So I encouraged him to target a change that would be easy to achieve (i.e. not cost the teacher too much effort or risk), cajoled a little, and then watched it happen. I also watched the teacher not only improve his teaching and therefore the student's learning, but I also watched the teacher open the door to the potential for infinite improvement by witnessing that he can learn and his students can learn. no amount of me telling him that could have achieved that - he had to see it for himself.
This is what Orin, the instructor on Coaching Teachers: making changes that stick, calls the Snowman effect. One of the most important things in learning for teachers (and children for that matter) is not the acquisition of a new skill, but the development of a growth mindset. With this, when teachers need to learn a new skill (when don't they?), they'll come to the experience with fewer change deflecting behaviours, which means internal processing and implementation happens quicker, driven by the confidence that the acquisition of a new skill, no matter how hard, will have a positive pay off for his students. Without that, hours of workshops or coaching will have little effect at all and be a waste of time and money, which is all too familiar a scenario.
So what does this mean? It means venturing into a new world for teachers. A world in which we are not only held accountable for what we do and the scores our students get, but for who we are and how we get better scores. Will we go there? I don't think we have a choice.