CFG Coaches Training

CFG Coaches Training

About CFG Coaches Training

This is a five-day workshop that will prepare teachers, administrators, and other school staff to coach or participate effectively in a Critical Friends Group (CFG). CFGs help bridge the professional isolation that too often prevents us from using the wealth of knowledge that exists in our own colleagues to help students learn. This workshop will present the research base and philosophical goals for CFGs then move on to the practical ways to operate and structure CFGs in your school. You will leave with a toolbox brimming with protocols and activities and a plan for starting CFGs at your site.

Quotes from CFG Coaches Training participants

• "This has been the best professional development experience I have ever had in my 20 years in education."
• "I plan on implementing the strategies I have learned next week."
• "I never knew how important it is to collaborate with my peers, I learn so much from their wisdom."

What is a CFG?

A Critical Friends Group (CFG) brings together six to ten teachers within a school over at least two years, to help each other look seriously at their own classroom practice and make changes in it. After a solid grounding in group process skills, members focus on designing learning goals for students which can be stated specifically enough that others can observe then in operation. They work out strategies to move students toward these goals and collect evidence on how those strategies are working out. In a structured setting of mutual support and honest critical feedback from trusted peers, they then work to adapt and revise their goals and strategies. CFG members bring to the table student work, teacher lessons and units, case studies of students, classroom dilemmas, etc. Using structures called protocols, CFG members help each other "tune" their practice by analyzing these artifacts and issues.