Support Students By Supporting Teachers

In many international schools we are fortunate to have outstanding support specialists who work alongside classroom teachers, including English as Additional Language (EAL) specialists and Learning Support specialists. But often those support services are structured in a way that prioritize the support of students on their rosters, rather than in a way that allows the specialists’ specific expertise to benefit all students in the classroom. 

What might happen if we were to reframe the role of these specialists to prioritize their collaboration with classroom and content area teachers for the benefit of all students, rather than just through direct support of some students? What if these specialists added a coaching mindset to their repertoire of skills, empowering them to apply the practices of an instructional coach in order to build the capacity of their teaching partners to provide equitable access to the curriculum for all students? Throughout the article, we will share the outcome of exactly this kind of relationship, between John Stephany, Middle Years Programme (MYP) English/Individual and Societies teacher and Lindsay Manzella, MYP EAL teacher, who worked together at NIST International School in Bangkok, Thailand from 2023–2024. (Lindsay and John were recently guests on the #coachbetter podcast, so if you want to hear more about their story, you can listen here.) To be clear, we are not suggesting that support specialists replace instructional coaches, rather that support specialists can embrace specific skills, often used by instructional coaches (which we refer to as a “coaching mindset” in this article) to deepen their impact and build the capacity of the teachers who work with students with identified needs.

In traditional models, EAL and Learning Support specialists roles have been structured as direct support for identified students–whether push-in or pull-out, or a combination of both. Because of this prioritization, the time allocation of specialist educators has often been defined by student numbers and contact time. A significant limitation of this structure is that it confines student support to the time spent directly with the specialist teacher. A more effective approach would be to build the capacity of teachers who are with these students in the classroom the most, classroom and content teachers. By ensuring that all teachers are equipped to handle the diverse and varied needs of their students, we can ensure that all students are getting equitable access to the curriculum all of the time. 

When schools redefine specialists as partners who support both the students on their roster and the teacher, and when those specialists are flexible to go where support is needed most rather than tied to a fixed schedule, the impact on student learning and teacher professional growth is even greater. With this reframing, student support becomes more indirect; however, it is also more powerful because it has a wider impact (Manzella & Valezy, 2022). Empowering support specialists to develop collaborative partnerships with classroom and content area teachers leverages existing structures and provides a broader base of support for all students.

Specialist teachers are often seen as consultants who have specific expertise, and who teachers can go to for resources or help with specific problems. In some cases, they may be seen as the ones responsible for “fixing” students with learning needs so that the classroom teacher can attend to the rest of the class (the so-called “medical model”). However, specialist educators function most effectively as true collaborators, working with their teaching partner through the collaborative cycle (co-plan, co-teach, co-assess, co-reflect). We envision the coaching stance as a strategic extension of this collaborative model, one that empowers specialists to amplify teacher strengths, support instructional growth, and influence school-wide practices. By integrating coaching skills and adopting a coaching mindset, specialist teachers can deepen their partnerships with classroom teachers and extend their impact, building on the consulting and collaboration practices already in their repertoires. 

When support specialists engage their co-teacher in thought partnership with a coaching mindset, specialists can intentionally build the capacity of content teachers so they become more equipped to support the needs of their students with specific learning needs and more able to use themselves as a resource, rather than relying on the support specialist as a consultant or direct support for students. Reflecting on his experience working in this kind of collaborative teaching partnership, John Stephany, says, “Working with [EAL Specialist] Lindsay as a coach in the classroom, helps me get better as a teacher to improve student learning outcomes for all students” (Cofino, 2025a). As specialist teachers, “the consulting and collaborating is closer to the work that we had previously done in directly supporting students. The coaching, however, focuses more on building the capacity of teachers to take ownership of student support” (Manzella & Valezy, 2022). This is crucial, given that in most schools there rarely seem to be enough support staff to work with every student who needs it. Reimagining this role, to empower support specialists to embrace a coaching mindset offers a pathway to ongoing collaboration and professional growth for all teachers, using the existing staffing that many schools already have.  

Why Reimagine the Role?

Reimagining the role of support specialists through this lens offers three powerful outcomes through one collaborative partnership: first, it supports the needs of all students in the classroom; second, it builds the capacity of the classroom teacher to support those needs; and third, it enables the school to leverage the skills and knowledge of educators already on staff. 

When the work of support specialists is not limited in scope to the students on their roster, they’re able to bring their expertise to benefit the entire classroom. While their targeted work remains essential for certain students, all learners stand to gain from their instructional contributions. Every student benefits from having two educators working collaboratively to improve learning and designing instruction from the lens of their specialty.

Beyond the immediate impact on students, collaboration between classroom and specialist teachers fosters reciprocal professional growth. When specialist teachers reconceptualize their role as thought partners to classroom teachers, the focus shifts from isolated intervention to collective capacity building. While specialist teachers uphold targeted instructional objectives for their identified students, collaboration with classroom teachers creates opportunities for these objectives to be strategically embedded and reinforced within Tier 1 instruction. Through this collaborative partnership, specialists not only address the needs of specific learners but also strengthen the classroom teacher’s capacity to support multilingual and diverse students more effectively.

Capacity building, however, is not a one directional process. The collaboration between two teachers with distinct expertise—specialist and content—creates a reciprocal learning opportunity for both teachers. As classroom teachers acquire new strategies to support diverse learners, they also begin to see and teach their content through the lens of the specialist. Conversely, the support specialist deepens their understanding of the discipline, gaining valuable insights into content-specific pedagogies and instructional approaches. As Honigsfeld and Dove (2017) observe, "We have found that after years of collaboration, the [teaching] partners acquire each others' knowledge and skills, and occasionally are indistinguishable in the co-taught classroom." This finding underscores how these types of sustained collaborative partnerships become an embedded structure that fosters ongoing professional learning for both educators. Such collaboration cultivates growth that is often more impactful and enduring than traditional professional development workshops or training sessions.

At a broader level, this reconceptualization of the specialist role allows schools to more effectively leverage the expertise of educators already on staff. As our international schools grow increasingly diverse, many teachers express concern that there are not enough specialists to meet the expanding range of student needs. However, given staffing and budget constraints, it is neither realistic, nor pedagogically sound, to have as many support specialists as teachers might prefer. As Nordmeyer and Rojas (2025) contend in their recent TIE article When More is Never Enough, It’s Time to Think Differently, “a changing demography is not a warning to hire more EAL specialists or to conceive of inclusion as classrooms where EAL specialists are assigned within a caseload support framework.” This perspective reframes the issue from one of staffing quantity to one of professional collaboration and shared expertise. Addressing these concerns, therefore, requires a shift in practice—from increasing the number of specialists to redefining how they collaborate with classroom teachers to support all learners more effectively.

EAL and Learning Support specialists are in a key position to leverage each collaborative partnership with a classroom teacher into these three powerful outcomes. The work of the specialist becomes “less [about] scaffolding and supporting students directly during content lessons and more on facilitating the content teachers’ ability to provide language support and incorporate scaffolding and other strategies for students in their classes” (Manzella & Valezy, 2022). When specialist teachers are empowered to view their role as building the capacity of the teachers they work with, all students are supported, even those who may not be officially identified as needing support. 

Adding a Coaching Mindset to Leverage Impact

When schools reimagine support specialists as peer coaches who support students by supporting teachers, they are able to create a structure for capacity building that works within existing systems. When those support specialists are empowered to embrace a coaching mindset within their role, they can engage their teaching partners in deep, reflective, professional learning that meets the needs of all students.

Support specialist educators are often highly trained in collaboration and co-teaching, so adding the skillset of instructional coaching could further expand their expertise and help leverage the extensive experience and insight that they bring. A coaching mindset includes concrete and practical instructional coaching skills that can serve support specialists well. Among many others, these skills include: deep listening, asking meditative questions, providing time to process thinking, paraphrasing, using tentative and invitational language, and approaching the conversation with respect for the other’s perspective and experience (Cofino, 2025b). A specialist teacher can use these skills with the teachers they work with by facilitating the goal setting process, collaborating to develop or research appropriate resources, implementing new teaching strategies for the benefit of all students, and then guiding a reflection on the experience. 

Working collaboratively with a support specialist in this way has huge potential to improve student learning. John says, “You can only do so much self-reflection. Lindsay helps me be more purposeful in my reflection of my practices. It’s not a one-off PD [professional development], where they don’t know the kids I teach, or the situation of the school. She’s invested. She’s in the classroom with me” (Cofino, 2025a). This partnership helped John calibrate whether he taught what he intended to teach and the evidence he had to determine that. John continues, “Having another professional in the room is another set of eyes. What makes it even better is having a coach with a coaching mindset” (Cofino, 2025a). This kind of teaching partnership is powerful because it positions the two teachers as equal partners sharing equal responsibility for all students in the classroom. While it is the specialist teacher, equipped with coaching skills, who facilitates the classroom teacher’s thinking around student goals, it is through the partnership that the two teachers work together to meet those goals. In this model, the specialist has helped plan the lessons, has input into the language development goals, and deeply understands the content learning goals. It's exactly this collaborative approach, using a coaching mindset, that can change the dynamic for the support specialist and their classroom teacher counterpart.

One of the huge benefits of support specialists embracing a coaching mindset is the potential of exponential sharing, or “cross pollination.” When support specialists work with multiple teachers across teams and subject areas, they bring knowledge and awareness of other classrooms and strategies that work with these specific students to every teacher they partner with. When asked about his experience working with Lindsay in this way, John noted, “Lindsay is accessing planning from different people, so it extends the depth and breadth of our work.” (Cofino, 2025a). This unique perspective into many classrooms is a huge value for classroom teachers who might be isolated in their work, or for schools who are working to develop a shared approach to teaching and learning to support multilingual students and the needs of diverse learners.

How is a specialist with a coaching mindset different from an instructional coach?

All educators can embrace a coaching mindset in their work, but it’s important to note that a coaching mindset is very different from the specific role of instructional coach. A coaching mindset is a willingness to use instructional coaching strategies and practices to facilitate better communication, support peer learning and reflection, and develop sustainable opportunities for ongoing professional growth. The work of an instructional coach goes beyond simply embracing a coaching mindset. 

Instructional coaches work to build a culture of coaching through strategic planning of a coaching program, communication of the role of the coach, and engaging in coaching cycles and conversations with a variety of stakeholders. Instructional coaches have a broader scope of support, developing capacity across the school within a variety of subject areas and grade levels, and have a broader perspective within strategic initiatives. Given that these organizational tasks fall outside the specialist role, and their primary focus is supporting students and teachers, they can dedicate themselves to more intensive collaboration with the specific teachers that work with the students on their roster.

An additional key differentiator between instructional coaches and support specialists is that instructional coaches work with teachers on any goal they may have for student learning. In contrast, support specialists partner with teachers within their area of expertise and focus on the needs of the students on their roster, for whom they are directly responsible. 

This model naturally shifts the specialist’s attention from direct support of individual students to indirect support of students through collaboration with the classroom teacher. Regardless of this shift in attention, through their skilled use of coaching practice, specialists are intentional about ensuring the students on their roster are centered and their learning needs are being met.

Reimaging the role of support specialists to include coaching practices empowers them to more effectively support both teachers and students. This shift fosters ongoing collaboration and shared professional growth. For schools seeking to meet the diverse student needs within existing staffing structures, redefining the role of support specialists is a powerful opportunity. For schools seeking to meet diverse student needs with existing staff, expanding the specialist role is a powerful opportunity to strengthen teacher capacity, distribute expertise, and ensure equitable access to learning for all students.

References

Cofino, K. (Host). (2025a, March 26). Bringing a Coaching Perspective to Co-Teaching. In #coachbetter. Eduro Learning. https://coachbetter.tv/episode-274/

Cofino, K. (2025b, April 2). Introducing the 5 Domains of a Coaching Mindset. [Audio podcast episode]. In #coachbetter. Eduro Learning. https://coachbetter.tv/mindset/ 

Honingsfeld, A. & Dove, M. (2017). Co-Teaching for English Learners. Corwin.

Killion, J., Bryan, C. & Clifton, H. (2020). Coaching Matters. Learning Forward. 

Manzella, L. & Valezy, J. (2022).  Building Teacher Capacity to Support ELLs–Consult, Collaborate, Coach. In ??Honingsfeld, A. & Dove, M. (Eds). Portraits of collaboration: Educators working together to support multilingual learners. Seidlitz Education.

Nordmeyer, J. & Rojas, V. (2025, September 2024). When More is Never Enough, It’s Time to Think Differently. The International Educator (TIE Online). https://www.tieonline.com/article/7801/when-more-is-never-enough-its-time-to-think-differently