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Sustaining the Journey
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August 30, 2010
Invitations
Summer is a time of invitations: picnics, parties, celebrations, weddings, and trips. Think
about your thoughts and feelings you have had when receiving invitations.
Now, recall invitations which you have prepared and sent to others. Think about your thoughts and feelings you
have had when creating invitations. What are you noticing?
Skillful cognitive coaches choose behaviors and linguistics which elicit comfort in another
person and which encourage them to mentally interact for self-directed learning.
Your summer invitations probably included the predictable aspects of what, where, and when.
When posing questions, the cognitive coach includes the following predictable attributes:
- Invitational stem
- Cognitive operation
- Content
Like the party host, the coach's intention is to provide comfort, safety, and welcome invitational
language:
- "What might be some _______________?"
- "What are your hunches about _______________?"
- "What some ways you might _______________?"
Just like the perfect host or hostess, the coach will offer a cognitive operation—a
verb—as a beginning appetizer to thought such as: compare, sequence, analyze, predict,
evaluate, prioritize, recall, or conclude. And, just like most gatherings where the host provides
the guests freedom to choose topics of conversation, the coach takes cues from the other person
to choose the content. The content may be internal—about them—or external—about
something outside of themselves.
What are some of the possibilities for constructing your invitational mediative questions?
Costa, A., & Garmston, R. (2002) Cognitive Coaching: A Foundation
for Renaissance Schools. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers, p. 86-89.
Costa, A., & Garmston, R. (2010) Cognitive Coaching Foundation Seminar Learning Guide. Highlands
Ranch, CO: Center for Cognitive Coaching.
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