The mission of Cognitive Coaching^SM is to develop cognitive capacities for self-directedness independently and in community. Research indicates that teaching is a complex intellectual activity and that teachers who think at higher levels produce students who are higher achieving, more cooperative, and better problem solvers. It is the invisible skills of teaching, the thinking processes that underlie instructional decisions, which produce superior instruction. Cognitive Coaching^SM is a research-based model which capitalizes upon and enhances teachers' cognitive processes.

In Cognitive Coaching^SM, the teacher, not the coach, evaluates what is good or poor, appropriate or inappropriate, effective or ineffective about the lesson and makes suggestions for improvement. This powerful approach to enhancing instructional practices and building learning organizations focuses on the intellectual skills, perceptions, and decisions that underlie effective teaching and communication. Cognitive Coaching^SM supports informed teacher decision-making through strategies that not only enhance teachers' intellectual capacities, but increase their capacity to modify themselves.

In the eight-day foundation training (see training schedule), participants learn how to:

• build trust by developing physical and verbal rapport
• utilize three mediative maps for planning, reflecting and problem resolving
• facilitate self-directed learning through reflective questioning
• develop teachers' autonomy and sense of community
• develop higher levels of efficacy, consciousness, craftsmanship, flexibility and interdependence
• distinguish four support functions–coaching, evaluating, consulting, collaborating
• practice coaching interactions to differentiate for individual needs
• apply coaching skills which enhance the intellectual processes of instruction

Cognitive Coaching^SM training focuses on the maps and tools needed to mediate another's thinking. The metaphor of maps and tools is used to indicate the dynamic, individualized way in which coaching takes place. A coach is equipped with maps and tools which s/he uses to assist the person being coached in "navigating" the territory of his/her thinking. Each coach uses the maps and tools in slightly different ways, but always focuses on mediating thinking toward self-directed learning. Once learned, the skills of Cognitive Coaching^SM transfer into a variety of professional settings.